sixthiterationlogs | [i'm not crazy, i'm just a little unwell]

Entry tags:

[i'm not crazy, i'm just a little unwell]

WHO: Major Lilywhite
WHERE: The fountain, around the village
WHEN: July 23, then July 24th - the end of the month
OPEN TO: OTA; specific thread for Ravi.
WARNINGS: N/A

[Arrival - July 23, Early Evening]

The first thing Major notices when he breaks through the surface of the water is the sudden rush of air in his lungs, making his brain vibrate and buzz in his skull. It's a feeling he hasn't experienced since .. well, since he was last human. Does that mean that he's no longer a ... ? Huh. Will have to come back to that one later.

The instinct to survive, gather his bearings, figure out his sudden location change override any inkling he has to focus on the very human sensations he's experiencing. He crawls his way out of the fountain, tumbling up and over the edge of it, rolling onto the ground. On his back, he catches his breath and stares up at the sky overhead for a few seconds before the feeling of the fabric clinging to his body finally sizzles a few nerves in his fingers, and he realizes he isn't wearing the henley he remembers wearing, nor is he wearing the jeans he'd had on. Instead, he's wearing a .. very vibrant pair of magenta .. well, for lack of a better word, scrubs, and there's something digging its way into his back.

He sits up, loosening the straps of the strange pack he has on to take a look at it before deciding to get out of the open and somewhere sheltered. No weapons, no bullet-proof vests .. no hungering for brains. There's that weird buzzing in the back of his skull again.

He gets himself up, slips the pack back onto his shoulder, and begins to wander around the town.

[From July 24th to the End of the Month]

Major's memorized the layout of the town; it isn't all that large, and from his preliminary investigations, it also seems like there isn't a clear way out of the place. He's mostly stuck to the outskirts, having found some shelter in what appears to be an abandoned cabin somewhat near the river's edge (he thinks it's a river, anyway). He takes the subsequent days after his arrival to do more exploring of the village, this time venturing closer to the heart of it, as well as exploring the river to what he thinks is the southeast of his new "home."

He eventually finds himself wandering into the Inn at the center of town, intent on interacting with and asking the others any of the question he hasn't already gotten answers to.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Wanda's lips tugged into a soft smile as she shook her head. "I know more about U.S. events than I'd like." She'd been a center point in the news when she'd been brought here. It was one thing that Wanda didn't miss with the lack of TV and electricity. It made the summers hot and the winters cold but things were a little less complicated without the media; at least for her.

"Not exactly." She replied despite not really getting the reference. "And no, people here aren't violent. To busy hunting or farming." She took her seat back on the couch and looked over at Major.

"Most people live at the inn. They have meals there and everyone helps each other." It was a fairly decent community, all things considered.

"Sounds a little utopian," he murmurs, suspicion beginning to tickle the back of his mind. "So, what? The catch is that there's no modern technology, right? That we come here without understanding why, and I imagine we can't just .. leave the way we came, right? But we're forced to work together and make the best of whatever kind of situation this might be." He heaves a heavy sigh as he leans back in his chair, body melting with some kind of defeat.

"Do we have to learn some kind of lesson before we're allowed to leave? Is that part of the catch?"

"We don't know why we're here." Wanda bit her lower lip before continuing. "I think that we're experiments of some kind. Changing those who are different while granting others powers they aren't used too." She's seen a lot and the loss of her own powers had been shocking to her.

She didn't know exactly what the catch was but she knew that there was one.

After eating the pup curled next to the fire and began to nap. Wanda turned to look at his clothes, trying to judge if they had dried some. Scrubs, she's noticed, dry rather quickly.

"There are no common factors? Like, I don't know, everyone's used too many plastic bags and had a huge carbon footprint, so we've been sent here to learn how to live the minimalist lifestyle?" In case Wanda hasn't figured it out yet, humor and sarcasm are two of Major's biggest defense mechanisms in his arsenal. It also helps ease some of the tension while talking about serious and heavy topics such as these, as well as making him feel better about it all.

