005 Challenges [OPEN]

[scepterschild]

WHO: Wanda Maximoff
WHERE: Outside House #20, the Inn, the River
WHEN: June 9th – 11th
OPEN TO: ALL
WARNINGS: None
STATUS: OPEN

---

June 9th 🙈 Unhappy Chiclets ⇝ Outside House #20

Wanda had begun to hate the days. Their prison changed as if it was on the careless whims of a child. The sun had been blazing constantly for the last three days and it was wearing on Wanda's nerves. She had taken some extra blankets to cover her window, trying to keep her room as dark as humanly possible. It was difficult to tell the time with the sun’s constant presence in the sky. There was no way to counter it. Wanda worked until she was about to pass out and then slept. She had no idea how long each task took or what hours she kept. After the first day, she stopped trying to keep count.

Her sleep was restless, even with the semi darkness she had managed to attain in her room. Her nightmares were getting worse and she'd begun to wake to the sounds of her screaming. They weren’t ever screams of fear but the sounds of someone lashing out at the world around them. In this regard, it was good that her powers had been taken from her. There was no chance of her hurting anyone in the house.

This morning Wanda woke up sweating. She ran her palm over her face controlling the frantic beat of her heart. She brushed and tied up her hair, lifting the chestnut strands off the nape of her neck and then dress for the day. With the encroaching heat, she’d begin to walk around the house in her underwear. She didn’t care how it looked, anything to fight off the threat of heat exhaustion. She took a bucket of water and stepped into the backyard to dump the bucket over her head. It wasn’t warm but it felt good and it washed the sweat from her body.

It’s only as she’s turning to walk back into the house that she notices the two boxes sitting next to the house. One box had fallen off to the side while the other was slowly jumping forward. Wanda had heard about people getting things in boxes, it was how Clint had gotten his throwing knifes. It had never happened to her. She moved over to the moving box first and opened it.

This was a mistake.

Out of the box jumped 6 Chiclets who were finally released from the hot container that they’d be stuck in. They scattered in all directions in the back yard. Wanda cursed under her breath and ran after them, trying to return the little balls of fluff back to the small cardboard box. "Fuck hold still." Her accent was lighter and her tone tense. This was not what she wanted to do today.

June 10th 🙊 Fucking Sun ⇝ the River

Dressed in green cargo pants and a white tank top Wanda headed towards the river. Her hair was braided and pulled over her right shoulder though she thought about tying it back into a high ponytail instead. She wasn’t enjoying the heat and by the time she reached the river she felt a dizzy wave wash over her. Her hand reached out towards a tree at her side to steady herself and pull the small container of water from her side. She never left her house without it and while the water was usually warm, it was still water. The liquid touched her lips and she took small sips before returning it back to her side.

The river was receding.

A brief flash of panic jolted through Wanda before she reminded herself to stay calm. She pressed her back against the tree, feeling the bark as it scraped uncomfortably against her skin. The realization that there was nothing they could do about the river hit her hard. She felt helpless and tired.

She closed her eyes and hoped to feel a breeze rise from the water. Exhaling she opened her eyes, directing the dark green orbs at the water. It glistened and winked in the sun and despite her annoyance at the sun it was a beautiful thing to see. Exhaling a tired breath Wanda pulled off her pants and walked out into the water. It wasn’t very cold but it felt good against her legs. It was only standing out in the river that she noticed the glint of the arrowheads where the water had once been. Another sign that there were people here before them or perhaps a war along the river bank? Wanda didn’t know.

June 11th 🙉 Strumming Along ⇝ the Inn

Wanda couldn’t remember the last time she had a good night’s sleep. It’s been days with the constant sun but it felt like much longer than that. She found a place towards the back of the inn, just after finishing her task of preserving the meats and fish that had been caught that day. She’s sitting in her underwear again but her hair is loose, falling over her shoulders in thick brown waves. A wooden post was pressed between her shoulder blades and her legs sprawled over the floor while her newly obtained ukulele was sitting in her lap.

She knew how to play a few songs on the guitar though she usually used the instrument as way to organize her thoughts. She picked a song that she knew would be playable on the smaller instrument and began to play. After she’d gotten the hang of the cords she began to sing along to the tune.

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of Colitas, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night

[ooc: Hotel California on the Ukulele: HERE. It’s beautiful, you should listen to this song. Please note even when singing Wanda would have her accent.]

