revivalproject | if I could paint the sky

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if I could paint the sky

WHO: Wanda Maximoff, OPEN
WHERE: Wanda's calibrations room
WHAT: Come poke around the psychic's head. It's only fair, right?
WHEN: June 3–June 10th
WARNINGS: Death, superhero violence, human experimentation, some suicidal ideation on the mangled device prompt, temporarily injured animal

You find yourself in a tower room.

It looks fairly comfortable, all things considered. The couches and cushions are plush and welcoming and at first glance you might not associate the room with its owner unless you've been here before. It almost looks like something out of a storybook until you turn around. A series of two heavy cage-like doors prevent exit and an observation window looks out into the room. It's dark...for now. Still, you can't shake the feeling that someone is lurking out there. The room may be comfortable but it was clearly designed to keep something in. And there's a strange, constant sound that you might not yet be able to identify. Maybe ocean waves?

Giving the room a closer glance, there are hints to the occupant's identity, like the guitar resting safely by the bookcase. A strange glowing scepter sits in an elaborate containment unit on a table. Beside it rests a distorted cube and the wiry remains of a mangled device.

Stairs lead to a balcony, but this is no escape. Here, that ongoing sound that you might have mistaken for waves while inside resolves into what it really is: hundreds of indistinct whispers and voices. The night sky is a surreal red nebula, too red to seem natural, and the ground...

...there is no ground. It's just a sea of glowing scarlet mist identical to her powers. There doesn't seem to be any end to it and it's constantly in motion, almost like it's alive. There's no escaping this place; whatever has been locked away here is staying put. And yet there are signs of life: a romantic nook for two on the wide balcony, comfortable-looking seating for several people back in the room. Aside from the door's reminder that this is a prison, it isn't an unwelcoming place.

You know, if you can ignore the hole in the ceiling and the unexploded bomb that clearly reads "Stark Industries" embedded in the floor.

And you aren't alone here. Wanda herself is laying comfortably on the luxurious princess's bed in meditation, wreathed in scarlet power. A tiny fairy dragon sleeps on the pillow beside her, completely unbothered. There's a photo on the nightstand: two adults and two children, a dark-haired girl and boy. It's worn, like it's been handled quite a bit, and those who know her well may have seen her with it before. Beside it is a ring that clearly belongs with Wanda's own wedding ring.

What do you do?

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Having been through a couple of these dreams already, Teddy feels like he's on steadier ground then he had been previously. All the rooms seem to have items that trigger memories, and after exploring and finding these memories he should be able to get out. The goal is to get in and get out.

Only...this particular room has a lot to take in. He takes a couple of steps across the room, eyes scanning for anything he might recognize. This may, of course, be a stranger's dream, but the only way to know would be to find a memory.

Or he can ask the woman laying on the bed. The glowing woman laying on the bed. He doesn't recognize her yet, but something about the scarlet color wreathing her is almost familiar.

"Um hello? Sorry to interrupt."

Wanda blinks awake and while the scarlet light dissipates, her eyes remain a glowing red. She doesn't recognize the newcomer but that's not exactly surprising - she's been pulled between periods of business and depression and she hasn't exactly had the time or the will to just wander around Temba.

She sits up and smiles sheepishly. "It isn't your fault. Even I can't control this." She speaks with a light accent, and Teddy could be forgiven for still not putting it together.

Her glowing eyes don't bother him, even if he does linger on them for a moment. There's something about her he just can't quite put his finger on. Has he seen her around Temba before? In passing maybe? Whatever, these questions aren't going to help either of them right now.

"Right. Yeah. That doesn't make it suck any less." He scratches the back of his head, looking a bit sheepish. "I'm Teddy, by the way." He figures the least he can do is introduce himself before he starts rummaging around in her head.

"No, but...you shouldn't feel bad about it either." She shrugs helplessly. This isn't the first time this has happened to her, although this time Wanda seems to be a little more lucid. "I'm Wanda. And I'm sorry. You are...probably not going to like much of this."

There are good memories here, of course, but others...others aren't so nice. Not at all.

It clicks into place once he hears her name. The strange glowing, a sense of familiarity. Tommy had told him way back when he first arrived that Wanda was here. A different Wanda. Maybe just the name could have been a coincidence, but he doesn't think so.

"Wanda...You don't know me. But I'm a friend of Billy and Tommy's. We were on a team together. I'm not sure how much they've told you."

Of course he comes to see her. It's only fair, after she was in his head. After the dreams they shared on the Twin Roses. After the connection they had shared with Vision. He came in and Tommy just looks around, moving to sit briefly on the edge of her bed. Cool, it's safe.

"Hey Aunt Wanda," he greets, kicking his feet in the air. "Sorry to pry. I was... wondering if there was anything here I could use to learn more about your Vision. Or Pietro."

(Fortunately for everyone, the bed itself is just a regular bed.)