"Powers?" He glances over at the scrubs as she checks them. "What do you mean?" His eyes grow wide as he brings his gaze back to her. "... Will I be able to friggin' fly? X-Ray Vision? Super Speed? Breathing Under Water? Super Strength? Will I turn into the Hulk?" Okay, he might be a tad excited about the idea of getting a 'power' of some kind. "Oooh, or maybe I'll get one of those powers like the sisters on Charmed. Do you know how many times I was being lazy, lying in bed, wishing I had Prue's telekinesis? Just so I could turn the light off without getting up?"

Wanda was slowly beginning to notice how often Major used sarcasm or references that she didn't quite understand. It was interesting and suddenly made her feel less removed from the world. It was a strange feeling but she was enjoying it.

At his question Wanda rolled her shoulders. "Maybe. I've seen strength and other abilities taken away from people while someone who used to be here could create fire with a snap of her fingers." She didn't mention Riza's name. It felt too awkward when Wanda didn't know where the older woman went.

After a pause Wanda smiled. "Let's hope you don't turn into the Hulk. I have no interest in fighting him." Thought Natasha's here so Wanda wasn't to worried if the real Hulk happened to show up with his powers.

"I never saw Charmed." She decided to just tell him when she didn't get it up front.

And wow he was talking fast. Wanda was pretty sure she missed something in his rant but she tried to address it all. "Yes. Though I've never used it for that." Why would you use telekinesis to turn off a light? Also there wasn't electricity, Wanda needed a moment to get her mind around that.

"What! That's so cool!" he exclaims, face lit up like a Christmas tree with joy and excitement. "It's like being a friggin' Fire Bender! As long as they didn't go attacking everyone," he adds as an afterthought. He lets out a laugh at seeing how hard she tries to answer all of his questions, even though they were all more or less rhetorical and not in need of an answer.

"Wait, wait, wait. Wait a sec. You know the Hulk? .. Like, The Hulk? As in, Bruce Banner? As in, don't fuck around with gamma radiation? What? All right, if I had a book in which I was keeping track of scores and whatever, you'd definitely have won a bunch of points. As it is, I don't have a book like that, but the sentiment still stands."

Hang on. Did Wanda just admit to having telekinesis?

"... Why? I'd be Fantasia-ing the crap out of everything if I could."

Wanda was trying a little to hard to keep up with him. Her expression didn't falter though she blinked a few times more than was necessary.

Fire Bender sounded like something specific though the context of his sentence gave her enough to go on. It was someone who could bend fire, she assumed from some random TV show or reference, who was known for attacking people. Noted.

"Yes." Her voice was very calm when compared next to his excited one. "He's part of the Avengers." Though she didn't see him that often. Bruce usually did his own thing unless they absolutely needed him. Then Natasha would call him in. She wondered where he had been during the Accords, probably trying to stay out of it.

"Fantasia?" Another reference that went over Wanda's head.

"Hell yeah, he is!" Major rejoices, raising his hand to give her a high five. She doesn't have to, of course, and if she doesn't, he'll awkwardly let it drop back into his lap and pretend like the whole thing never happened. He's pretty good at that, as far as social interactions go. "That's .. That's the coolest thing. The most I ever saw was this horrific costume of the Hulk that was only the head, arms, and giant torso. The guy's little chicken legs came out underneath, and the costume came down to his knees. The stuff nightmares are made of, I'm telling you. That's why you never skip leg day," he jokes, though he isn't entirely sure if she'll get it.

He's a bit of a beef cake.

"Oh, yeah. Uh. A movie by this company called Disney. Which .. was started by this guy named Walt Disney. Made cartoons with anthropomorphic animals, starting with Mickey Mouse. They're a huge, huge corporation now that owns the rights to so much stuff. Anyway, they made this one cartoon back in the .. uh, 40s? 30s? I don't know, a long time ago, and it had no dialogue. It was only set to classical music. One of the most famous parts is when Mickey, dressed as a wizard in a red robe and pointed blue hat with white stars, is commanding these brooms to come to life to clean the floors. That's .. basically what I was talking about." A pause. "I guess what I'm saying is that I can be lazy as hell when it comes to chores and housework, and I'd really love telekinesis to be able to lay in bed and do nothing while still being productive."