Comments

June 11th - Inn

[fantastic_kneads]

He hears it from upstairs, strange and sad music the kind he's never heard before. Jacob doesn't even realize he's following it until he's downstairs, like it's some kind of magic drawing him in. It's really just Wanda with a little instrument that looks like a guitar, but her voice goes along with it real swell and he finds himself transfixed, completely forgetting that he'd been trying to remember the recipe for his lemon tarts.

It takes him a second when she finishes to snap out of the trance, applauding quickly to make sure she knows how good she was. "I've never heard a song like that before," he tells her, thinking of those lyrics. "You sing it real well," he praises, "you perform like that back at home?"

June 11th - Inn

[scepterschild]

Her head turned up at the sound of the applause. Wanda hadn't expected anyone to stop and listen to her playing nor had she expected it to draw a listener. She relaxed, letting the instrument rest in her lap as Jacob stepped closer.

"No." She felt her lips forming into a shy smile. "I just play in my room to help me think." She's only been playing for a year or so but she's learned a handful of songs, most of which were older songs or along the lines of the Eagles. "I'm glad you liked it." It'd be unfortunate if he had hated it.

Wanda's head canted to the side as she looked up at him. "How are you doing against the heat?" Her fingers lightly rested over the cords of the ukulele, absently plucking a few of the strings softly.

[fantastic_kneads]

"Not so great," he admits, but at the same time, he didn't exactly ever have anything to fight the heat back in New York, so it's just another sweaty hot summer, as far as he's concerned. He's mostly been mopping up the sweat as best as he can, but that's not something you talk about with a lady.

"You play anything else?" he asks, because he likes hearing the guitar, even if he hasn't got any idea what she's playing. The future's really come a long way with music, but it still sounds just as incredible.

[scepterschild]

Wanda pulled a small container from behind her, it'd been attached to her belt but out of sight. She held it out to Jacob with a pleasant expression. "Water?" It was all that she could offer him in the face of the heat that swelled and pulsed over the village. She didn't like it but then she'd grown up in colder climax's. Wanda was simply skilled at not complaining about it.

"Try not to get sun burnt." She didn't know if anyone had found something to treat the skin should someone burn under the sun. It was better to be careful, which she knew simply because she was so pale.

"I can. Do you have a preference?" When he took the water she'd pick the small instrument back up and began to pluck lazily at it's cords. She knew a lot of sad songs she realized, something about playing them made her feel better, as if she was releasing those sad feelings into the space around her.

[fantastic_kneads]

"I don't think you're gonna know anything that I request," he admits, and he doesn't feel like feeling so old right now, truthfully. "I trust you, though," he promises, reaching out to take the water from her. "How about you play something that you really like playing and I'll listen? I bet it'll be about twenty times better than anything I could ever think up," he vows.

He sips at the water, pressing it coolly to his forehead with a soft sigh of relief. "If I do get sun burnt, is there anything around here to help?"

June 10th - river

[wittyskepticism]

Hawke doesn't usually like to pull her hair back, mostly because she's just lazy about it. Her hair is thick enough that it just stays curled no matter what she does and that often gives her enough of a breeze to keep cool. The temperature in the village and whatever the weather keeps doing are different. Hotter than Ferelden and harsher than Kirkwall. Today she's wishing she had string.

It's hot enough that she detours to the river to take a dip. Cresting the rise of the bank and looking over the edge, she finds that the river is barely high enough to make a difference. That... can't be a good sign. A frown creases her brow as she takes a few steps down to the water and a few minutes pass before she realizes there's someone else down here with her.

"Look at it now. You'd think the water was afraid of us," she jokes. Hawke always uses her humor to diffuse situations or to avoid showing emotion that she might be feeling. It's her way of coping and dealing with whatever comes at her, receding water and all the fear that brings with it or not.

June 10th - river

[scepterschild]

Wanda had noticed Hawke but since the woman hadn't said anything Wanda assumed that she wanted her peace. She had no problems with silence or with sharing the small space that they had. The river was one of the few things that could cool them and while it was a rather large river, shrinking to almost half its size was alarming.

She pushed herself out of the water, feeling her hair as it matted to the back of her neck as the water bead over her skin. She didn't recognize Hawke though that didn't mean very much. Wanda wasn't out and about as readily as some of the others were.

The joke had a good audience, Wanda similarly would use jokes to hide her discomfort though she didn't have many to do with water. "It would seem." She agreed in a thick accent. "None of us are doing well against the heat." The river included.