The scarlet recedes, but when Wanda opens her eyes, they're glowing red anyway. It must be something about the nature of this place, because she's clearly not angry at the intrusion. It is only fair, and she can't fault him for wanting to see Vision and Pietro. She misses them both every second of every day.

"Don't. You can't control it anymore than I can." She hums thoughtfully, and then turns to retrieve a small Vision doll that had been sitting beside her on the bed. It looks like the tiny Vision plush the Agrii had given her, except this one is lovingly handsewn with blue buttons for eyes...but the "Mind Stone" on the doll's forehead still has a curious glow to it. "I think...maybe you could use a hug." She holds out the doll. "Don't worry. You don't have to feed this one first." It's a fairytale thing. Just go with it.

Yeah, Billy's eyes got like that too. So he's not that scared of them. They are... familiar and comforting in their own way. For a moment he stares at her, in clear confusion. 'Feed' it? He doesn't know. All he knows is that he nods and takes the doll, hugging it to him.

He missed his Pops so bad.

Someday Wanda should tell him some Eastern European fairytales. It would probably lessen the shock of the doll saying in a perfect replica of Vision's voice, "Do not be afraid. You are safe while I am with you."

The scene shifts to a somewhat-familiar place and it quickly becomes clear that Tommy's seeing through Wanda's eyes. It's probably still possible to recognize this as Wanda and Vision's room on the Twin Roses as-it-was from the brief moments past-Wanda's eyes are open. She's in serious distress, so much so that even the slight brushes of the rest of the crew's minds are painful against hers.

It had been a necessary sacrifice. Kitty had a memory she'd needed to show Vision, and Wanda was the only one who could facilitate that. She'd been able to shield Vision from the side effects viewing that thing caused and avoid re-triggering it in Kitty...but she hadn't been able to protect herself. Kitty said it would fade in a few days but right now Wanda is completely overwhelmed and on the verge of a panic attack and bursting into tears.

Luckily most of Vision's responsibilities can be automated for a time, so here they are sitting back against the propped-up pillows on their bed. Wanda buries her face in Vision's chest and squeezes her eyes shut and he just holds her close for a time, gently stroking her hair and murmuring soothing things until the worst of the panic response passes. It's a fragile peace, though Wanda does eventually dare to twine their minds together and let Vision block out everyone else around them.

Sorry, Tommy. This secondhand hug comes with a window into how nauseatingly pure their love is.

Eventually Vision selects something from the Fleet's online library and begins to read to her. For a while she tries to focus on the story, but soon she's really only hearing the cadence of Vision's voice as everything fades aaaaaaaaand she's out. Gradually the room comes back into focus as the memory dissipates.

When the memory fades, Tommy's holding the doll tighter, trying to hide the fact that he's tearing up. For a moment it almost felt like it was HIM. Like his father was holding him and caring about him. But for Wanda... He's glad she had that support.

"So apparently Billy gets all the sap from Pops."

Wanda's eyes are also wet and she's not bothering to try to hide it. She misses Vision so very much and in both his and Pietro's absence she's discovered a new, awful, flavor of loneliness. She isn't alone here, but she has to try to be strong for Billy and Tommy. It's not the same as the unconditional mutual support she's used to - she can't ask that of them.

"It is not a bad thing." She tilts her head. "You know, if you want a hug you should ask him the next time you see him. He can't say yes if you never ask."

"Vision isn't... I don't get to interact with him at home," Tommy admits. So he doesn't ask, and he doesn't get a yes and the status is quo.

"I'm sorry he isn't here for you."

This is going to be one of the great mysteries that Wanda will never understand. Why did the other Wanda and Vision pretty much abandon Billy and Tommy? She's sure that it must have been hard for them...but Tommy especially seems to need them. It's just not right.

"Not your Vision. Mine. I'm going to find out what they did to him and save him." Gently, Wanda places a hand on his shoulder. "We're going to see him again."

Tommy's head snaps up to regard her. He can't... he can't believe that is possible. People go and they don't come back. Well, except Altair. But...

"Sorry, hope isn't something I'm good at."

She shakes her head. "It isn't hope. I am just not going to lose him. I don't care what I have to do or how dangerous it is." Of course she doesn't. She's a Maximoff, and she'd go to the ends of the earth for the people she loves. "I'm going to save him. And Nat, and Clint and Laura, and everyone else the Agrii have let be taken."

Hope is for people who don't keep losing everything they love. This is the same determination that helped Wanda emerge from her ordeal with the Mind Stone alive.

Tommy's never had things to love but Billy and his team, and he's lost them more than enough already.

"I'll help you. However I can. I really care about Pops."

Wanda loosely wraps her arms around herself and curls forward. "I miss him so much," she says quietly, voice shaking, a rare show of vulnerability she would never let Tommy see again in the waking world. "We shared a link, you know? Like what I had with Pietro but different. And now...there is nothing." It's an injury of sorts, a deep one, even though physically Wanda is fine.