Edited 2017-08-01 20:10 (UTC)

There was a 2 second pause before Wanda returned Major's high five. It wasn't as enthusiastic but she was continuing to try and meet him half way. His exuberance was starting to rub off on her and bit by bit she began to relax. "I joined the Avengers a few years ago." It was hard to tell time when she's been in this village for over a year. "You can run here." She lived with a lot of guys who worked out as their way to deal with stress. Wanda knew what he meant by leg day.

She also glanced down at his torso and legs when he mentioned it, sizing him up a bit compared to the men that she knew.

"I've seen some." Mostly because of Clint's kids liking princess movies. Fantasia wasn't as popular in the mid 2000's. "It gets boring pretty fast." She can honestly speak from first hand knowledge. "After sitting around for to long you don't know what to do with yourself."

"Woo!" He makes a fist and pulls it into himself the way someone does when they've just won something or done something good. No need for awkward retreat! "I feel like that's just about all we can do, outside of dynamic stretching and moving along to the Jazzercise we have in our heads," he says, a bit disheartened. After he'd lost his job at Helton Shelter, he had retreated into personal training as a means of employment. He figured, why not make money off of something he does anyway?

When she scans his body, he pretends to be embarrassed.

"You didn't even let me flex before you checked me out," he whines, wrapping his arms around his torso as though trying to hide himself from her.

"I like them enough, depending on what movie it is. Fantasia's okay. Their golden age stuff was like, late 80s to the early 2000s, I think. And then was revived with Toy Story and the rest."

Wanda wasn't at all shy or embarrassed when it came to looking people over. Her eyebrows rose in a curious arc as she met his gaze. "I could look away?" Her voice was lighter and given the very minimalistic range of emotions she's had through their conversation Major will easily be able to tell that she's teasing him.

"I spar." It's something to do other than running. "And hunt."

"I've seen Toy Story." Though it hadn't been a story that she could relate to. She hadn't grown up with any particular attachment to her toys. In fact, her childhood ended rather abruptly.

"When and where are you from?"

"I mean, yeah, if you could, at least until I get into a better pose to show off all my muscles. It's the least you could do, really. Common courtesy. I don't imagine there's any like, self-tanner here? So I don't look so pasty?" Major catches onto the change in her tone, her voice; he's glad to see that she's loosening up a little, though he can't help but wonder what it is that's made her clam all the way up in the first place.

"Spar and hunt. How very ... uh. Avenger-like of you. I mean, I guess? I don't know if the Avengers actually hunt or anything, but the sparring, I figure, is a common thing. And Toy Story was pretty mind-blowing when it came out. The animation was just insane." He tilts his head a bit at her question; he gets asking 'where' but .. 'when' .. ? "Uh, 2017, Seattle, Washington?"

Wanda was in an odd place and at times she was too serious. The worst part of this village was the long stretches of time where all you had to do was think. It took Clint or someone else to pull her out of her head and Major had managed to do just that. Her worries felt a little bit silly talking to Major now. "Let me know when I can look." Her smile was small and fleeting but she continued to stay more relaxed, her fingers picking softly at the edge of the couch.

"Not exactly hunt." She confirmed. "Unless you're Clint." Who uses a bow and arrow so it felt a little bit like cheating when Wanda mentioned it. She exhaled and decided to set her remaining focus on Toy Story. "I saw it in 2015 for the first time." She hadn't gotten to choose the movie that night. "And the second one." Though she never saw the third.

Wanda's question of when wasn't so awkward but then she was from a time well before most of the people she knew in the small village. "I'm from 2016" It was only a year but he continued to talk in tongues with his references.

Major pretends to yawn, extending his arms up, before slowly lowering them so his arms are at right angles, bent at the elbows, hands curled into fists. Good for flexing the biceps. After a few seconds, he stretches out in front of him, as though yawning again, before bringing his arms back in, this time one hand wrapping around the other arm's wrist, giving another sort of view of the bicep. He relaxes and exhales the breath he was holding, slumping back in the chair with a laugh.