Her dark green eyes turned towards Hawke curiously. "What about you?"

[wittyskepticism]

Hawke's Ferelden accent equates more towards British, though she wouldn't know Earth countries if she heard their names. She wouldn't be able to place Wanda's accent, exactly, though she knows well enough to know that it's not a Marcher accent. Not that it really matters, all told.

Hawke shrugs at the question, her small joking smirk still in place. "I'm still here and I haven't melted into a puddle, so I would say I'm doing better than the river," she jokes with a wave of one hand. "Though that might not say much. A lot of people are doing better than the river." The bar is not very high on that one.

"I suppose that means we should all take a survey on how to deal with the heat now."

[scepterschild]

Her fingers pulled her long hair over her shoulder, twisting some of the water free of the dark locks. Wanda enjoyed the water but she couldn't stay in the water forever. She paused when she saw one of the arrowheads and bent down to pick it up.

"We'll take that as a blessing." She didn't want to see people in the same sorry state as the river. It worried her but she was trying not to let it bother her.

"Besides swimming, you have any other ideas?"

She turned the arrowhead over in her palm and inspected it.

june 9th - outside the house.

[maternis]

It's rather telling that Newt's grown a little bit more fond of visiting the village, or perhaps the few people he knows well in it. At least, it would be telling for those that know him, and know his predilection for avoiding people, and focusing more on animals. He spends a little more time in the village than he does at his campsite in the woods.

In fact, he may be considering moving out of the woods entirely after his---well, sharing dinner with Tina. Plus, with all of the animals that continue to need caring for in the town, it just makes a bit more sense to keep close by, doesn't it?

"Oh, dear," Newt exclaims softly as he sees the chicks begin to flee the young woman. He heads over to her, glad that he left Devlin at his campsite for time since he isn't very acclimated to other animals currently, and manages to scoop up at least one stray tuft of yellow down. "Seems you have quite a number of escapees."

june 9th - outside the house.

[scepterschild]

Wanda was frantic and tired. She managed to get two of the chirping baby chickens into her arms when Newt appeared with another. That left three running around her ankles. She hadn't noticed his approach and while that would normally annoy her, Wanda had bigger things to worry about at the moment.

She turned towards him, her breath escaping her in a huff. "Yes. Please help. They were stuck in that box and I need a safe place to put them." She didn't know how long they'd been sitting on the front porch in that box under the sweltering sun. Wanda really couldn't blame the chickens but she had a feeling that they'd find a way to hurt themselves if they kept up their frantic and random escape.

One of the birds tried to dive from her arms but Wanda managed to catch him before he smacked into the ground. She was not skilled when it came to animals and she wished that she had her powers, at least then she could have calmed them down.

After all the chickens were rescued she could worry about the fact that she wasn't wearing very much in the way of clothing. The baby chickens came first.

[maternis]

Newt was calm and collected. He was hoping that it might help the situation a little more than his presence alone. The heat was affecting people in many different ways, but some of the similar ways were irritability and exhaustion. It wasn't unexpected, but it was frustrating.

Still, he tried his level best to keep a good head on his shoulders, despite the frustrating circumstances.

"Of course, yes," he says, and stoops down to try and capture another. "Um, the box might be the best option, just to hold them, until we can get them inside to the shade."

[scepterschild]

Wanda walked over to the box and kicked it upright with the toe of her shoe. She then dropped the two baby chickens that she had managed to wrangle into the box, as gently as was humanly possible, without accidently dropping them on the ground. Her boot held the box in place until the chicklets were safely inside.

She couldn’t imagine it was very comfortable in there.

Wanda lifted the box, holding it against the flat of her stomach so that the baby chickens couldn’t find their way back out of the box. These little creatures were most likely going to be Wanda’s undoing. He attention then refocused on Newt.

"We can put them inside the house." She didn’t think her roommates would care.

She took a step forward and then paused just in time to stop herself from stepping on one of the frantic wayward chicks. "Damn it." She kept the box held upright but Wanda crashed butt first on the ground. The birds inside of the box were fine, if the loud chirping was any indication.

June 9

[pretendtoneedme]

The heat doesn't bother Clint nearly as much as it does a lot of people, but he's also got a pretty ridiculous tolerance for temperature fluctuation. But the situation is starting to get intolerable even to him, and he knows that his housemates aren't happy with the situation either, so he's done what he normally does when something goes wrong: try to work out how to fix it. Wanda especially is having a bad time with this; he's woken to her screams, tried to help her, but he can't fix the weather, much as he wishes he could. His ideas are simple, at least: sleep in the cellar, in hammocks. It's the execution that'll be difficult, especially since rope and other similar things are in short supply in the village.