"I just wish I knew that he is safe."

Oh man. Tommy moves to pull Wanda into his arms, holding her as tight as he dares.

"This is Pops. He'll be okay. And you know wherever he is, he's going to fight his way back to you. He loves you, Wanda. He cares about you so much. Have faith in him. Just like I know he has it in you."

"I know. But he shouldn't have to." Wanda clings to him, and fortunately since it's a dream, they can hug each other as tightly as they want. "What good am I if I can never protect the people I love? All this power...but it's useless. Just enough to get us in trouble."

Because surely that's what the Agrii wanted in the first place, right? Vision's knowledge and her power.

"You protected me, and everyone else, from me," Tommy counters. She didn't get him into trouble then. She'd saved him and probably some lives. "And you can't tell me Sansa doesn't see you as someone who protects her. Billy believes in you too."

So don't tell him it's for nothing, Wanda. Don't ever tell him that.

"But I can't stop the Agrii, and I can't save anyone from the storm without my powers." Not that her powers seem like they'd be particularly helpful - she's not a reality warper like the other Wanda or Billy - but it's impossible to think that regular, very human, Wanda Maximoff has a chance against it. The twins had signed up for the experiments because they couldn't protect anyone from other normal humans, so how could she possibly save Vision powerless? She's not book-smart like Tony or resourceful like Natasha or clever like Sansa. Maybe the Agrii were hoping to aim her at something else? Or they didn't know that she'd fare no better against the storm than they did.

She looks over towards the mangled device on the table. "The heart. If you touch it you'll understand, but...I don't think you'll like me anymore."

"So?" Tommy counters. He can't save anyone from anything. That much was clear. But he looks.

Rises and moves to the mangled device. Yes. This is something he can accept. A weight.

"If you think I should see it, I'll see it."

Everything on the table is memories she doesn't really want anyone else to see. Wanda doesn't know why she's telling Tommy to go look - self-sabotage isn't usually her thing, but now there's no one else left who knows what happened. They see her, and they may love her, but they don't know that her failures only come in calamities. Despite her best efforts, everything always falls apart. This is how it started:

She's in the ruins of the cathedral, defending the key from a seemingly endless onslaught of Ultron sentries. It doesn't bother her. This is trivial. She could do this all day and only tire from standing.

Until pain (not hers, but Pietro's) rips through her senses and Wanda staggers as if she had just been shot. No, not him, she can't lose him, she can't, he was supposed to be safe–

He's dying.

And no matter how frantically Wanda tries to reach out for him, she can feel him slipping farther and farther away...and then there's nothing but the agonizing void where his presence had always been, even before the Mind Stone remade her. Pain and fear and grief overwhelm her, and as she falls to her knees screaming the world goes red.

Ultron sentries burn out of existence before its fury. In the moment, this doesn't terrify her. She has no room for anything but her grief.

Ultron did this.

Ultron did this and she'd helped him.

This is all her fault.

Ultron is still out there.

Time has no meaning anymore, and Wanda's utterly unaware of how long she'd been crying on the ground. A hollow rage is beginning to take over: this is Ultron's fault, and so Wanda is going to hunt him down and kill him in the worst way she can imagine.

She moves through the ruins of Novi Grad in a blur, sentries falling with Wanda barely making the conscious decision to unleash her power on them. Scarlet wreathes her hands, again without Wanda willing it, and some part of her mind must be aware that she's lost control but the rest of her is reveling in it. She wants to make him hurt the way he'd hurt Pietro, the way he'd hurt her people. Nothing else matters.

And when she finds him, when she finally does tear his heart from his chest – she feels nothing but dark satisfaction (she could have made it cleaner but she wanted this to hurt). Wanda squeezes the 'heart' a little harder and scarlet power consumes it completely. There's nothing left.

And as the city suddenly begins to plummet to the ground, she realizes that soon there will be nothing left of her too and that's just fine.

When the memory fades, Wanda hasn't moved from the bed. She's curled in on herself a bit, still ashamed. She had done all of this for the people of Sokovia, and who had she hurt the most? They'll never know how many people died because she couldn't control her temper long enough for everyone to evacuate.

"Do you see?" Her voice is quiet, barely there. "It's enough to get us in trouble, but I couldn't save any of them. And as long as the Agrii stay away from us...I don't know what to do."

And still...all that power and it doesn't hold a candle compared to his Wanda's. Would she have messed up so badly? Or would she have managed to save everyone? Or just stop it before it even got to that point?

"Grampabot deserved it," Tommy answers, his voice soft as he tries to shake the memory from his mind. And he's shaking.

"I... would have blown it all up. If that happened to Billy. I'd have blown the Fucking world up. So I get it."

But she has absolutely no idea to how bad Wanda had fucked things up back there.

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if I could paint the sky

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