001 Arrival Post

[scepterschild]

WHO: Wanda Maximoff
WHERE: Fountain & Around
WHEN: February 12th
OPEN TO: EVERYONE!
WARNINGS: Threatening people in the first post.
STATUS: CLOSED

---

Fountain; Very Early Morning

Wanda pushed her way from the fountain, a noticeable frown tugging at her lips as she moved. She was soaked, it was freezing and she had no idea how she got here. Moving quickly, Wanda pulled the backpack from her shoulders and rummaged through its contents. She didn't know what she was expecting to find but she was grateful to see a set of dry clothes stashed inside. After making sure that there wasn't anyone watching, Wanda began to strip off the wet layers and pull on what she had found.

Her movements were quick as she pulled the pale gray scrubs over her head. Any sound or inclination of another person would cause her focus to shift. She'd quickly turn towards her new company, red mist snapping an icicle from nearby shooting it towards the stranger.

Wanda would stop her attack just before striking. She wanted answers.

Around; Mid-Day

Wanda took the time to explore the village; learning the few threads of information that were available as well as who else was around. Her powers felt different, distant, and her tests to use them confirmed that a large fraction of her strength had been taken from her. It was frustrating and it pulled at the strands of tension that gathered beneath her breastbone.

She didn't like feeling like a rat in a cage.

She meandered through the village and around it's outskirts, her eyes inspecting for details that might offer a clue that others have missed. Wanda was familiar with cold weather and snow; neither deterred her from having a look around however she didn't wander very far.

Near the Inn; Night Sky

As the afternoon drifted away from Wanda she began to noticed the intensity of the lights stretching across the sky. She's seen auroras in the past. They were streaks of light that curled like brilliant ocean waves against the dark contrast of night. She had hoped to see the stars but the auroras were shining like a second sun, efficiently hiding anything else from sight.

"Hmm?" Her tone was soft, her chin tilted up to stare at the sky. "How is it that people sleep."

Wanda knew she should sleep but her thoughts were heavy and distracting. The auroras gave her something to focus on and for the moment she wanted that distraction.

Comments

Arrival

[kestreldawn]

Jyn spends the bulk of her day plotting out the village, adding to the map hanging in the Inn wherever it needs the details. A tree, a boulder, whatever it might be, she adds it. It gives her something to focus on, something to give her a semblance of purpose. She never thought she'd miss the urgency of an invading, expanding Empire, but - without it, now, she feels sort of .. useless.

She's made herself a couple of spears out of long branches, sharpening the ends with rocks. They're primitive and a far, far cry from the technology she knows - what she wouldn't give for the smell of ozone coming off her blaster - but it's better than being completely vulnerable and exposed. She takes one with her every time she treks out into the town, just in case.

She's barely out the door when she hears the sound of water splashing from the fountain. She knows the sound well now. While her mind tells her to continue with her expedition, there's a faint voice in her that pulls, tugs her the other way. With a disgruntled growl, she turns towards the fountain in time to see a woman tugging her scrubs over her head - grey. Jyn's been trying to keep a running tally of how many people wear each color. This makes the 5th person she's seen with this color, but she knows she's not met everyone in the village yet. If only she knew the significance of it ..

The sound of ice cracking doesn't register right away, but Jyn falls into her defensive stance almost immediately - she can remember the rage, the fury, the confusion that controlled her body like a puppet when she'd first arrived. She manages to use her spear to knock the icicle away from her face, but the fact that it's hovering in the air is simultaneously frightening and fascinating. She isn't sure which is winning.

"That's not a good way to go about making allies here," she says, voice cautious, each word carefully felt on the tip of her tongue before jumping out of her mouth. Her spear is gripped tightly in her hands, pointed side facing the stranger. "Everyone comes through the fountain, like you did, with that pack strapped to their back."

Arrival

[scepterschild]

Wanda’s eyes narrowed on Jyn while her stance remained defensive. A frown tugged at her lips when she came to a conclusion. She wasn’t very good at making friends. She met her current teammates while trying to kill them and they were the only group she considered close. "Do you know who is here and why?" Her tone was firm and her accent thicker than normal.

