008 Who are you? [OPEN]

[scepterschild]

WHO: Wanda Maximoff
WHERE: All Over
WHEN: November 10th – 22th
OPEN TO: ALL
WARNINGS: Mentions of traumatic events.

---

At first it was small things. Wanda forgot names and faces of those she met in the village. Something would remind her again but each day was harder. Her memories had become unclear and it took a specific question or comment to pluck a memory into focus. After a few minutes into a conversation she'd remember someone but the memory would slip away a moment later. Then she started to forget events. How long had she been in the village? It was almost a year or was it a few months. The sun wasn't going down... the fireflies... drowning. Wanda was acting strange but managed to keep her thoughts and concerns to herself. It was only after the feast that everything got worse.

November 11th - 12th | House 20

That morning, Wanda couldn't remember where she was. She woke up in her room but it was unfamiliar to her. Panic jolted through her limbs as she scrambled to get dressed and pack a bag to take with her. She didn't know where she was going but she felt like she couldn't stay here. Wanda packed a change of clothes, a bottle of whiskey that she didn't remember steeling from the feast and some food. With her backpack slung over her shoulder she crept out of the room and down the hall towards the front area of the house.

Wanda wasn't aware that Clint lived there too or that he was out that morning. All she knew was that she had to get out of here, get somewhere safe. When she stepped onto the front porch she paused.

"Where am I?" She muttered the words to herself before fleeing out of the house and into the closest patch of trees.

November 13th - 16th | Forest

Surviving; that was what Wanda had to do. She moved through the forest, tracing her way back to town in order to swipe things from a few of the houses and inn. She could be found hunting or searching for a place to sleep in one of the broken or abandoned houses. There were flashes of memories now but they were fleeting, like sand shifting and falling through her fingers. Her memories had no context and it was starting to drive her crazy.

"I am an Avenger!" She shouted at the tree before punching it hard with her fist. Then the memory slipped away and Wanda felt a new kind of panic rise through her.

"Pietro? Where are you?" Her voice shook. There were hazy imagines. Her brother was shot, he needs her help, but then those images would be forgotten.

Her brother would never leave her side. Not like this. Where was he?

November 22nd | Inn Roof

Wanda didn't know what was going on anymore. She knew that she wasn't in Sokovia, despite the cold weather, but she couldn't remember anything else. Had Hydra done this?

A list of unanswered questions filtered through her head as she sat on the roof of the inn. She liked listening to the people bustling around below her, it made her feel a little less alone. Her memories were hazy and unclear and if she focused on something for too long it would be even harder to recall. She wanted to scream and yell but she didn't even know who to blame.

She popped the lid to the whiskey bottle she had stolen and drank. It wouldn't help but maybe for a few hours she'd be numb to the pain that was welling inside of her. It took a lot for Wanda to get drunk but she knew that this bottle would do it. She would also be sleeping on the roof for the night, nestled in the snow that had been left after the storm.

Wild Card

[ooc: If you want to interact with Wanda while she's experiencing any of the past events in 6i, you are welcome too. She's been around for awhile and can get stuck in remembering that something is happening when it isn't. These memories would happen before the 10th but I'm totally open to it.
Her tread tracker has the posts for those events if it interests you and you'd like ideas.

You are also welcome to tag at any point in the prompts.]

Comments

forest; 16th

[cleptes]

Perhaps she shouldn't be traipsing around the forest, but Bela didn't know what she would come across. Or who.

A shout catches her attention and she looks around, trying to locate the source. Bela doesn't move just yet, trying to decide if she should actually go and investigate to see what the hell was going on. She doesn't want to put herself in any unnecessary danger, but she also wants to have reassurance that she wasn't in harm's way.

With a sigh, Bela pulls her coat tight around her and turns in the direction of the shout, taking careful steps towards it. Some ten minutes later she comes across Wanda and stops, watching her for a moment.

"Everything all right?"

forest; 16th

[scepterschild]

By the time that Bela found Wanda, her back was pressed against the tree that she had been assaulting with her chin tilted up towards the sky. Her gaze was unfocused as if she was overly focused on something that was miles above them. Whatever it was, it wasn't working. Wanda's eyes closed as she exhaled a slow breath.

