thespherelogs | 001 - Helping Hand [OPEN]

Entry tags:

001 - Helping Hand [OPEN]

who: wanda maximoff & you.
what: settling in.
when: end of june.
where: around the spheres.
warnings: not applicable.
note: will match format.

clean up effort

[Red mist curls between long slender fingers as Wanda gathers the dirt smeared across the floor into a ball of floating sediment. She's done this a few times with gases and other small objects and finds the familiar exercise to be comforting.

What would Steve say if he saw her using her powers like this?

She smiles to herself as the whirlwind of magic pulls the sediment and any unfortunate sea creatures into a large pile at the edge of the room. There is a brief moment of intense concentration as she pushes her palms together and then silence as the debris finally subsides. Wanda exhales a heavy tired breath, looking back at the floor to inspect her work. The floor still has to be scrubbed and clean but at least all of the dirt is out of the way.

After a short break she'll start scrubbing the floor with bleach and soap, once again using her powers to ease the monotonous task.]

around dorm 305

[The door to her apartment-esque living space has been propped open with a piece of rubble that Wanda has obtained from the cleaning effort. She hasn't done much to make her apartment her own but she's planning to slowly turn the space into something similar to her old room within the Avenger's Compound.

Subdued echoes of classic rock flow into the hallway along with the most irresistible aroma.

Thick heady scents of roasted meat and warm spices fill her apartment and then spill graciously into the hall.

Wanda hums softly, matching the tune of the playing song, as she cooks. From time to time red mist can be seen from the doorway or the occasional floating object as she uses her abilities to grab things from the other side of the apartment. Wanda isn't thrilled about being stuck in the sphere but she's adaptable and Earth will be fine without her for a little awhile.

Anyone is welcome to join her for lunch or maybe they'd rather tell her to keep it down and stop making the entire dorm smell like food.]

wild card

[ooc: if you want anything else with wanda please let me know or you can just comment with a blank tag or an ooc tag with ideas or use one of the test drive prompts. I am easy.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, definitely her. Wow. She looks so much like his soul-Mother, but leaner. A bit less soft in her smile. But still recognizably her. In part because there is no one else who has that exact shade of red. Unique in the multiverse as her.

“Uh, Tommy,” he says after clearing his throat. “We uh, we talked online. Saw red. Knew it was you. The fast kid?”

Dammit Tommy, logical progression of language.

Her smile widened, her green eyes sparkling with warmth. "Yes. I remember. It's nice to meet you in person." Seeing him also confirmed and explained many of the things he had told her. He was a young man and likely from a world and a future that was entirely unknown to her. Wanda knew that she'd remember him if he had lived in her world.

"Why don't you stay for lunch? I made stew but I'm not sure how good it is." She needed someone else to judge.

"I couldn't find paprika at the market." It was a shame but it could have also been because of the recent flood. "I was hoping the make something that reminded me of home." And speaking to Bev had made her think about stews.

He should say no. This isn’t his Wanda and he is so not going to be fair to her. But here he is anyway, stepping in. Damn feet overruling his brain. Problem with being a speedster. Okay, not, because his brain runs fast too, but here he is. Here he is entering her space, and it isn’t quite like the apartment he knew. The smells are nice too, but again, not right. Only underlines that she is different.

“You sure? I mean, picking up a random teen from your door? Seems a bit shady. But, well, Avengers gotta stick together I guess.”

Edited 2019-06-26 17:35 (UTC)

Wanda turned towards the pot on the stove and began to carefully adjust the seasonings she'd been using. "It's not the shadiest thing I've done." Her voice was light and warm.

"And I think we all deserve a chance. Avengers or not. The greatest part about life is that at any point we can make the choice to turn things around and do the right thing." Wanda's made her fair share of mistakes. "I want to give everyone a chance." Like Clint had given her.

"Could you grab me a bowl from that cabinet? Whatever size you'd like." She also had bread but she had to warm it up first.

At any point we can make the choice to turn things around and do the right thing. Yeah, he knew it, better than most. His life was what it was because of one of those choices. Could have taken after his grandfather. Instead...

Instead he moves to the cabinet, shaken up enough to move at speed. Wanda of course would be used to that sort of thing from her brother, so he knows it won’t distract her. For a long moment he considers the bowls, because it would be rude to eat as much as he wants. So he just pulls down a normal sort of size. He has takeout waiting for him after all. Could fill him up the rest of the way.

His response to her is considered just as carefully. Considers and discards quite a few in the time it takes to lower the bowl and turn to offer it.

“I can see why you’re Billy’s favorite,” he says as he does. Which wasn’t what he meant to say at all.