She wanted answers though given the woman’s similar state of dress and weapon; she’s begun to doubt that any of her answers would be addressed. Perhaps she was trapped in her mind, stuck in that house with nowhere to go. She remembered there had been an explosion just outside the perimeter but everything else was a blur. Wanda could remember pulling herself from the fountain but nothing significant about it.

Her thoughts were that of soldier, running through scenarios where something might have happened but nothing made sense. She wished that Vision had arrived with her or someone that she knew; something to help all of this make sense.

[kestreldawn]

Jyn wonders if this is what it was like when Finnick had stumbled upon her crawling out of the fountain like a rabid animal. The spear in his hand, the twitch of his fingers as he silently asked her not to make him use it as a weapon. She imagines it was similar, if not exactly the same as what she's feeling now. Her grip on her spear tightens for a brief moment, but then relaxes, which allows her to throw it, if need be. It also keeps her joints, muscles from locking up should she need them to react in a timely manner.

"Not everyone, no," she replies. Might as well be honest. "I've only met a handful of people since I've arrived - which I did a couple of days ago." She can see the desperation in the woman's face, her gaze - the burning need to have the answers and to have had them yesterday. She can remember the same devouring feeling in her chest when she'd come up, spitting out water and gasping for air. "Still trying to work out the 'why' myself, but no one I've spoken to has an answer for it, either."

In an attempt to soothe the woman's hyper-vigilance, Jyn lowers her spear carefully, a quiet thunk as it hits the ground. She stands back up, hands loose at her sides. She can still grab it, if she needs to - though the woman's - powers? - were faster than any enemy she'd dealt with before. But it's a sign of peace, of treaty. Jyn doesn't want to hurt her, and she doesn't want to give the woman a reason to hurt her.

"There's food, at the inn. If you're hungry."

[scepterschild]

Wanda was confident in her training and abilities. Like Jyn she'd been fighting since she was young, having watched her parents be killed in a war that she'd known nothing about. Even with a spear, Wanda didn't feel particularly threatened by Jyn, however, she was also careful. Her powers felt distant and it took greater focus to will them around her.

"What do you know?" It was the best question that Wanda could ask. She could continue to ask specific questions but from what she's noticed, the answer was probably along the lines of I don't know.

It was a slow transition, however, Wanda began to relax. Her arms fell to her sides and the muscles in her shoulders and traps softened. She exhaled a slow breath and calmed the quick beat of her heart. Her hair was still wet and while food sounded nice, warmth was more important. "Lean me. We'll talk more there." With that Wanda picked up her pack, sliding it over her shoulder. She then tugged at her very long hair, twisting the collected wet mass and spilling water onto the sidewalk.

Morning

[pretendtoneedme]

Water sloshing like a rapidly churning school of fish was a sound all too common to anyone in the village, since they'd all heard it themselves when they'd arrived. It wasn't as cold as it had been but it was still cold enough to have Clint detour in his trip from the inn to the mill (he'd promised he'd try to get it working again, and he had no reason to disregard that promise) and check it out. He didn't have any towels with him but the inn was still right behind him so it made no real difference - until he spotted the figure checking her backpack and pulling on the rest of her mostly-dry new clothes. He gave a mostly-silent sigh of relief at seeing Wanda; his biggest immediate worry after showing up here had been for her, how broken and unhappy she'd been in the Raft and how much he'd wanted to kill the Navy guardsmen for strapping her in a straitjacket and inhibitor collar, even knowing that they were only following Ross' orders. At least if she was here he could watch her, help her, and keep her away from those assholes, even if there were other problems in this place.

Clint didn't bother to try and muffle his steps as he walked up, but seeing her standing quickly and the red mist flying from her hands (though weaker, he was pretty sure) made him freeze in place immediately because he knew- yep, there it was, icicle pointed right at his forehead. "Are we gonna do this every time?" he asked, reaching up to gently knock the icicle off to the side with his left hand, his right holding the tool kit he'd claimed from Nat's stuff after she disappeared, starting to move forward again.