One. Two. Three. She counted inside of her head, trying to stay calm.

She had to find her brother.

Wanda turned towards Bela when the voice reached her ears. At first, her gaze was sharp but then it softened. "I'm looking for my brother. Have you seen him?" He had to be here. Somewhere in this forest.

Her fingers curled into a fist as blood dotted Wanda's knuckles. She had the tendency to go a little over board when she got angry and the tree had won in the battle of fist-versus-tree.

[cleptes]

"I haven't seen anyone in this forest apart from you." She replied, her tone calm. Bela maintained her distance from Wanda, noticing the fist and the blood on her knuckles - did she hit something with her hand?

"Maybe he's in the village? If you tell me his name I could probably tell you if he is here or not, yeah?"

Giving Wanda the option to decide on what to do. If she wanted Bela to leave, she won't hesitate to make a swift exit. On the other hand, making sure that Wanda had no reason to inflict any lingering anger upon her was in Bela's best interests.

22 November

[rangerbecket]

Raleigh recognizes the girl on the roof but only in passing. He's never had a conversation with her before and he's not real sure of her name - still, it's too cold to be up on the roof and outside and he wonders why, exactly, she's chosen that place to drink.

Alcohol is hard to come by but he figures she got it from the feast. He'd stolen a couple things himself, honestly, and he doesn't blame her in the slightest. He tips his head up and calls out to her.

"You okay up there?"

22 November

[scepterschild]

Wanda pressed the bottle to her lips before tilting her chin back. Alcohol burned pleasantly down her throat as the man's call reached her ears. She dropped a critical gaze to Raleigh. She didn't know him. Not anymore. Not in passing and certainly not as a resident of the small village. Wanda only knew that she was far from home and that her brother was somehow missing.

She didn't understand what was going on but after days of searching she felt a pit of hopelessness gather in her chest. The alcohol helped with that.

"I'll live." She replied, though the words left an uncomfortable taste in her mouth. "Do you know what it feels like to lose the most important thing to you?"

Re: 22 November

[rangerbecket]

Raleigh gives her a sad, hollow little smile. "That's...loaded. I do, but for me that was my brother. I don't know what it'd be for anyone else, though."

A wife, maybe, or a child. He doesn't know if he could deal with that kind of loss again and he aches for her if she's lost something like that.

"You've lost something, I'm guessing?"

Forest, 13th

[chirrutsluck]

Baze is out checking his snares when he hears Wanda's voice. He has no idea who Pietro is, and she sounds distressed, so he deviates from his usual path to intercept. He has his bow slung over his back, unstrung, and has finally broken out both the overalls, the underlayers, and the long coat he's had packed away. It's finally cold enough to need layers.

He approaches with some confusion. "Wanda?"

Forest, 13th

[scepterschild]

Her shoulders tensed as someone broke through the underbrush. It wasn't completely unusual to run into people in the woods except that, according to her memory, most of the people in this area kept to themselves. Light green eyes looked over at Baze with a hard stare.

Wanda was on guard, given that she has forgotten everyone in the village that she knew. "Who are you?"

Her knuckles were bloody from punching the tree though Wanda forgot the momentary discomfort to focus on the fact that somehow, this man knew her name.

Forest, 13th

[chirrutsluck]

He pauses and holds up his hands. The bow is in one of them, but there's no arrow with it, so hopefully it shouldn't be threatening. "Baze Malbus. You do not know me?" That... is unexpected, but he supposes explains her distress, maybe. Why would she not remember him, though?

Roof

[pretendtoneedme]

It'd taken way more time than he wanted it to. Ever since he'd awoken from his hungover stupor and his brain had cleared enough to realize that Wanda wasn't there - or, more precisely, when she hadn't come back on the night she'd run away - Clint had been looking for her. She'd left Arado and there were plenty of her clothes and other possessions for the dog to get a scent from, but the cold was working against them and the general lack of specific tracking training was a major hindrance. Clint had trained Arado to help him hunt, and while this sort of fell under the umbrella, it was just enough different that it turned up null.