"Hey Wanda, do you-" Whatever he was going to ask as he stepped out of the house, carrying a blanket in one hand, is bitten off in a curse when he sees the chaos going on in the yard. "Shit! I'm on these guys!" The situation's easy to guess: box, gift, unhappy animals. They need to be inside before the day gets sweltering, or they very well might die of heatstroke. Blanket still in hand, Clint took off after three of the chicks running around like, well, chickens, grateful that his steps were a lot longer than theirs.

June 9

[scepterschild]

Wanda had managed to scoop up two of the baby chicks by the time that Clint had gotten outside. They weren’t happy and one kept trying to dive from Wanda’s arms. She moved over to the box, pushing it upright and placing the two fuzzy baby chicks inside. She had to hold it to stop it from being pushed over a second time.

Holding the box hindered her movements but Wanda was stubborn. With one hand on the box she managed to scoop a third chicken up and drop it haphazardly inside with the others. Her head turned then, eyeing Clint and the three little chicks that he had gone running after.

"Clint?" She asked a little breathlessly, moving over to him with the box in her arms. "Did you get them?"

Wanda looked tired but she was trying her best to ignore it and appear as if she was completely fine. She knew that she could never fool Clint but that never stopped her from wanting to try.

[pretendtoneedme]

There was a brief flurry of activity: one chick was easily caught, and he stuffed it in the blanket he was carrying as he chased after its siblings as they scrambled around on their little feet. They couldn't run fast or far, but they could turn on a dime compared to him, so it took a little more time and effort to snag them both since they were trying to run away from the giant thing chasing them. Finally he managed to take a kind of running half-dive and snag the second, then the third, also tangling them up in his blanket, now holding it like a sack so they couldn't escape. "Got 'em. Not that they wanna be gotten."

Turning to go back to her, he was careful not to drop the blanket and release them again, since he didn't want a repeat of that farce. He'd follow Wanda with whatever plan she had for these guys, since he doubted they were "meant" for him. Whatever he did or did not see on her face and in her manner, Clint was keeping quiet about it for now. "So what do you wanna do with 'em?" They were too small to cook.

[scepterschild]

Wanda exhaled a slow breath, happy to see all the baby chickens safely in hand. She stepped over to Clint and offered him the box to put the chickens back in. "We should take them inside." She commented offhandedly, knowing that the heat wouldn't do them any good.

Light green eyes looked down at the little chicks running around in the box. They probably needed water and space and....

She looked up at Clint. "We keep them." Not that she knew the first thing about raising chickens but she was sure that Clint would. His family might not have had animals but they lived on something like a farm. "Do you know how?" If not they'd need to ask about town. There were some chickens at the inn so someone there might know.

June 11

[pretendtoneedme]

It's a soft sound at first, likely one she doesn't realize is deliberate, but it gradually grows louder as she plays: the sound of someone drumming along on one of the tables, a beat/offbeat that only falters from her time when she draws out a measure unexpectedly. The way she's playing the song doesn't really need drumming, it's true, but Wanda's singing. It's a stress reliever for her, he knows, and he needs to do his best to help that, so Clint's joining in. Lacking a drum, or sticks, the only thing he can "drum" with is his hands, but for anyone listening it's obvious he knows what he's doing. And when Wanda comes to the end of the first verse, he joins in singing as well.

There she stood in the doorway, I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself, "This could be heaven or this could be hell"
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor, I thought I heard them say

June 11

[scepterschild]

Wanda felt a smile teasing the corner of her lips when Clint began to drum along. She adjusted her pace, trying to keep the tempo according to the original version of the song. It was relaxing and despite the fact that they weren’t talking they were communicating in their own way. Wanda knew that Clint would always be there for her, even in song.

Their voices rang together, pleasantly mixing as the song continued.

Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face.
Plenty of room at the Hotel California
Any time of year you can find it here

By the beginning of the second versus Wanda was smiling. The instrument had done what she’d hoped and she felt the tension in her muscles slowly relaxing. Her gaze looked over at Clint and for the first time in awhile Wanda looked happy like the world, her troubles, couldn’t touch her. For as long as she was able to play this song.