Morning

[scepterschild]

Wanda exhaled a breath of relief when she saw Clint standing at the tip of her icicle. Her arms dropped and the ice shattered against the sidewalk. "I could have killed you." They both knew that Clint was better than getting shish kabob by an icicle but it gave Wanda bravo, hiding the concern and uncertainty in her tone. "Every time?" Her brow furrowed in confusion though she didn’t stop what she was doing.

She shoved the wet clothing back into her backpack, not really caring that it began to get other things wet and slipped it over her thin shoulders. Wanda pulled her hair over her shoulder, twisting drops of water out of the dark brown strands and onto the sidewalk.

"Where is this place?" There were other questions but she expected that Clint might tell her what she needed to know.

[pretendtoneedme]

"You'd never kill me." Or at least, not anymore. Not now that they knew each other. "Even if the last time you did that you tried it with a knife."

It's a mark of their relationship?

But he set the toolbox down for the moment and moved forward to help Wanda out if she needed it, though she likely was fine. It was still second nature for him to try and take care of the people he cared about, and her appearing in the village had shot her straight to the top of the list (at least in terms of people he actually could help now). It was actually kind of a relief to nearly be stabbed by a flying icicle, at least from her, since it meant that her powers weren't gone. Even if they were reduced, there was still a lot of possibility now with a telekinetic around.

"We don't know." Of course he'd be honest, he had no reason not to be. "There's about fifty or sixty people here now, you know a couple - Sam's here, so's Thor. But we can't get out and we can't contact anyone. All of us just wake up in that fountain like you did and have to crawl out of it, sometimes someone's here to give you a hand, sometimes not. Come on, we can go get you some towels and you can dry off and warm up while I catch you up."

[scepterschild]

"That's what you think." She was only teasing but it helped. Wanda craved the levity of a friend, to be able to have something familiar when her world threatened to turn upside down. It was a situation she was used to by now but she never enjoyed sudden changes. They were rarely pleasant.

Clint trying to help earned him an entertained smile. "I'm good." She assured him in a confident tone, ready to follow him towards warmth and towels. Wanda grew up in the cold and she liked it but that didn't mean she was interested in getting sick. She listened to the names he listed and nodded her head. It was good to hear that others where here.

"You mentioned I tried to stab you with a knife. I don't remember that." Wanda was pretty sure she'd have remembered that.

mid-day

[womanofvalue]

Peggy is feeling warm. True, the weather is still icy and cold, but she's not producing ice sculptures wherever she goes, leading to a genuine relief as she bundles up and goes outside simply to experience her life without the worry that she's only making the space around her colder. She's currently keeping a wary eye on the sky, the lightning causing some mild trepidation in her, which is why she's not entirely watching where she's going and ends up bumping straight into the young woman.

"Sorry," Peggy apologies instantly, quick to it. "I wasn't looking where I was going," she admits. "Skygazing makes one rather clumsy, I'm afraid."

mid-day

[scepterschild]

Wanda was usually aware of what was around her and yet she had found herself sinking and lost within the depths and complications of complicated musings. Peggy’s collision quickly snapped her focus to the here and now. Wanda turned sharply but stopped herself from doing anything else. She’s had to many close calls today.

Dark green eyes look up at Peggy as recognition colors Wanda’s expression. "You’re Agent Carter." She’d read the name in a file. She’d been one of Steve’s friends, the one that had recently passed away.

Wanda's lips tugged into a frown. "I’m Wanda. I am a friend of Steve’s." She quickly introduces herself assuming that like her, Peggy might jump to a negative conclusion about why someone would know her name. It wasn’t as if Wanda had ever met the woman, let alone a version of her that was so young.

[womanofvalue]

Peggy's going to have to get used to being known, it seems. She's almost beginning to wonder if the pattern here is that everyone who arrives seems to know of Steve Rogers, somehow. This one automatically earns a mark in her good books for having the good sense to call her Agent Carter. "I am," she agrees, yet cautious because even if she says she's a friend of Steve's, that leaves some questions in the air.