Until he saw her, over a week later. That week had been filled with worry verging on actual terror; no one had come to find him to identify her body, and her clothes and other things she'd appeared with hadn't vanished, so she was still alive and still in the village. But Clint couldn't find her. He was feeling horrible for being so caught up in brooding that he missed any clues she'd given about why she'd run off, and why she hadn't returned. He'd barely been sleeping, and he'd only been eating because he knew that he couldn't keep searching for her if he didn't have fuel. So when he saw her on the roof, he wasted no time in running straight into the inn and up the stairs. He could get through one of the windows and up there quickly-

"Wanda!" he yelled as he climbed onto the roof.

Roof

[scepterschild]

Wanda had been feeling off all month. At first it was small thing; she would forget what she had done a moment after completing a task or forgetting that they had a dog or chickens to take care of. After the feast she had forgotten more. Wanda forgot this village, then forgot her time with the Avengers and the fight with Ultron, then she forgot about her brother's death, then she forgot that she had powers at all.

Now she was just Wanda; a girl who had lost her parents, her home and now her brother.

She brought the bottle of liquor to her lips and took a long sip of the amber liquid. She had always liked the cold and even now she welcomed the comfortable prickle against her skin as a shiver rooted itself inside of her.

Light green eyes looked down at the man who called her name. She didn't recognize him. "I don't know how you know me but leave me alone." She didn't remember talking to anyone that week. All she remembered was back in Sokovia.

[pretendtoneedme]

Clint himself was dressed warmly - but not really warmly enough for the weather. Keeping himself in good condition had taken a backseat to finding his not-exactly daughter, and while he'd managed to slap-dash manufacture a pair of ice cleats from some spare leather and his remaining nails when the storm had hit, he hadn't bothered with much else. He was wearing clothes, and his coat, but they weren't the best ones he had - no overalls, just the jeans he'd found buried in storage, no hat or scarf despite having scrounged both of those, too. And he just didn't care, because Wanda was in trouble. For her to run away from the house, from him... something was desperately, desperately wrong.

"Wanda, it's Clint. I don't know why you're saying that, but you know me, you need to come back to the house." Obviously he knew that Wanda knew English and spoke it fluently, but he'd switched to Russian for the moment. It might not do anything, but it might identify him as someone who knew her, at least well enough to try to align themselves to the part of the world she grew up in. He didn't speak Sokovian, but this was worth a try, and the fact of the matter was his thinking was starting to cloud a little with a week and a half's worth of worry and exhaustion. He was almost genuinely praying this would work, and he was very far away from being a religious man.

forest; 13th

[enterprisingheart]

For all that Picard is aware that Wanda has left the house in something of a state, it doesn't occur to him that there might be something else going on. As far as he's able to tell, she's simply going out, and that's not anything that's particularly worrying. It's hardly so cold that going outside isn't particularly feasible, and there's still more than enough to do in the village. It isn't until she doesn't return that he begins to think that something might be wrong. And when Clint and Beverly also express concern, he figures the least he can do is try to find her.

Admittedly, it would be easier with something like a tricorder, but that's hardly a new complaint. And it's not as if he can't look for people without one. It's harder, yes, but there isn't all that much to either of the settlements, comparatively speaking.

Still, it takes him a while before he gets around to checking the forests, and even then it's mostly luck that has him running across Wanda.

"Is everything alright?" he asks, as soon as he gets close enough to be heard.

forest; 13th

[scepterschild]

By the time that Picard finds Wanda she has her back pressed against the trunk of a tree. Her chin was tilted towards the sky, as if she was searching for something within the vast veil of clouds that covered the village.

Her head turned when she heard a voice but there was no recognition in her gaze. "It's none of your concern."

Why would this stranger care? Wanda didn't know anyone in the village, all she knew was that her brother was gone. She had to wait for him here. This was where he had left her and so this was where he was going to find her.

She wouldn't let anyone make her move.

[enterprisingheart]

The lack of recognition in her gaze is more than a little worrying, to be perfectly honest. He's well aware that he and Beverly have only recently moved into the same house as her, but even then he'd imagine that there would be some recognition. Especially after she had walked in on he and Beverly while they'd both been curled up by the fire that one time.