Wanda wasn't startled by Tommy's speed but a flicker of wistful sadness touched the edge of her smile. She missed her brother and this was the first time she'd really been around someone who reminded her so much of him.

"Thank you." She tried to hide her smile when she took the small bowl from him. "You can take more than one bowl if you'd like." Wanda ladles the stew into his bowl and then grabs her own. "I don't need left overs." She was used to her brothers stomach and didn't mind accommodating Tommy even if she hadn't planned on the company.

Wanda grabbed them both a large spoon before moving to sit on the couch. She gestured to Tommy to make himself comfortable and then continue while picking at her stew. "Who's Billy?"

“You wouldn’t have made as much as you did if you weren’t planning on leftovers,” Tommy counters. But once he has a bowl and a spoon he moves to follow her. Not the couch, of course, just sits himself on the floor, positioned to look easily up at her.

How did he even begin to explain Billy when she didn’t even have magic? Oh well, he would try.

“Billy, short for William my twin brother. Sorta. It’s all complicated. Dark where I’m light. He’s... well, Billy is magic I guess. Does electricity stuff too, but you’re his favorite Avenger. Our Wanda, back home, she healed him after he got beat up at school, helped try and talk some confidence into him. He looks up to you. Her.”

Wanda shook her head. "I was hoping for visitors and I'd rather have you feed than left overs." Her smile widened by a small fraction. "If I had wanted left overs then I wouldn't have let you choose your bowl." She would have selected a size and amount of food for him to eat if that was the case.

She took small bites of her stew as she watched Tommy. It felt like there was more that he wasn't telling her but Wanda wasn't sure if she wanted to ask. Sometimes things were best left unspoken.

"Twins." She felt an odd uncomfortable feeling twist in her stomach. "Like me and my brother." Her lips pressed together and after another bite she placed her bowl in her lap. "I hadn't realized we had so much in common."

It felt like it was more than just random chance. "Tommy." Wanda paused and weighed her options before speaking again. "Is there something you aren't telling me?"

So many ways to answer that question. Could be honest. Could lie. Could be sarcastic about it. Thing is, Tommy is a lot like his uncle, and has too much to lose with honesty. Expects she might even be able to find out too much if he lied and she reached for answers. So sarcasm is the best defense.

“A lot. You can’t even believe the shit you and He Avengers have been through back home. Too much to tell. Could tell you a lot about mutants and heroes and all sorts of messes. But yanno, not your universe. And damn, this is good food. What is it?”

He even illustrates how good it is by dipping his spoon in and taking a bite. And damn, it is good and he downs a few more spoonfuls in rapid order.

“Damn, you’re a better cook than Billy’s mom.”

Wanda watched him curiously. He didn't answer the question she was trying to ask even though he had technically answered her. She tried to reform the question in her head but she couldn't think of the best way to phrase it.

With a slow exhale she focused on her stew again, a light wistful smile touching her lips as she thought about the night her mother had first taught her to cook. She'd been seven and they had to pull a stool to the stove for her to safely work over the oven. "Thank you. My mother taught me and I used to cook for my brother, before joining the Avengers." Since then she hadn't really had a reason to cook.

"I'd like to know more about how I am in your universe. If you don't mind talking about it. You seemed to have known me pretty well."

Dude, at least she didn’t poke at him mistakenly referring to Mrs. Kaplan as his twin’s mom and not his. Too much complication and there he might fumble on the mess of them. But he grins at the idea that she learned from her mom. Maybe her version of life is better. Not someone who broke the world with a few words. Not someone who never knew her mother. Not used by her dad.

How to explain his Scarlet Witch?

“You’re something called a mutant. And you’re powerful. Perhaps one of the most powerful entities in the universe, at times. Wanda’s a ‘Nexus Being’. Billy could explain it better. She’s a chaos mage and spent some time as a reality warper. Her worlds changed the very fabric of the universe to her will. Was married to The Vision before things went... weird. They had kids, but the twins died because of a demon.”

Oh hell. Mouth away from him. Abort, abort.

“She’s kind. I mean, I haven’t met her as much as I’d want to. The older Avengers aren’t always as cool with us. Because I’m sorta a former criminal and Billy’s magic and reality warping bother them. Pretty sure Billy could wish the Infinity Stones out of existence and yanno, someone like that is strong and dangerous. But Billy’s fucking good. Makes our whole family look shady by comparison.”

Dammit. There he is back into family stuff. Move on. He taps his spoon against the bottom of the already empty soup bowl. Damn that was good.