"I'm beginning to think he's starting himself a band," is her deadpanned remark, hands on her hips. "Do you know Sam as well? Clint?" she prods, trying to gauge her reaction to each name.

[scepterschild]

"Yes."

She had already spoken with Clint, he was one of the first people that she'd met after climb out of the fountain. Their meeting had been tense when they finally got to the heart of the matter and his words continued to weigh in her thoughts. There was a lot to think about.

A bit of a smirk tugged at the corner of Wanda's lips. "I was learning to play." When she'd first moved into Headquarters Steve told her to do more than just practice and fight. He had drawn and while looking for an interested Wanda had found the guitar though she didn't think that she was very good at it.

[powerunleashed]

Jean had seen the girl earlier wandering through the village but it was only later in the evening that she found a chance to actually talk to her. The auroras were bright as day even when it was supposed to be (or allegedly, Jean had no idea) night and she'd had trouble sleeping herself.

Of course, some of that trouble had been due to losing the first real friend she'd made here and for a mutant, she hadn't experienced much in the way of death. From what she understood, it came part and parcel with the abilities.

"I have trouble sleeping when it's this bright," she said, putting her hands in the pockets of her coat.

[scepterschild]

Wanda slowly looked over at Jean before turning her head back towards the light in the sky. There was something hypnotizing about the way the brightness folded over itself in many different hues and she didn't want to look away.

"How long has it been like this?" She wondered if the light would keep her up. Right now there were a million other things on her mind halting even the most insistent notions of sleep.

[powerunleashed]

"A month or so? It's been like this since I got here," Jean said, squinting up at the sky for a moment. "It wasn't this bright at first, though, and you could only see the lights at night. It's different now."

She looked at the other girl for a moment, voice soft and steady when she spoke. "It's pretty but it's dangerous. There's been lightning too."

[scepterschild]

"So I've been told." Wanda didn't fear lighting.

Her powers were weaker than before but she could produce small shields and she believed that she could protect herself if she had too. It was Thor's alarm at the lightning that had shaken her the most but she's had time to sort through that feeling and bury it.

"It's strange." She rose her fingers into the air creating a red spark between her finger tips. "These lights might be a source of something." Something that was making it harder to access her abilities.

arrival

[almightythor]

It had been quite a while since Thor had seen someone actually arrive through the fountain but as he was making his once-daily sweep of the little park that everyone seemed to arrive in, he saw a woman that he recognized.

"Wanda!" he called out, closing the distance between them. He was only slightly wary of the way she held herself, the way she called on her power to direct an icicle toward him. She would know him. She had to know him.

"Wanda Maximoff! When did you arrive in this place?"

arrival

[scepterschild]

She halted her attack and exhaled a slow breath to calm herself down. She wasn't particularly close with Thor but she knew him. She trusted him and she was silently thankful that he was here. He didn't know about the accords or the tension between the Avengers; at least, not that she's aware of. He didn't look at her like she was a weapon or a monster.

Wanda's arms fell to her sides as she slowly began to relax. It was a difficult task. "Just now. Have you been here long?" She had no idea what he'd been up too.

She turned back towards her pack and looped it over her shoulder while also squeezing the water from her hair. Wanda was familiar with the cold but that didn't make her invulnerable to getting sick.

Re: arrival

[almightythor]

"Months now," Thor admitted. It pained him to say months, to know that he had been here the better part of a year and he had yet to get any closer to getting back to Asgard. There were things he did enjoy about this place, Annie chief among them, but he did not particularly enjoy the imprisonment.

"Come, let me take you somewhere safe. There's lightning storms."

