womanofvalue (
womanofvalue) wrote in
sixthiterationlogs2017-07-12 05:03 pm
Entry tags:
past the canyon, to the lake
WHO: Peggy Carter
WHERE: The Lake - B Side
WHEN: July 13 - 16
OPEN TO: Wanda Maximoff
WARNINGS: n/a
In all honesty, the minute that the team had come back and reported the lake, it had been a miracle that Peggy had remained as long as she had. She did see the point of waiting for someone to go with, which was why she'd been pleased that Wanda had also volunteered. She trusted the other woman and knew that if Steve thought her capable of serving on a team together, then Peggy would be safe with her at her side. That didn't mean she was going to skimp on her weapons, bringing everything she had with her.
They might not have encountered anything when they went, but Peggy has seen far more than enough to know that this place was not to be trusted.
The trek itself had only been a few miles, but Peggy found herself relishing the ability to do something. Each ache, each bead of sweat, it's all earned, but it's a glorifying feeling because it's better than nothing. "What do you think?" she asks, when the lake starts to come into view. It's a sparkling and glorious sight, even if only because the canyon has finally yielded something. She wants to jump into the water, but she has to prioritize the exploration, she knows.
"Left or right?" she asks, turning to Wanda and allowing the other woman to make the choice.
WHERE: The Lake - B Side
WHEN: July 13 - 16
OPEN TO: Wanda Maximoff
WARNINGS: n/a
In all honesty, the minute that the team had come back and reported the lake, it had been a miracle that Peggy had remained as long as she had. She did see the point of waiting for someone to go with, which was why she'd been pleased that Wanda had also volunteered. She trusted the other woman and knew that if Steve thought her capable of serving on a team together, then Peggy would be safe with her at her side. That didn't mean she was going to skimp on her weapons, bringing everything she had with her.
They might not have encountered anything when they went, but Peggy has seen far more than enough to know that this place was not to be trusted.
The trek itself had only been a few miles, but Peggy found herself relishing the ability to do something. Each ache, each bead of sweat, it's all earned, but it's a glorifying feeling because it's better than nothing. "What do you think?" she asks, when the lake starts to come into view. It's a sparkling and glorious sight, even if only because the canyon has finally yielded something. She wants to jump into the water, but she has to prioritize the exploration, she knows.
"Left or right?" she asks, turning to Wanda and allowing the other woman to make the choice.

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She was dressed in green cargo paints and a white tank top with her backpack looped snugly on her shoulders. Her hair was up and she'd brought an extra hair tie in case Peggy wanted one too.
The trek to the lake wasn't so bad but she was happy to see the lake at a closer angle. Like Peggy, she really wanted to jump in the water. "It's beautiful." Wanda heard herself speaking before she had registered the words. She shook her head briefly before peering down either side of the shore. "I don't see it's end." At least not yet.
"Left." She supplied before heading to the left.
"This is salt water?" She asked, walking close to the shore and peering into the calmly rolling waves.
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"It is," she says, glancing over her shoulder at Wanda. Between her comment about the lack of end and the salt water, Peggy is beginning to wonder if perhaps she hadn't been wrong. "Is it possible we've been on the ocean's edge all this time? That doesn't make sense," she insists. "Wouldn't the river, the stream, wouldn't they be salt water as well, if we were only being fed water from an ocean?"
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In hindsight, it was the logical thing to do.
Wanda paused and watched her, her eyebrows furrowing softly with the results. "All lakes run to the ocean." It didn't happen the other way around. Which meant that there had to be a spring somewhere near their village that this village didn't have. Wanda didn't know enough about geography and landmasses to give Peggy much more than that.
"There might be more of these places and we're just on the edge..." Her voice trailed off. Wanda wasn't so sure about that.
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"I don't see any boats on it, either," is her sinking feeling. "Not docks or ports, nothing," she says. "Which means we're just as trapped, unless someone is daring enough to build a small craft and take off sailing." It won't be her, she knows that, she'd barely made it over the Atlantic crossing with her dinner intact.
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"We should be careful." Which was her way of saying that maybe building a small boat and sailing across was a bad idea.