(Which is something he and Beverly ought to re-examine, at some point, but right now that's not something that he's thinking about.)

"Perhaps not," he answers. "But I don't see why that should mean I can't be concerned anyway."

Even if only on account of the fact that it is still fairly cold out.

house 20;

[ethnobotany]

Beverly is close enough to Wanda by now to recognize her habits. Some things the household simply gets used to from one another. Whatever has been happening lately, Wanda seems different. Something in the way she's walking through the house seems different. Pausing on the front steps is also unusual and Beverly changes her current course to head through the house for her friend just in time for Wanda to bolt.

"Wanda?" Beverly calls after her, dumping what was in her hands on the couch and running after the young woman. "Wanda!"

house 20;

[scepterschild]

At first, she hadn't heard her name being called. She told herself that it was only the wind. There was no one here who would call out to her. No one in this strange place . . . Beverly called Wanda's name again and she felt her run slow as she turned to find the source of the voice. Wanda was panting softly, inhaling the crisp air between uneven gasps of breath.

Who was this woman?

Something inside of Wanda's head told her that she should know. It was important but the memory slipped through her fingers like fine sand. "Stay away from me!" She shouted before Beverly got too close, ready to bolt into the nearby forest. She was close and she knew that she could lose the woman in the thickness of the trees.

[ethnobotany]

It's the lack of memory that startles Beverly the most. They might not have known each for that long, only a couple of months, but it's been long enough to forge a very strong friendship. Or at least it's been extremely strong on Beverly's side and she'd thought Wanda had felt the same. Especially given she and CLint had invited Beverly to live with them. But maybe she'd been wrong.

She doesn't think so, though, and it's that thought that has her stopping short and holding her hands up.

"It's me. It's Beverly," she calls out as calmly and normally as she can. "What happened? Are you all right?"

Nov. 22

[super_seal]

It's still new to Steve, the way that this place works and what happens here. People suddenly having rabbit ears or losing their voices from picking fruit, or the latest, a feast showing up out of nowhere... These were the things that happened in storybooks or science fiction movies, not in real life. Yet here he was, and no Mary and Danny had joined him as well. It was strange and disconcerting.

Walking through town he's not sure what made him look up, but seeing Wanda sitting up on the roof of the inn was also strange and disconcerting, but in a completely different way. This was something that Steve was at least somewhat familiar with. Finding his way up to the roof, Steve had to wonder how long she'd been here, but more importantly why.

He didn't want to scare her so he made sure to make enough noise as he came to the edge a several feet down from where she was. Without looking at her, instead he made a show of looking down each side of the street, he asked, "You've got a good view up here, mind if I join you?

Nov. 22 -new journal

[minus1twin]

Wanda saw Steve as he climbed up towards the roof. Even without memories of this village or her powers, she had grown up in a war zone. If you didn't pay attention, you didn't survive. When she spoke she gestured at the roof without speaking. She didn't think that she needed to say anything to invite him to sit down.

As he took a seat, Wanda took a long drink of her bottle. The alcohol pleasantly burned the back of her throat while her shoulders began to relax.

After a few minutes she finally spoke. "I don't remember you." Her accent was thicker than it had been when they first met. "I don't remember this village." She took another sip. "Or where my brother is." Wanda paused, pushing her long hair over her shoulder. "I can't remember anything." It was obvious to her that something was wrong but she didn't know what that something was. She was pass the point of panic and almost resigned to sit and drink until something came back to her.

It felt like there was a void inside of her head and when she tried to grasp it, it slipped away. Everything was familiar and yet she none of it was in her memories.

Nov. 22 -new journal

[super_seal]

Sitting down, Steve looks out over the street, remaining quiet. He doesn't feel the need to fill the silence and is content, at least for now, to wait and see if she wants to talk. When she does he turns his head to look in her direction.

Thinking back to their conversation, Steve searches his memory if she had mentioned a brother. He doesn't believe that she did. If she had one here, he had no idea of who that might be. Not all that long ago, Steve would have thought it unlike that siblings could be here. Now that his sister was here though, and Danny too, his views were altering significantly.