“Uh, you, she, whatever, flies. Her hexes are powerful enough to make people sit down and shut up. And she is so protective of Pietro, even when he’s being a pain. Which is always. Uh, have a kid sister, her name is Lorna Dane. Goes by Polaris. Really strong magnetokinetic mutant. Gets it from your father, who goes by Magneto. You’re half Jewish, half Romani. All badass with insanely amazing fashion sense. Not that Pietro got any of that.”

"I can't say I'm that powerful but that sounds like my abilities now." Wanda was still learning about her abilities and how to use them. The loss of Vision helped spur her abilities and since then she felt as if something inside of her had unlocked. It was like she wasn't holding herself back anymore.

She pushed the contents of her bowl in a circle before taking a few more quick bites. The stew was delicious though Wanda thinks she can do better. She needs to save up her allowance to buy more spices.

"The Infinity Stones were destroyed in my universe." That was a weird and very short story.

Wanda smiled. "I wish I could meet billy." He sounded like an interesting young man and Wanda would honestly love meeting someone who powers similar to her own. She's never had that before. She laughed when he started talking about her brother. It was nice. Even if they were talking about a different Pietro. She hadn't had anyone else who knew him. "Pietro never cared for fashion though he was a fan of stealing pretty dresses for pretty girls." She felt herself smile fondly at the memory.

"I wish my family was that big. My parents died when Pietro and I were ten."

Infinity stones, destroyed? The very idea of it seems so impossible. But who is he to argue the point with her. Her world, her experiences. Why not destroy the second most powerful things in existence. Because yeah, he marked his twin as higher up on the list.

“My Wanda lost her mom young too. And didn’t know her dad until a lot later. Not that Erik is exactly the best parent to have, I get it. And he was shit to you and Pietro.”

Still, he does lift his gaze to her, after a moment. Should he tell her she has family, sorta, in this room right now? No. Probably wouldn’t go well. Had taken a serious act of magic or whatever from Billy to get her to recognize them. He isn’t Billy. He isn’t good with words. He isn’t good with a lot.

“You tend to like Billy. You’re cut from the same cloth. But he’d probably go mad if he was here without his boyfriend. Besides, too many witches and all that. Still, you’d like him. Wonder if he’s even noticed I’m gone again.”

Nope. That is way too sad to consider. Time to move on. Which means getting to his feet in a blur to wish his dish. Hiding from his emotions? Hardly. Totally. Fuck. It just... it sucked to have her right there when everything was a mess and he couldn’t just tell her about things. About anything. About stupid things like getting a job and how her tip helped him find a balance between exploration and work and heroing and finding himself. Wanted to steal time with Wanda that was his time, something that was harder when Billy held so much more in common with her.

Jealousy was wrong, but who wouldn’t be jealous in this position?

“This is going to sound horribly invasive, so feel free to mojo me or tell me it isn’t my business or any of that mess. Just... have you ever thought of settling down and having kids. Yanno, in theory? No one back in my world apparently expected it of our Scarlet Witch.”

Wanda rose to her feet the instant that Tommy zoomed over to the sink. She knew these diversion tactics and while she didn't share the same connection with Tommy that she had with her brother, they weren't all that different. They were boys with a talent for running.

"Tommy."

She grabbed her bowl and walked over to the sink, placing it at it's edge. Wanda stayed out of his way but she leaned against the refrigerator next to him. "I don't know if anyone notices that we're gone but that doesn't mean that Billy or your family isn't looking for you." She smiled. "You're special, I can tell." And not just because he was so much like her late brother.

"As for your question." Wanda paused, pressing her tongue against the inside of her cheek. "I never thought I would have that or want it but I also never thought I'd join the Avenger's either. Vision made me realize I could care about someone like that." She hesitated again before adding. "I think I would like kids. If I meet someone right." She hadn't ruled it out of her future.

Talent for running? More than that. It had been beaten into him. From a young age. Running, or wanting to run. It wasn’t until he got his mutation that the ability to manage it had come to him. But yeah, he was like her brother. In so many damn ways. His dish is washed and dried before she even gets to the sink. And then he starts on her bowl.

“The Shepherds wouldn’t look for me. They wouldn’t care. That much is beyond obvious. Billy’s parents have learned not to press too much so it would take them months to notice their precious boy’s not-twin wasn’t around. My...”

No, he won’t list of his soul-parents. Can’t tell Wanda about her or Vision and their connection to him.

“All I have is Billy. And my team. And if Billy is looking, if he could, he’d be here now, tearing this place apart to find me. But he isn’t. So he doesn’t know I’m gone or he can’t get here. Which means that I guess it doesn’t matter if he’s looking. I’m just... I’m here alone.”