Her head turned and she continued further down the slim beach. "Let’s keep going." They had a ways to go and Wanda didn’t want to make Clint worry for longer than she had too. He’s been more tense since Sam’s disappearance. The thought made her look over at Peggy before directing her eyes on the path in front of them. "Sam’s gone." She didn’t know if Peggy knew yet. "I saw Steve here too." Though she hadn’t seen him since. It felt awkward though Wanda couldn’t place why. Maybe she was afraid that he’d leave too. When he saw her he looked relieved and she didn’t know why.
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Or was that really so bad? What if she didn't go back to 1947? Maybe she could find a life for herself in the future. It's a long list of maybes, something to let sit in her mind. She follows after Wanda, hating that she'd known that these topics were coming.
"Yes, I know about Sam," she says quietly, still trying to process losing a friend like that. "And I've seen Steve," she adds, trying to keep her face impassive before something slips and shows how emotional she is about both those things, in varying ways.
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"I’m sorry." She replied in a soft voice, as they made their way down the shore. "Are you alright?"
She knew that Peggy and Steve had been close. She wasn’t supposed to know but she’d seen inside most of the Avengers heads and had watched as Steve left the compound to visit her in the hospital. He’d always looked so somber when he returned.
Now Steve was here and he was from some time into Wanda’s future. She wasn’t sure what to think but it didn’t feel like she had her friend here.
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"He's here, alive as am I, and though we've had years to separate us, we're still the same people at heart," Peggy says, "I've never stopped loving him, of course," she says, a fact that is simple as that. "Only, I lost Steve when the Valkyrie went down and then I lost him again here." Peggy continues to walk, setting determination to avoid her emotions. "What if I lose him again?"
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She didn't mind being used as a sounding board, it helped her organize her own thoughts while also helping Peggy.
She nodded her head absently and for a few seconds was silent. "That's what I thought too." Wanda didn't want to get close to Steve if he was just going to leave but then she remember her brother, her not!brother, and a sharp pain struck through her chest. It was different for Peggy when it came to Steve. Steve might have saved Wanda, giving her a place where she could do some good but Peggy loved him.
"My brother was here." She spoke softly as they continued down the beach. "Not the brother I knew but one from somewhere else. In my time he's dead." She tried to keep her inflection even but it was impossible. "Now that he's gone... I wish I could have spent time with him... even if the moments were short."
It hurt that he was gone, she would have at least like some memories of him while he'd been here.
Wanda's head turned towards Peggy. "Loss hurts, it makes us scared, but I think you're stronger than that. We both are."
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Strangely, this trek bears a familiar feel to that of the one she and Mr. Jarvis had undertaken, though at least that one had a destination in mind. Here, it feels like they're simply walking for the sake of walking. She's not sure what to think about the prospect of a Steve from another universe, and yet, would it still be him? If it were still him, to his core, she's sure that she would still love him.
"I had just opened myself up to loving someone again, but then I was taken here," she admits. "Then, Steve came and left. I would give anything to have even a moment of happiness with him, but it's complicated," she says. "I'm not even sure if he still feels the same as I do, for one."
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As they walked Wanda chewed on her lower lip. The sandy beach suddenly felt endless and she wondered if it had an end. Knowing this place, it would end at a cliff, with no means to continue forward.
"Have you thought to ask him? Steve is-" She paused, knowing that coming out and asking him would be a tremendous task. "Steve is dense but I know he loves you. You inspire him." He'd always been putting his feelings on hold, that was until recently. Wanda thought that losing Peggy was a wake-up call for Steve. It had pushed him to start thinking about himself as well as the greater good. That was why he was so fixed on saving Bucky after he'd failed Peggy.
"I don't see his feelings changing." Wanda spoke in a soft voice but she was confident. She'd lived with Steve and trained with him for the past few years. She liked to think that she knew him, even if it was only a little bit.
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"I've tried to live my life up to the standards and the way that Steve would want. Recently, I'd started to drift, trying so valiantly for credit and glory, but I remembered in time, made sure that I steered my rudder the way Steve would have wanted." It's a lovely thought, to imagine that Steve still wanted her, but she gave Wanda a sad look.
"He's from the future now," she points out. "He lives a whole different life from me. Who am I to ask him to come back to the past, just for me?"
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She paused again and shook her head. "But I don’t know." She wasn’t Steve and she had no idea what he was thinking. She assumed that the reason he worked so hard to help Bucky was because he was the last thread that Steve had of his past. If Wanda and her brother had been in that situation, she probably would have done the same thing.
