Elsewhere in the Preserve | Monday Evening

[scarlet_chaos]

Wanda couldn't go back to her apartment after saying goodbye to her boys. She was too sad, too angry--she felt like she could explode and didn't want to risk hurting anyone in the building. She instead found herself deeper in the preserve, wandering aimlessly.

She had lost them. Again. And this time a goddamn island had taken them from her. How much more of this was she expected to take? A few poor tree branches lost their lives to Wanda's blasts, but the measured use of power was helping her calm down.

Eventually the anger dissipated to the point where Wanda could slow down, leaning against a tree and trying to come to terms with the heavy feeling in her chest. She knew by now she couldn't make it go away, not without another Westview happening. She'd just have to learn to live with it, like she had with everything else.

There'd just be some crying in the woods first. Then she'd learn to live with it.

[Sad post is sad. It's open if anyone spots the red in the trees, and she has her phone on her too]

Comments

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie had had mixed feelings about saying goodbye to her own set of twins. She knew they couldn't stay, of course, and she really hadn't wanted them to stay -- but it still hadn't felt like enough time. Especially since this year, Ben and Autumn had seemed more plausible, given that the few, non-paradoxy things they had talked about hadn't sounded all that far-fetched. (Well, aside from how she was apparently eventually ditching her cape. Pff. She loved her cape.)

In any case, she was already thinking going on a run or a walk to clear her head when she'd spotted the flashes of red through the tree branches, and abruptly, it was very easy for her to set her own feelings aside for the moment. As far as she knew, there was one person on this island who could produce flashes like that. And Annie should have really anticipated what a hard weekend this would be for her. Shit.

"Wanda?" she called once she spotted her, keeping a little bit of distance for the moment just in case her presence wasn't welcome. Like. She'd super get it.

[scarlet_chaos]

It was really hard to be casual with your powers when it came with red eyes, red hands and red blasts. So Wanda wasn't really surprised when someone found her.

"Yeah," she said, wiping at her face. "Yeah, it's me."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie quirked a little half-smile there -- yes, of course it was you, Wanda. But she hadn't told Annie to get lost, so that was promising, even if it sounded like she was crying.

'Are you okay?' seemed like a stupid question, so Annie thrust her hands in her pockets as she wound a little closer and considered an alternative. "Do you want to be alone?"

[scarlet_chaos]

Wanda shook her head. "Feels like being alone is the problem."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"No one warned you about this weekend," Annie guessed, worrying her lower lip. "Your boys came?"

That seemed so wildly unfair, if they'd shown up. The island showing you kids you had had seemed so different from kids you might have. A concrete past rather than a possible future.

[scarlet_chaos]

Wanda nodded again. "Yeah, they did. I thought--I thought maybe..."

She thought maybe she'd get something nice for once.

"It's not fair," Wanda croaked out before starting to cry again.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Oh, no, it isn't," Annie agreed, rushing over to slip an arm around Wanda's shoulders, if she'd let her. "It isn't supposed to show you kids you've -- lost. I didn't think it did, anyway. I'm so sorry, Wanda."

[scarlet_chaos]

Wanda was grateful for the contact, leaning into Annie's hold. "I just--I always thought there was a chance I could get them back. To get them back and have it not be real...I don't know if I can take this."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"They're supposed to be a possible future," Annie said softly, stubbornly optimistic. "Maybe that means you do get them back, somewhere."

Or that she'd never lost them in the first place, in some version of the universe. Maybe Vision was alive there, too.

[scarlet_chaos]

"But not here," she said. "Letting them go was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. The island rubbing it in my face is just cruel."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Letting them go was new information, but Annie wasn't going to press it just now. "Maybe the island was trying to give you a gift," she tried, rubbing a soothing hand over Wanda's back. "More time with them."

Seventy-two hours wasn't a lot, but Annie could see it being precious in Wanda's position.

[scarlet_chaos]

"Gifts shouldn't hurt this much," she said, wiping at her eyes again. "Once Steve told me they'd be leaving, it was all I could think about. If I had more time...I don't know, maybe I could have prepared or left the island or something."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"You would have rather not seen them at all?" Annie asked carefully, mostly just in an effort to try to help Wanda work through what she was feeling.

[heroic_jawline]

Steve recognized those blasts, which was why he was giving Wanda a little bit of space by texting You okay? while loitering just outside of the woods after he and Tony put Morgan back through the portal.

[scarlet_chaos]

Not really.

Obvious answer, really.

Just hurting some innocent branches. Just in case Steve was worried something worse was happening.

[heroic_jawline]

Care more about you than the trees, Steve sent back. Up for company?

[scarlet_chaos]

Always. No, seriously, always. She was terrible when left alone

She shot up a blast into the air. Just follow the red.

[heroic_jawline]

On my way, Steve sent, already jogging into the woods.

"Hey there," he said a few moments later.

[scarlet_chaos]

"Hey," Wanda said quietly from where she was leaning against a tree. "So I could go without that ever happening again, for the record."

[heroic_jawline]

"It's not my favorite weekend, either," Steve agreed. "I'm sorry it brought you so much pain."

[scarlet_chaos]

"You'd think you would be able to get used to this feeling after the first couple times," Wanda said. "But it hurts just as bad as the first time it happens."

[heroic_jawline]

Steve nodded. "Worse, sometimes. It's reopening an old wound."

[scarlet_chaos]

"Yeah," she agreed with a nod. "You think you're putting up all of these walls to protect yourself and then--bam--you're starting over again."

[heroic_jawline]

"With twice the paranoia that it'll happen again," Steve said quietly. He blew out a breath. "Since today's already terrible, let me warn you about another weekend: sometimes the dead pay a visit, too."

[scarlet_chaos]

"Oh that I already experienced. Pietro came," Wanda said. "That was different, somehow. I guess because he died? I saw him die."

No, that weirdo in Westview didn't count.

"The boys--I made them. And I sent them away...somewhere. And I think they're safe but I don't know."