revivalproject | Public Network Video - (Plus Two Private Messages)

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Public Network Video - (Plus Two Private Messages)

Public Video - [Posted During Ship Lock-Up]

[The video comes on and there's Tommy, a touch blurry around the edges. The background changes behind him constantly. One second he's pacing in what was clearly the dorm of the ship he's on. The next second he's in a mess hall, the protein paste machine in the background. Then the hangar. Then the bridge. Back to the mess and dorm and mess. This will be true for the whole video. There is no denying that he's very agitated, like ready to run up the walls. Or through them if he could.]

Dudes, who in the world decided this was the best plan that there was? Like, seriously, this plan? It's bogus. Being locked up on a ship is one thing. I wanna go to space. Space is fucking cool. All the stars and planets and traveling and that shit. But here, on the fucking ground, and there's like no way to go and travel between them and the space is small and itissosmallandthewalls are everywhere andican'tgetthrough

[He's shaking harder now, as he comes to a stop. This is miserable.]

Yo, Agrii or whatever. I don't fucking CARE about making friends. I can do that on my own time. But I want the fuck out. Let me go back to the greenhouse. I swear I just found a door that led to a whole section of a floor that was just fucking MINT. I like mint. Let me at the fucking mint.

justletmeoutofhere!

Private Message to Billy - October 13th

[He's calmed down a bit at this point, and it's important that he does this. That he seems calm for this. Because Billy deserves it.]

Yo, happy birthday, bro. Was gonna make you this whole salad with things from the Garden. But some ASSHOLES in charge here absolutely decided to blow birthday plans. I'm sorry this all sorta got blown up. Who you on wherever you're on with? I'm with Wanda. Which, you know, awkward. You know where V ended up? Whatever, not like it matters. Just be okay, right?

Private to Vision - October 13th

[This one has a more nervous looking Tommy. Like he isn't even sure he should be sending this.]

It's today, right? You sorta said that the math would come out to today, yeah? So you know, I don't hold it against you. Forgetting. And not, you know, doing the whole thing you said you would. But it's fine, right? I get it, that you'd want to. So don't worry about me, okay? Just make sure you wish Billy a happy birthday. This will probably be the first time he has to celebrate it without his family or friends or all that. It would mean a lot, I think, for you to reach out.

Because, you know, it's a good Dad thing to do. And he's used to having a good dad. So, you know Vision, do your best. We're nineteen now, so I guess throw that in too?

[OOC: If anyone of Tommy's cohort wants to run into him while he's recording messages, that's cool too. Just hit me up at

churbooseanon and we can set it up.]

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It hurts for a moment. Tommy winces and half stumbles, almost dropping Wanda. But then it's there. His power. His strength. And oh god yes. This is... this is everything.

"Don't worry. I got this," Tommy answers, more energy, more confidence in his voice. "Hold on and I'll get you outside, okay?"

"They're coming," she says, gripping his shoulder half from fear and half to keep herself from falling. "I don't know the way out." The places where Tommy's dream have merged with hers are completely unfamiliar and Strucker's base had been labyrinthine at best. She'd thought about it often - escaping would take either a massive distraction or a lot of preparation, but either way it was a moot point until they stopped sedating her. Her body feels so sluggish and she's dizzy from ripping the collar off Tommy.

Her fear summons a weak orb of scarlet energy around them, but it's flickering in and out of existence and doesn't serve much practical purpose. If one of the guards does find and shoot at them, it might slow a dart or bullet down but it's not going to stop anything. And the more frightened she gets, the weaker it starts to look.

Neither does he. But Tommy's got an edge now. Part of which is that there's a lot less strain in carrying here.

"Listen, we can get out of here quietly, or we can get out of here quickly. I'm taking votes now. But they won't get a chance to shoot you. I'd never let them hurt you."

Because Pietro isn't here to protect her.

"I have to get Pietro out too. Whatever it takes. I can't leave him. But you need to get somewhere safe before they find you."

Neither of them will ever reach him, though. This nightmare is fluid, and elements of both their prisons and deepest fears have melded together. But one thing that can't change is that she'll never get Pietro back.