"You remember you have a brother at least, that's a something." He bites his lower lip a moment in debate, then continues. "Would it help if I told you it was just something about this place that was causing it? That it was only a temporary issue." Hopefully. He had no proof that it was something long lasting but other things he'd seen had seemed to get better with time. Although he hadn't been here long enough to know if that was across the table or if there was a process or test involved with regaining what was lost.

nov 22 ; roof

[lefthandfree]

He’d felt rather embarrassed, disappearing so suddenly and without word the previous month. So much had changed even as he hadn’t anticipated it, but he knows the guilt of letting Moana leave to venture on her own would have eaten him alive. He knows it’s no less hypocritical not to have informed his other friends either, but it had come so suddenly that he hadn’t been left much choice, not to mention he had never been accustomed to reporting to anyone, even in the army.

He often finds himself on the roof when he just wants the silence of existence to take over. With the idle burdens always lingering, Peggy’s slow disappearance into nothingness being entirely out of their hands, he needs it now more than before. It’s to his great surprise that he finds he is not alone. And not only that, but Wanda seems to have chosen to drink herself silly, if her reddened face, far too tinted to simply be from the cold, is any indication.

Soft crunches echo softly as he crosses the snow-laden surface and approaches her. Choosing to offer only gentle company to start, being far too polite to forcibly impose himself, he stops at a respectable distance and looks out at the land beyond them for a few moments before speaking.

“Hey.”

It’s a weak offering, he knows, but finding the right words is difficult here. He hadn’t gone to find her after he returned and instead had hidden away mostly trying to sort out his own mind. There probably wasn’t even anything good in the way of apology for neglecting her existence so blatantly to deal with his own troubles for such a length of time.

nov 22 ; roof

[minus1twin]

Wanda had been worried about Bucky; she hadn't heard from him, hadn't been able to find him and assumed that he might have disappeared the same way that Steve, Sam or any of the others had. That had been earlier that month. Now, Wanda had no memory of Bucky or any of her friends.

She was alone, wondering where her brother was.

Her head turned when she heard the compression of snow beneath Bucky's feet. There was no recognition in her gaze but a steady acceptance of her current situation. She felt lost with out her brother at her side.

"Hey." Wanda replied back as she took another sip of her drink.

/waves hands vaguely at a later date on the calendar

[unmakeme]

Natasha sits back on her heels and fans the cold but dry wood above the glowing embers until they begin to smoulder, catch, give off some heat. Someone might see the smoke, but it's late and dark enough, she doubts it. Better than freezing, anyway. Most things are.

There's one candle in a small glass jar offering her its tiny little puddle of light, but the glowing beginnings of the fire make it redundant, and she blows it out. Natasha doesn't particularly want to waste it, and the woman whose life she's slipped on like a second skin would view the waste as an absolute sin. She looks back at her companion, screwing the lid on the jar and setting it aside so she can tuck it back into her bag once the melted wax has set.

Now she's wondering if Wanda will make room for her in the blanket cocoon, but she's not going to push. "There. That should warm the room up soon. I think it's dark enough outside for it to be safe. I've spent enough of my life freezing for lack of fuel already. I'm done with that." Her Sokovian is native speaker levels of perfect, and the accent is damn close. She's never needed it for a cover before, and this is almost entirely from time spent with Wanda overlapping with a natural skill honed to an art form, the ability to create entire lives within her own mind.

Woot!

[minus1twin]

Wanda felt relieved to have run into Natasha. She didn't trust the woman completely but she trusted her more than the strangers in the village and those who have claimed to know her. Everything felt wrong and it made Wanda want to cling to something familiar.

"Thank you." She spoke softly, her accent thicker than usual.

Her thin frame shifted as Wanda moved a little closer to the fire. She watched Natasha, seeing nothing wrong with conserving their resources. Who knew how long the winter would be.

"Here." She shifted and offered a bit of the blanket to the other woman. Body heat will be the easiest way to warm up and Wanda wanted them both to survive.