Which is an inherent state of Tommy Shepherd. So he finishes the bowl and dries it. Puts them both away. See, he can handle it. Alone is easy. People don’t go his speed anyway. So that’s just a thing.

He does sigh before turning to look at her.

“You’d be a good mom to some kids someday. I know Scarlet Witch was supposed to have been amazing with her kids back in my world. Before they died and all. Anyway, I suppose I should thank you for dinner. So, uh, that.”

Edited 2019-07-07 01:56 (UTC)

His words hurt her. It wasn't what he said exactly but the blanks that he was leaving out. His family...

Family was the most important thing in the world. "Family isn't always the people related to you Tommy. You can choose your family. I choose mine when I decided to join the Avengers." It'd been a big step for her and she wouldn't have it any other way. Steve and even Tony were her family. They were frustrating and annoying but she cared about them and she'd fight for them.

"And you aren't here alone. We're here together." Wanda met his gaze and smiled. "I'm not going to let you be alone. We're Avenger's and I don't think there are too many of us here." Loki not withstanding.

Her tongue briefly darted over her lips as his words once again grabbed her attention. "The Wanda you know has kids? Who die? What happened, who... were they?" There was something new in her voice, a hint of desperation for something lost. Wanda had thought about kids but it was always a theory. She couldn't try and have kids while on the run or with the world in danger but some Wanda somewhere did.

"Can you tell me more? Please."

The Young Avengers were his family by that metric. But they were broken, scattered. Or had been. Depends on how much of what Noh-Varr has said was true. Maybe... maybe with the Kree gone he could tell them about Tommy being here. Maybe they would come for him again. Even though they had been the ones who had left.

His fists clenched briefly at his sides at that thought. Lightning fast gesture, probably missed.

We’re here, together. Fuck. She has no clue how badly he just wants to hug her then. Now those words remind him of the first time of how the Scarlet Witch had embraced him despite every last harsh word he had spoken to her.

Even is she is our mother or whatever, it doesn’t change anything. He had told Wanda and Billy both that day. And Now that we’ve found her, she’s just going to disappear again.

A statement that was no less true now that she was asking the question that would probably lead to the questions he was afraid to answer.

“You couldn’t have kids with a synthezoid. So you used magic. Your powers could create everything but a soul. And when you made them you accidentally captured two fragmented pieces of the soul of the demon Mephisto. You and Vision raised them in upstate New York, with the Avengers as aunts and uncles. Until the demon sent a servant to get back what was his. In the end the twins died when they were still children. It drove her insane for a while. On where other hand, her magic and their lives had changed those bits of soul enough to temporarily destroy Mephisto. So at least they served some purpose.”

And people forgot about the twins. Doctor Doom later used her grief and loss and the Avengers’ roll in things to turn her against them and... fuck, a lot spun out from that.

Edited 2019-07-07 02:26 (UTC)

Wanda's features twisted into a mask of horror. She's experienced different levels of hell but that was nothing like what Tommy was describing now. It was cruel. Even if it wasn't her, to have your children ripped away when they were young. She felt moisture gather at the corner of her eyes but she was a Maximoff, she didn't cry and as swiftly as they had arrived they vanished.

"Do you know them? The twins. Anything. Their names?" She cleared her throat and tried to compose herself.

"Vision was... he was made using human tissue. A perfect being is how Stark described him. I don't know if he could have had children or not. I never thought to ask." It didn't matter now. He was dead and Wanda couldn't bring him back. Just like she couldn't make the lives that Tommy was describing to her now. She wasn't the Wanda Maximoff that he knew.

She placed her palm over her lips and tried to steady herself.

This was more than anything she could have expected.

And there was the question he hadn’t wanted to hear. But like he could deny Wanda it. He was the one that opened the can of worms. He could have just not mentioned the Maximoff twins.

“You... you named them Thomas and William Maximoff. And no, I didn’t know them.”

It’s math just about anyone can do. A question anyone can jump at. She had twins named Thomas and William. His name was Tommy and he had someone he claimed as a twin named Billy. The way the powers lined up. How he knew what he did about the Scarlet Witch and he had come to her.

She’s asked if he was keeping anything from her. And now the answer of ‘a lot’ implied worlds more, didn’t it?

Edited 2019-07-07 02:47 (UTC)

"Thomas and William." Wanda stared at him, unable to look away. "Twins."