[pretendtoneedme]

She's had a pretty shit time of it lately, reacting worse to the heat rise than either him or Sam, but she's also from a colder climate. He's done his best to help her, but A) she hates it when people try to baby her and he's not stupid enough to do so, and B) he can't do anything about the weather aside from what he's already done, move their sleeping quarters to the cellar, and he can't fix anything in her brain. His skills don't extend nearly that far.

But he can do this. Clint doesn't sing much - just to his family, and occasionally along with the radio (especially if it embarrasses the kids). But he's a good singer - not trained beyond some amateur coaching by people who used to know him, but just naturally gifted, and this kind of song is perfect for his range. As Wanda adjusts the tempo back to the one he's familiar with, he matches her with his "drumming," joining his voice to hers in a melding that's... well, pretty extraordinary. They match very well even with her accent (some people might even like it better that way), and they both clearly know the song back to front and so won't come out of time for anything less than an earthquake. Even with the fact that people are going to know about this "hidden" talent of his, which isn't something he likes to spread, Clint's grinning back at Wanda as much as he can while still singing, because she's happy. And that means so much to him.

Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes bends
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget

[scepterschild]

Wanda was thankful for everything that Clint did and that included giving her space to figure things out on her own. She didn't like asking for help but she knew there were times when she needed it. Clint was very skilled at giving her the help that she needed, even when she couldn't ask. Like singing with her now or moving their beds to the basement where the sun didn't filter in.

Her lips continued to tug into a smile as she continued the song. It's one of the songs that she forward an backwards.

So I called up the Captain,
'Please bring me my wine'
He said, 'we haven't had that spirit here since nineteen sixty-nine'
And still those voices are calling from far away,
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say"

Her accent thickened as her voice lowered. There wasn't much on Wanda's mind as she sang. There were the notes, the drumming and the steady reach of their voices. She liked listening to Clint sing though she knew that it wasn't something that he did often. Wanda remembered catching him singing a few times and she though then that he should have sung more in public.

Welcome to the hotel California

june 11th

[ethnobotany]

Beverly hasn't exactly been having that much trouble sleeping with the constant sun, but she's more used to weird patterns. Mostly the fact that living on a starship means that light can be controlled by voice command and oftentimes it comes and goes like the wind; depending on the situation outside the Enterprise, things can go from midday lights to literally nothing with one shake of the ship. And that doesn't even count midnight wake-ups for a crisis or whatever the day/night cycle involves for a new planet they've just discovered.

It's a good thing her body has something of a set schedule and tells her when she's tired or she would have more trouble with this.

As it is, she's taken to the Inn as a place to talk to people. She's used to living on a starship of over a thousand people. Coming in here is like taking a breather in Ten Forward, except it's a breather for talking to people rather than from talking to people.

She isn't surprised to find Wanda here; she's more surprised to find her singing. Beverly has the grace to wait for the song to finish before she approaches.

"I don't recognize that song," she says with interest. "What's it called?"

june 11th

[scepterschild]

Wanda placed the instrument down on her lap when she was finished her song. She looked at it as if seeing it for the first time, turning to look up only when Beverly spoke to her. She hadn't actually expected an audience despite playing in such a public place.

She looked tired with thin black circles slowly appearing around the bottom of her light green eyes.

"The title is Hotel California. It's sung by the Eagles." Wanda wasn't sure if she could explain who the Eagles are but she assumed that more information was better than none.

"How are you?"

[ethnobotany]

Beverly is from so far in the future and her musical tastes aren't exactly the same. Some things have been lost to the sands of time and war, as often happens. But at least she has the answer to that question now, even if she lets it go for the time being.

"I'm all right," she answers honestly. "Things have calmed down, I've been checking my garden daily. It's doing well." For her at least. A slight furrow of concern crosses her face as she glances over Wanda. "What about you? Are you okay?"

[scepterschild]

She was happy to know that Beverly's garden was doing well. Wanda didn't know how the constant sun might affect the plants. She imagined that, like people, plants needed both day and night. That and water, which was quickly evaporating from the ground.

"I'm fine." It was an obvious lie and after a few seconds she realized that Beverly wouldn't be convinced by it. "I'm not sleeping." Which was something that Wanda had already told Beverly once before.

Clint had moved all three of them into the basement but the constant sun was fucking with Wanda's internal clock and it was making sleep even harder to come by. She found herself laying with her eyes closed and thinking through the hours when she should have slept.