But if Wanda's aware of that even on some subconscious level, you'd never guess. Each and every time she always fights for him like she's got a chance.

Edited 2019-10-15 16:31 (UTC)

"I'd never leave him here. We're Maximoffs, we don't do that shit," Tommy dismisses.

Thing is, that's exactly what Maximoffs do, just not what they intend. Pietro had left her to save other people. Billy had left him because of the people he couldn't save. Wanda had left to protect innocent lives and save the world, and hadn't been there when Pietro needed her. Tommy... had left because he wasn't strong enough to be there for the guy that had only been confirmed to be his soul-twin for half a day. But he'd tried. Fucking hell, how he'd tried to be as strong as Pietro always was.

His role-model, from the very second he'd learned what his powers were. All he'd ever wanted to do was meet Pietro, be friends with Pietro, learn from Pietro. That wasn't going to happen, not even here.

"Hold on tight, okay? I'm going to need a free hand to get through walls. Tap my shoulder if you need a break. I'll stop right away."

Tommy's got things he can do that Pietro would never get a chance to learn, and it's something he intends to put to use. It doesn't matter that this place is never ending. That there will always be turns back toward his personal hell, or hers. He's going to run until he can't run anymore. He's going to save her. He's going to be a hero.

He shifts Wanda in his arms, putting her more upright with one arm tucked under her so the other was free to deal with doors and walls. And then, after a deep breath, he threw himself with all speed back into the corridors, running and running in hopes of finding a door. Better not to blow things up until he had to.

"Through walls?" Okay, that's definitely not something Pietro can do or he would have done it already. Wanda tightens her grip on Tommy and buries her face in his shoulder. She can't panic if she can't see it coming, right?

"I will be all right. I just want to get away from them." If that's even possible, if there's anywhere in the world Strucker (or someone like him) wouldn't find them.

"Explosive potential. Sorta still suck at phasing. Sometimes the things they make me carry explodes. Don't..."

Doesn't want to do that to her. Of course these words come as he stops at the end of a corridor and looks left and right. Where is he going? He's been down this hall before. Three times. Or was it four? Three times since picking her up. The hallways look the same.

He only knows left and right. This isn't working. He's so angry, because it isn't working. All of the hallways look the same, except the ones that are stone. The stone and glass and plastic around her. For him it's all metal. And here metal corridors turn into stone halls with no explanation, no rhyme, no reason. Around isn't working. Frustrated he puts his free hand on the right wall and runs, keeping always in touch with it. That should lead him out, right? Except the basic maze logic fails when you're, you know, doors are closed.

At last he's left standing in front of a stretch of wall, a dead end. And he's angry. Beyond angry. Still no alarms, still no sign of pursuit, even though he's passed by people.

Frustrated he puts Wanda down, a few paces back from the wall.

"Hold on. I'm done playing by architectural rules."

His hands raise before him and he holds them up, palm out, fingers splayed. And they start to vibrate. He starts to vibrate. The wall starts to vibrate before it explodes outward, breaking through to the room beyond.

Room, not the outdoors he wanted. Room. Where there's a metal table with metal straps and a tray of needles nearby. Room. Where there's surgical lights and all of the metal glints under them. And Tommy backs up, shaking his head.

"No. No no no. Nonononononono!"

He doesn't want to be in there!

Edited 2019-10-16 01:21 (UTC)

For Wanda this is a much faster ordeal. She barely has time to register that they've moved before Tommy's setting her down again but she can feel the spike in his frustration.

"What are you--" she begins, but the question dies on her lips. She couldn't say how he's doing it, but she can see the effect it's having on the wall as it begins to vibrate, warp, and ultimately explode. But instead of the exit they were hoping for, they've just ended up exactly in the kind of place they were trying to get away from.

Wanda reaches out impulsively - she knows that she'll be punished for this later but there's no one here to stop her in this moment and she has to protect Tommy. Her power surrounds the table and it slowly begins to buckle under the pressure. Her fingers may be trembling slightly but here, where no one's chasing her or grabbing her or sticking another needle into her neck, it never had a chance.