"I've literally only done that in front of the mirror. I feel disgusting for having done it in front of another person." Major isn't an idiot; he knows he's a good-looking guy, but he's never allowed himself to be defined by it. He works out because he enjoys it, because it makes him feel good, because he likes being healthy. The resulting physical appearance is just a bonus side effect of his hard work.

"Oh, god. The last one," he says, exhaling a long breath. "Tear-jerker. I admittedly cried at the end. It was sad as hell. But a nice, full-circle kind of ending." He nods slowly. "Huh. So. Is that a thing here? Are people from .. different times? Different places?"

Wanda was trying very hard not to laugh as Major began to flex his biceps. She was used to being around men who were both attractive and in shape. It also wasn't something she traditionally though about nor was it something that Wanda would ogle at. She watch him now, her lips curling inward to hide her smile. His poses were interesting and as he relaxed back into his seat Wanda found herself laughing along with him.

"It looked good. You practice a lot." It's implied that she meant in front of a mirror. She wondered if any of the other Avengers sometimes flexed in front of a mirror. It felt like such a silly though but it made her smile.

"Do I want to see it if it's sad?" She asked before ignoring her own question to answer his. Toy Story wasn't really that important of a topic. "A lot of people from different times and places." She confirmed with a nod of her head. "I know three others from my world. All different times." It was weird and Wanda couldn't explain it. "There are others from all over, mostly worlds like Earth but some have differences. Some don't have the Avengers." She used that as an example since it was at least something he knew.

Major's glad to hear her finally laugh. He likes being able to bring out that side of people, especially the more stoic and still-faced kinds, of which he suspects Wanda is one. He feels the heat rising in his cheeks, and he reaches up a hand to rub at them to make the blossoming redness disperse a little bit. He's a ham, and there's not much that will embarrass him, but even this was a little over-the-top for Major Lilywhite.

"More than any one person should, probably, but at least it's just to an audience of one," he admits, laughing bashfully again as he glances down towards his feet. "Ah. It's gonna be hard to recover from that first impression I've made. I promise to do better moving forward."

He makes a sound sort of like 'ehhh' in response to her question about Toy Story, but is happy to focus on bigger, more important issues. Like .. whatever the hell was going on with all of these random ass people.

"That .. is .. a bit confusing. But. I think I get what you're saying. Is it like - alternate universes? That kind of thing?"

Wanda noticed the blush but decided that it was best not to draw attention to it. She got the sense that he had been acting out for her benefit as much as his own. Considering what this place was like, they needed laughter. Finding reasons to smile was similar to finding reasons to keep going.

"I won't tell anyone." Not that she had anyone that she could really talk to about it. After a pause Wanda shook her head. "I've seen worse first impressions." She, after all, had met the Avengers while trying to kill them. Now they were her friends.

"Yes." She tapped a finger against her knee as she continued. "There are those who arrived from completely different worlds sharing only similar names or traits." She'd seen an alternate version of her brother, which still doesn't sit well with her. "We have no control over who arrives and who disappears and we have no idea where those who disappear go." She knew of only one person who had died in the village.

Wanda paused again. "You're taking this well." She spoke in a tone that implied that he was taking this too well.

"That's appreciated. Should you ever like to make a complete ass out of yourself without word getting around to the other people in the village, I'm your man. I'll take it to the grave," he says with a solemn nod, eyes soft and glittering with the laughter he doesn't let escape.

"Honestly, part of me feels like maybe I'd gotten a concussion and am now in a coma, imagining this very strange world while lying in a hospital bed. I'd say like, 75% of me thinks that this is all a very elaborate dream. Or maybe a hallucination. Coma-induced mirage, kind of thing. Or maybe it's because of brain damage. Or complete dissociation," he says with a nervous trill of laughter. "I'm not entirely sure it isn't any of those things."

"I'll keep that in mind." Wanda wasn't sure if she had ever made an ass out of herself but it was a nice sentiment. For some reason it reminded her a bit of her brother and thinking of him brought a sad smile across her features.