It wasn't difficult to connect the pieces of the puzzle. Perhaps he'd done it unknowingly but it was all there. "Tommy and Billy." Billy's mother being someone different from his. There was more that he wasn't telling her, information that finished the story but Wanda was too stunned to give voice to the questions buzzing like lightening through her head.

"I don't understand." Her accent thickened as the muscles in her shoulders tightened. "How?"

It was the lamest question to ask but Wanda was now struggling with the information. She felt a vice tighten around her heart. "Tommy. Tell me."

How can he reject the command in her voice? Dammit. Tommy sighs and turns fully to lean against he counter. His arms cross defensively over his chest, or maybe he’s unconsciously trying to comfort himself. And his eyes? They’re on the floor.

“No one’s sure. The term Billy uses is ‘retroreincarnated’. The whole thing with the Scarlet Witch’s kids? Relatively recent. But,” here he pauses to fling his arms out as if to say ‘look at me’, “I’m 18. I think. There has been some recent time shit unrelated to that in my life. Either Wanda’s magic, or Billy’s future powers, or something about Mephisto. Threw our souls back or some shit. He was born to the Kaplan’s in one of the nicer parts of New York City. Apparently he even met our Wanda before she went crazy the second time. I was born to the Shepherds in Jersey City. No one knows why for sure. Or how we still look identical except for coloration. Or how we’re mutants inheriting powers from you and Uncle Pietro. But magic.”

A fizzly little gesture with his hands. Tommy doesn’t pretend to understand magic.

“You know that just because I’m her soul-son doesn’t mean you have to put up with my presence, right? I just... you’re so much like her.”

And he couldn’t help himself. Being so close and so impossibly far away.

Wanda listened silently as Tommy explained.

She was tense and unmoving like an animal faced with something that it didn't understand. Fight and flight instincts war inside of her but she silenced them without showing a drop of that emotion on her face. She didn't know what she should be feeling. He was the soul of her son from another universe. One where Pietro hadn't died, where she had gone crazy more than once, where Vision and her had had children, a universe where she lost her children and they were reborn.

Now Tommy was standing in front of her and she finally recognized the look in his eye that she hadn't been able to place before.

Her son. Another her.

Wanda didn't say anything nor did she hesitate. She stepped forward and pulled Tommy into a hug. He could easily get away from her if he wanted too but Wanda had hope. They weren't from the same universe but they were family and after losing so many members of her family, she'd fight to protect him.

Families were always messy.

Yeah, Tommy could tell plenty of stories about messy families. Shepherds, Maximoffs, it’s all the same. Messy beyond belief and he’s hardly one to judge. So heMs silent. He waits. He watches through seconds that are eternities to him.

Moments like this? They make what he is a literal torture. Will she turn away? Will she demand space? Will she...?

After an endless plethora of nanoseconds she starts to move. And the first step forward tells him all he needs to know. He could leave. He could be gone long before she could blink. Instead he stays and lets those arms wrap around him. Different arms, but still so strong. Like she could hold him together. After a moment his own loop around her back and his head settles against her shoulder. It’s rare to even allow himself that much. But now feels like an acceptable indulgence.

“Yeah. You even give hugs just like Mom’s.”

And that single word may say a lot about how he felt about his relationship with his own Wanda. Didn’t matter if she was there or not. Didn’t matter whether or not he had her DNA (and no one had bothered to test it). Wanda Maximoff was his mother. There were very few simple truths in his life. That was one of them.

Wanda leaned her head forward and smiled against his shoulder. She felt her tears return, prickling in the corner of her eyes but she didn't let them fall. The feelings swirling inside of her were complicated but it wasn't sad.

"Glad to know I'm doing it right." Her voice was muffled by his shoulder as she gently loosened her hold on him.

She didn't pull away entirely but she gave him more room to move back or stay. "I might not be the Wanda Maximoff from your Universe but we're still family Tommy and I'd like to get to know you." She wasn't like the Wanda of his Universe but that was okay. They had time to start over and learn about each other.

"If you want." She didn't think any boy wanted to have a mother looking over their shoulder but Wanda wanted to be here for him. They needed each other but more than that, Tommy needed her. She never wanted him to think that he was alone.

Like Tommy has any experience with his mother looking over his shoulder. Closest e ever got was Billy’s mother, and he had been adverse to interacting with the psychologist.

The very suggestion that she might move away was immediately met by his own arms tightening a bit around her. Not too much, he knew he was super strong and didn’t want to hurt her. Enough to make his desire clear.

“Your universe doesn’t even have a Tommy Maximoff. Which is a fucking shame. I’m amazing. Can’t deny you the privilege of knowing me.”

Defensive words to keep from admitting how much he needs this. He hates being alone.

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