Wanda gestures sharply and the whole thing twists inward on and through itself until it looks like something that belongs in a modern art museum. There's no salvaging this - they're just going to need a new table. Or, you know, to stop being horrible excuses for human beings and let them go.

"They aren't going to hurt you," she says, still a little dazed but present enough to make her way to Tommy and gently lay a hand on his shoulder. "Not as long as I can still fight them."

The crushing noises only make him flinch more. Flinch and shake. He's been shaking so hard that he doesn't really hear her at first. It's not until she touches him that he looks up, that he sees it, that he processes. Too much, far too much, it hurts. Oh god it hurts. This is too much.

"They'll make a new room. They'll put on new cuffs and I can't do things with the cuffs. Or the collar. They'll just take me back and there will be needles and wires and all that."

Like he always has, like he always will. They control him. Control them. He shakes and grabs her up.

"At least I know which way is my cell. I don't... I don't know where to go."

"No they won't. They aren't taking us back. Just don't go that way." Tommy scoops her back up to continue their escape and she tries to hug him as best as she can. She can tell that he needs it, and she wishes so badly that she could just unleash her power on their enemies. But for now she's an 'imperfect vessel.' If her control slipped, what would happen to Tommy?

Wanda knows she must have the power to tear down these walls. But she can't risk hurting Tommy.

"Maybe if we can find a window? I've seen skylights."

There is a reason he hasn't been blasting every load bearing wall. Seems they're busy protecting each other.

"Windows would be good. But none of the corridors seem to have them. And I can't get up to skylights."

Running up walls hadn't been something he'd started yet. Not enough internal height. But he does start speeding around again, a bit slower this time. More like a fast moving car than anything.

Wanda's not deterred yet. "I know it has windows. And towers, and balconies. We just have to find them." Unfortunately, if they can't find the main passages, they might have to start investigating the rooms. That thought makes Wanda nervous - there could be anything in those rooms. She and Pietro are far from the first weapons Strucker has created. They could find something worse.

Then again, if she gets a chance to take the Scepter away from them it would be worth it just to make sure they can't hurt anyone else.

"Maybe we just need to find the right door."

The rooms are the worst. Things happen in rooms. People are in rooms. People. Always audible at the edges of his enhanced hearing, footsteps drawing closer. Never reaching them.

"Okay then. Pick a door. I'll... I'll try and open it."

He's still shaken from running into that room.

They reach another hallway, but as they do, all the doors abruptly slam shut. Wanda looks around, eyes wide, but there's no one else here. "That wasn't me."

As they go further into the hallway, the air itself grows heavy with unease and the sound of whispering, first faint, gets louder. Tommy might even be able to make out some of the words:

'...bodies...deeper...own ghosts won't find them...'

'...nothing more horrifying than a miracle...'

Wanda tenses, shivering with revulsion. "Not this way. We don't want to be here." But as soon as she says it, one of the doors swings open all on its own and blue light spills into the hallway.

Great. They're definitely in a horror movie. He wishes he wasn't so scared. He hugs Wanda a bit more to him and tries not to shiver.

"Yeah. I... really don't think it's Billy."

Which is a different blue. So Tommy backs away, looking over his shoulder at the door that slammed in front of them.

"Could blow that one."

"Maybe...maybe it was just the wind," Wanda says, trying to fake confidence she clearly doesn't feel. "The castle gets drafty. Much colder than we imagined."

She gives the open door one last worried look, but nothing's coming out of it and the blue glow isn't intensifying. That's...normal? For this place, at least. It's the same glow of the Scepter, so it's probably just some weird enhanced tech.

Probably.

"We can try it? If there are bars over the windows I think we can handle it."

Castle?

"This... they moved me from the prison?"

He's definitely so confused. But he is so nervous about that light. Can he hide from it? No. They have to look. So he takes a step forward. And another. Toward the light.

"If nothing else, we gotta stop them, right?"

That's a weird question. There is a prison of sorts here - she's been kept in several holding areas both before and after whatever Strucker and List had done to her. "I don't know why they put their base here. You can see it from all over the city...but maybe they chose it because it is far from the riots."