Mid-Day

[notabirdcostume]

Sam Wilson was not pleased with the current turn in weather. First the snow and now the lightning. At this rate he was pretty sure that the only weather they hadn't dealt with was fire raining down on them, but he kept that to himself because he certainly didn't want to give anyone any crazy ideas. What was really hard to believe was that the extreme weather had resulted in a death and specifically the death of someone he wouldn't have pegged for such a thing. Not that you could prevent death, but the event had shaken Sam in a way that even Karen's death had not.

As such, he was mostly sticking indoor if he could help it, but he didn't exactly want to turn into a hermit either. They were losing so many people lately it seemed and he didn't want people to get the wrong idea about himself. He had decided to compromise and was sitting on his porch, a notebook open in his lap as he jotted down some updates he wanted to keep straight.

He probably wouldn't have even realized Wanda was walking past, but hopefully if she was keeping an eye out she might spot him.

Mid-Day

[scepterschild]

Wanda wasn't paying complete attention however she was testing the new limits to her powers. Her abilities were muted but if she stopped and focused she could still feel those in a small radius around her. That's what first told her that someone was sitting on their front porch. She only noticed it was Sam when she decided to investigate.

Her boots crunched against the snow, her eyebrows raising as she stopped in front of his front porch. It was such a cute picture.

"Is this what you've spent all your time doing?" Wanda didn't have any heart to hearts with Sam but, like Steve, she's trained with Sam and they spent a fair amount of time in each others company. Or at least to Wanda it felt like a lot of time, she didn't exactly have normal friends. She had the Avengers and that was enough. "You're slacking."

[notabirdcostume]

He recognized that voice, even if it had been several months since he'd heard it. However, Sam still looked surprised when he looked up and saw Wanda standing in the snow a few feet from his porch. Despite their numbers back home, he was always surprised to see a familiar face pop up here. He blinked and then laughed, "Of course not. You're just catching me on a break." He closed the notebook, "Besides...someone's gotta be taking notes around here."

Sam stood up. Wanda might have been slower to trust, but that wasn't Sam's way. He considered Wanda a friend -- perhaps not as good a friend as Steve, but he'd do a lot for the young woman. "I'd hardly call that slacking."

mid-day;

[windchasing]

Far takes on a different meaning when you can move the way Pietro can move — even here, even slowed to what feels to him like a snail's crawl, even careful as he is not to expose his mutation to others, he's made a habit of going farther from the village than most. How can they know the canyon walls are really changing, if no one checks them regularly? How will he find the source of the mutation nullification, if he is not out checking for areas of weakness every day?

The foraging is better farther afield as well. Not that there's much to be had in this weather, but Pietro's hunting skills aren't comparable to most; what he can do is identify edible winter plants, at least the ones common to Transia. For as much as he needs to eat at the inn, it's the least he can do. He's coming back with a small haul of roots and tubers, muddy wild onions and long dry cattails spilling out from his arms, when he turns the corner of a house too fast and nearly barrels into her.

"Watch where you are going–" he manages, even though it's him who's only narrowly avoided a collision.

mid-day;

[scepterschild]

Wanda hadn't seen him coming but she'd felt the familiar rush of wind and the warmth of a human body that followed. She'd spent enough time with her brother to know his gifts and react to them accordingly. It'd been over a year since she'd seen him last but it was just as Clint had said; this boy might have been Pietro but it wasn't her brother.

She swallowed hard and took a small step back, her dark green eyes cautiously eyeing the boy.

"You're Pietro." Clint had told her a bit about him. It was all just as he had said. He looked different, younger, his jaw was firmer and she didn't feel the connection she had with her brother. There was something, a soft familiarity but it wasn't more than a passing feeling.

[windchasing]

Pietro goes still, noticing the caution in her body language but unsure how to interpret it. Was she frightened of him, or— no, something else. Something more complicated in her eyes, and he's not very good with complicated, but there's something familiar about them, too. What could possibly be familiar, in a place like this? (Her accent, the way she says his name without butchering it— it's not quite right, but close enough to make his chest ache for something he can't identify.)

"How do you know my name?" he demands, uncertainty sharpening his edges. A lifetime of fighting back has left defensiveness his knee-jerk response, and today is no exception.