Wanda wasn't known for random moments of silliness. There have been a few silly ideas that have rattled around her brain in the past but she hadn't acting on them. Maybe with his influence she might one day. There were a lot of things that Wanda hadn't experienced thanks to her unusual childhood and this made her a little more interested in things like pillow forts and childish games or humor.

"You have a greater imagination than me." Wanda could have never invented a place like this village. The tests and the observers could have come from her mind but not the people who've found themselves here. "What makes you think that?" Besides the obvious. She wondered if he was prone to brain damage.

"I don't think I've ever gotten that said about me before," Major notes with a laugh. "Not that it's a bad thing, I don't think. Unless .. it is? Having an imagination? Nah, it isn't a bad thing. That's the thing that they always tell you to have as a kid, but only in moderate doses. Can't have too much, or you're weird." He reaches up his hands, palms out, meeting them in the middle. He arcs both out to the side in the air, making an invisible rainbow arch. "Pretty sure that's from a Spongebob episode. Imagin-ayyyy-tion!" He laughs at himself; he really needs to tone down the pop culture references.

"Ah, I mean, you know. I had gone through some .. stuff .. back home. Before I wound up here. Related to brains. And stuff. So. It just seemed like a sorta natural extension of that."|

Wanda laughed softly, pushing back a few strands of brown hair that had fallen into her face. "I don't think I saw that episode." Though she at least knew what Spongebob was. It was one of those things that she never thought she'd reference outside of the few times that Vision had walked into her room when she had the cartoon playing in the background. She liked children shows when she was studying or working on something. The innocence was nice.

"Brains?" She wasn't usually the type to pry into people's lives but she left the question out there, floating in the empty space between them.

What involving brains could he possibly be talking about? Wanda couldn't bring herself to guess.

"I'm sort of proud to say I don't expertly remember it, but I'm pretty sure it had something to do with a box. Like, Patrick and Spongebob had to pretend it was something, and then Squidward gets jealous because he thinks it's some fancy, amazing thing they've got inside the box, but when he eventually gets it, it's .. just a box. And then the whole thing is he has to use his imagin-ayyyyy-tion," he says, making the same hand motion as before, "to 'unlock' its hidden powers." He pauses. "Okay, maybe I remember more than I thought I did."

Whatever laughter he might've released then slowly dissipates at her question. He nods solemnly, but he isn't quick to explain in more detail. It isn't that he doesn't trust hers, it's more .. this conversation hasn't really ever gone over well for those outside of his core group of people back home. And even then .. it was messy.

"Uh. I can explain, but. You have to promise not to .. freak out or take a knife to my head or something. All right?"

Wanda liked to think that she was familiar with a lot of messed up things. She'd been an object of experimentation by choice and has since been able to see into the minds and emotions of others. There was very few pleasant thoughts inside of the human mind and losing that one part of her powers had been the only gift that this place sought to give her.

She raised her palms to him, showing that she wasn't concealing any weapons.

"I promise I won't. I can't promise what my reaction will be but I'll listen until you're done and try to understand." She was at least one of the few people who could see things from others points of views though only because she had too. Tony's mind was still one of the more frightening things she's seen.

"I guess I should preface this all by asking .." Major takes a pregnant pause, inhaling a breath to steel his nerves before finally adding the word, "Zombies?" before exhaling the rest of his air. "Because if you haven't, that's .. sort of a conversation in its own right, but if you have, it .. will make the explanation and long story that goes along with it a lot .. easier. Well, as easy as it can be, I guess."

Wanda's eyebrows furrowed. "You mean like the undead?" Just to make sure they were talking about the same zombies. As little as Wanda knew about pop-culture there were some things you learned whether you wanted to or not. Zombies was one of those things. It was mainstream enough that it was quickly explained to her in the context of American TV.

It was a little hard to believe, even after everything that Wanda has seen but she supposed it might just be another race like the aliens that had tried to invade the Earth a few years before. She decided to wait to see what he said, regarding him seriously with a hint of curiosity.

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