And instead of going for the closed door, Tommy turns and heads for the open one. Wanda tenses but doesn't start to struggle - how she'd made it as far as she did on her own was a mystery. "Just be careful..."

The light is coming from the wide variety of tech in the room, most of it enhanced by the Scepter. It's far bigger than it seemed on the outside, but no one ever said the laws of physics had to apply in dreams. It's a melding of the two ways she'd seen it: Strucker's weaponry mixed with Ultron's sentry factories.

But before they can get too close of a look at anything, a monster appears in a burst of blue light from the ceiling. Wanda shrieks and summons that same weak energy shield around them again, but it's better than nothing.

And the door? Totally gone. But if touched, the monster will just melt away into that same eerie blue light powering much of the tech in here. It wasn't her nightmare to be afraid of, but it was the moment that sealed Pietro and Sokovia's fates.

Tommy curses and stumbles back from the manifestation.

"Shit, Chitari Leviathan. Fuck!"

Tommy puts Wanda down and pushes her behind him before raising his hands defensively.

"Get cover. I'm going to try and blow it."

Wanda staggers but pushes forward. "Tommy, no!" Desperation gives her strength and her power flares dangerously bright, forming a much more solid shield of wild power around them. It's not as controlled as Wanda's power in the waking world, but in the way that this shield wouldn't simply deflect. Tommy could pass through it unharmed, but it would injure the leviathan or Strucker or anyone else who wanted to hurt them.

She's struggling to hold it, but there's no other option. She just has to do this.

"I'm...not going to...let it...hurt you."

"It won't hurt me," Tommy insists, annoyance in his voice as he raises his hands and prepares to attack the thing. "You're not the only one they tried to make into a monster, Mom. And they did so much better with me."

He pushes through the shield quickly and his hands vibrate as he turns his powers on the creature, and damn, it's powerful. Strong too. Durable, the metal, but the flesh under it is easier. It starts shaking too, and the creature finally explodes into pale blue light and sparks.

As the creature dissipates, Wanda drops the shield and crumples to the floor. It's too much, it hurts, and she can't--

The Ultron sentries begin their boot sequences all at once, hundreds of pairs of eyes lighting up. Slowly, indistinct figures begin to emerge from the shadows, dressed similarly to Wanda. Scientists too, dressed in manners both Wanda and Tommy would recognize. Growling dogs.

"Monster," one of the HYDRA scientists repeats. Not to be outdone, one of the juvie scientists chimes in, "Freak!"

"Murderer," says an Ultron sentry.

"Traitor!" one of the shadowy figures shouts in an accented voice.

Wanda whimpers and slaps her hands over her ears. "No no no...stop it, stop it, stop it!" There's just enough time for one of the shadowy figures to resolve into a brunette man who looks remarkably like Wanda before the image twists sideways and--

--she wakes up, gasping and terrified. She lays there in the darkness, trying to catch her breath, before kicking off her blankets and making a beeline for the kitchen. Maybe there's not tea, but she'll take cold water instead.

Too much. He wakes up and he manages not to scream and mostly all Tommy can think about is that it had all been too much. He rolls out of bed, instantly awake, and bolts into the kitchen to mess with the protein pastes. Gels. Whatever they are. And he starts mixing some together to eat.

Which means, given super speed, he’s there before Wanda. And flinches when he sees her come in.

“Bad night?”

Wanda goes pale and nods slightly. "Did I...? Oh no." It's been so long since this has happened - Vision doesn't dream, and his mind is usually comfort enough to keep her nightmares at bay. Naviadna's singing had also been an immense help; she had never really been alone.

But this? This was a perfect storm. She knew she should have tried to drag her bedding somewhere far away, or put off sleep as long as she could.

"I'm so sorry, Tommy. I didn't mean to."

Oh. Then he wasn't seeing things. Tommy frowns and turns his attention fully onto the dispensers. Time to get more chili flavor.

"It's... it's okay. Because you didn't mean it. And it wasn't like I don't have dreams like that anyway. There was a place they kept me for a while. It was supposed to be juvie. It wanted a weapon."

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