"All I know is what it’s like not to have answers." If she was being honest, she hated it. She’d rather know then constantly question what was around her. This was up to Peggy and Wanda suddenly felt awful for bringing it up. It wasn’t her place to say one way or another. It was between Peggy and Steve. Wanda just wanted her friends to be happy.
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He's also here and not just a memory in pictures and vials of Howard's blood. "I'm sure that once I actually settle in and talk to him, I'll be able to get myself an answer." That's the trouble. What happens if she does and it's not the answer she yearns for? "Is there anyone like that for you at home?" Peggy asks, trying to gently steer the conversation back away.
"Someone you wish you'd had more time with, that you could see a future together with?"
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"Being with the Avengers doesn't give you time to get close to people." Light green eyes glanced over at Peggy. "The only people I know are those at the compound and…" Her lips curled before pressing her tongue to the inside of her cheek. "Most people see me as a weapon. Nothing more." Vision had once told her that he wanted the world to see her as he did. It was a sweet thought but Wanda didn't think much of it since the man didn't understand the concept of doors.
"I don't think I'll fall in love." Wanda didn't think she deserved to be in love but she had a feeling that Peggy would argue with her, so she kept the thought to herself.
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"If that's true, then people are idiots," she says firmly. "You're not a weapon, you're not dangerous, you're much more than that," she can guarantee that, knowing the woman as she does. "I never thought I would fall in love," she admits. "I was ready to marry because it was what was expected of me, but I wasn't in love, not really. It's also not necessary to live a full life," she says, stubbornly. "Do you want to keep walking?" she asks, starting to feel wary that they'll find an end to all this beach.
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"I don't know what the future holds." It was nice to hear Peggy rise to her defense. She didn't know if the woman would have agreed knowing the full extent of Wanda's abilities but Wanda liked to believe that Peggy would have stood by her the way Steve and Clint had. She counted herself lucky to have friends in her life who were stubbornly there for her.
Wanda didn't think she'd fall in love and she didn't think she deserved it but she wasn't opposed to the idea either.
Her gaze followed down the beach while a frown pulled at her lips. "Do you think it'll have an end?" She asked, suddenly unsure if the path will end at another cliff.
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"Right now, I'm afraid the future is only going to hold disappointment for us," she admits. "We've got two options, as far as I see it. We can make camp for the night and continue on, or we can abandon with the belief that there's nothing past this but more...well, this."
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"We should make sure..." She pressed her tongue to the inside of her cheek, suddenly unsure. "Let's make camp and go a little further tomorrow." Her chin tilted up towards the skin line as thoughts tumbled and sorted inside her head. Would the people who brought them here really let the go so easily.
"I wonder why there aren't people here..." The town they had walked through to get to the beach had been completely empty.
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"I keep looking and waiting and hoping for a port," Peggy confesses. "Even then, though, how do we account for the differences in time? If we found escape, how do I go back to 1947 and the rest of you go back to your proper time? Or do we?"
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"Whoever brought us here must need us." It made her wonder what happened to their prior test subjects. Perhaps they were all killed when whatever experiment they were conducting went south. It was a chilling prospect to think of.
Wanda hated the idea that they were test dummies of some sort.
"How many arrived with you?" She knew that Peggy had been one of the first in the village, along with Sam, but she didn't know all of the details. Only what Sam had written in his journals.
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She settles in with Wanda to start searching through her bag, unearthing a blanket so that they can sit on it and not be directly on the ground. "Whatever they need us for, it seems few and far between. Not to mention, why do some people keep vanishing? Are they escaping? Or are they no longer useful and our captors are done with them?"
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"I don't know." She finally said with a thoughtful gaze turned towards Peggy. "There must be a reason why they left. I think they’ll departure wasn’t by choice but I can’t prove it." It was just the feeling that she got whenever she thought about it. When would their observers let perfectly good test subjects go, unless there was something about them that was no longer useful or their disappearances served its own purpose.
It was a very uncomfortable thought.
"I'll start a fire." She pushed herself to her feet, leaving the bag of food in case Peggy wanted any and then set off to find small twigs and branches to use as fuel.
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"Here's hoping that you won't vanish on me as well," she says to herself, wrapping the blanket around her knees as she stares forward in the dark to track Wanda's progress, hesitant to let her too far out of her sight.
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She didn't reply to Peggy until she was closer, dropping her small collections of sticks, twigs and leaves to the ground to begin building a fire. Luckily she had borrowed some flint from the inn for this trek. "You lent me an ear when I needed it." She spoke softly, her accent thicker than usual. "I want to do the same." It's what friends did or so Wanda had been told countless times in the past.
Wanda had no plans of vanishing. She didn't want to leave Clint or Peggy but she also knew that she might not be able to control it and so it was never something she'd promise.
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"I'm not sure what else I can say," she admits. "Perhaps what I ought to be asking is for more stories," she says. "I never tire of hearing about the idiotic things that man does," she says, not having to specify who, she knows.
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A bright glow covered one of the twigs that Wanda had collected. A smile tugged at the corner of Wanda's mouth as she blew across the lit ember. Fire flared and danced to life, slowly growing as it ate at the wood around it. With the fire lit, Wanda sat back and began to pull off bits of dried meat.
She didn't have to guess to know who Peggy was talking about. "There are many." Wanda felt her smile grow. "This was before me but, Steve and the other Avengers saved New York from aliens. Not sure if you heard about it. It brought the source of my abilities to earth." That wasn't exact true but Wanda hadn't been there and she only knew what the scientists at Hydra knew.
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"I understand why no one wants to speak about it. I hardly do, either, but I want to now more. Maybe if I go back, I can stop it happening," she says, a determined glint in her eye.
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Thinking about it was unsettling, so she focused on answering Peggy’s question. Wanda didn’t think Peggy knowing would change anything.
"I don’t know much about it. I wasn’t part of the Avengers when Shield turned on Steve. I know that it happened close to when Shield was formed but that’s it." She paused, chewing at her lower lip. "It isn’t so hard to persuade or mislead people." Which she knew from experience.
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After all, people carried a great deal of hate in their hearts, no matter what happened. Prodding at some of the blankets by her feet, she glances at Wanda. "Did you have to deal with that?" she asks. "People being unkind? False?"
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She snapped a twig between her hands and tossed it into the low burning fire.
"I did and I didn’t." Wanda rolled her shoulders in a shrug. "My brother and I lost our parents when we were very young. Ever since then we’d been fighting, wanting revenge on the man who killed our parents. Hydra gave us a way to do it. We didn’t know what it would entail but we didn’t care so we didn’t look closely at it. Of those who were used as subjects, my brother and I were the only ones to live through it."
Wanda never wanted to hurt innocent people.
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"You don't have to tell me, if you don't want," Peggy says firmly, wanting to make sure that the other woman understands that much.
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"After Ultron, I formally joined the Avengers. Stark gave me a room at headquarters, food; he paid for me to take online classes." At Steve's request, "I never knew why he accepted me. I thought it was something Steve had said."
Then she'd been placed under house arrest. It was odd being treated like an adult and child at the same time.
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"Deep down, in their hearts, the Starks are good men," Peggy says. "Tony's father is one of my best friends. He gave me a place to live, a purpose, and he believed in me when I needed it most." Of course, he also infuriated her, was readily unavailable, drunk, and eccentric. Still, at least he had the good qualities to balance the bad.
"I wouldn't put it past Steve to insist, though. He's good that way," she says, unaware of the way her expression melts with obvious affection and love.
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"I don't know." She lived with Steve and Vision but she didn't know either of them very well. Everyone was quiet when it came to their pasts, Wanda included. They knew enough and shared the space together but she never had long talks with Steve about feelings. Unless he was attempting to cheer her up, which rarely went well.
"You knew Stark's father? Who was he?" Wanda can't help but wonder what kind of man he was.
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"Howard Stark," Peggy replies. "Howard and I worked at the SSR together and we met Steve at the same time. Helped him on a few missions, you ought to ask Steve about him sometime. Howard is nearly most of the reason that Steve is who he is today. Physically speaking," she clarifies. "Steve Rogers is himself, through and through, not made by anyone otherwise."
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"I will." She spoke softly, looking into the fire. "I'd like to know Howard." If only to understand his son a little bit more.
Wanda looked up at the sky and then over at Peggy. "Do you want to sleep first?" She figured they take watches, after all, this wasn't a place that either of them was familiar with.
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"I'm not really tired just yet," Peggy admits, her mind still mired in a thousand thoughts. "You can sleep first, I'll watch."
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"Wake me when you grow tired." With that Wanda closed her eyes.
[ooc: handwave from here?]
sounds good to me!
"Sleep well, Wanda," she murmurs.