Over the last couple of weeks Wanda had been doing her best to fit into New Asgard, and helping where she could without using magic. It had been long enough that she felt comfortable here now, and had taken to dressing a little more like the Asgardians and occasionally letting someone do some truly cool braiding with her hair that Wanda would never be able to pull off on her own.

One thing she had been bad at was keeping in touch with people outside of New Asgard. Which was mostly on purpose, though she occasionally felt guilt about it. It was a dick move dropping everyone that fast, but in her mind it was for the best.

It did get lonely at times, like now when she had nothing to do but sit in her little home and try to get lost in a book. But that was the point. She had to learn to accept the loneliness, and not destroy the world in an attempt to remedy herself of it.

[Open for calls/texts/visits/what have you]

Annie and America came leaping through a star-shaped portal, the former immediately grabbing hold of the latter as soon as they landed.

Annie wasn't quite limping yet, as she carelessly grabbed America by the arm to haul her over towards Wanda -- help Wanda -- but she was clearly in pretty bad shape. It had been a long day. Especially since it didn't seem like a real priority to take care with a body you were controlling, and whose pain you couldn't directly feel.

Lot of that going on today, clearly, since Annie also wasn't taking the least bit of care as she manhandled America. (Which, honestly, was probably a pretty good indication that Annie still wasn't driving, if there had been any doubt.)

( Zombie fight )

( Wanda gets what she wants )

[All done (aside from some epilogue-y stuff)! NFI, NFB but OOC is appreciated. Taken from Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and preplayed with the awesome defenderofdesmoines who is my favorite person ever. Not the last you've seen of Wanda which is either a threat or a promise depending on how you look at it]

Wanda had Wong tied up, literally, hanging above her head. Today had not gone as planned, and while she needed to track down Stephen, Annie and America, first, she had to check on her boys. There was the possibility America had taken them to their universe, and Wanda was not ready for Stephen to come knocking on the other Wanda's door and warning her.

The Darkhold was opened to the page on Dreamwalking, something Wanda hadn't yet tried. Before, it wasn't a line she hadn't been willing to cross, but now, she had to be sure.

So she focused, and let Kamar-Taj fade away as she concentrated on finding the universe with her boys in it and, more specifically, their version of her.

( Doing some Dreamwlaking nbd )

( Ever find a temple dedicated to yourself? )

[All done for today. NFI, NFB but OOC is always appreciated. Preplayed with myself and taken from Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Warning for NPC violence, specifically against fan favorite Wong]

The second attempt to send a demon to get America for her went just about as well as the first. Actually, it had gone worse, considering Stephen was still alive at the end of it.

Wanda knew Stephen and Wong weren't stupid; they would be able to figure out the demon had been made from witchcraft. As far as she knew, she was the only witch around. So a visit from everyone's favorite sorcerer wasn't unexpected shortly after her demon had been defeated.

It at least gave her the chance to put an overlay on her apartment, making it seem like she hadn't been messing around with dark magic over the last few months and totally ignoring any upkeep.

( This does not go smoothly )

[NFI, NFB but OOC is fine. Preplayed with myself (Strange on island with permission!) and taken from Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness]

Wanda had known she had been getting closer to finding the person she needed. The one person that had the power to cross the multiverse, which had been the only thing Wanda wanted for months. Ever since she started being tortured with the dreams of Tommy and Billy every night.

Now she was as close as she had ever been -- flipping through images of the multiverse that the Darkhold showed her, only just barely missing them until they blipped into the next universe--until today. Today the person just...stopped moving for a moment. Long enough for Wanda to see her. A young girl in a jean jacket, just casually eating pizza like she had no clue that she held the key to Wanda's happiness.

Well hello, America Chavez.

[And here we go. NFI, NFB but OOC is fine]

It had taken weeks of studying to figure it out -- the Darkhold seemed to only want to show you something on its own schedule, or if the reader wanted it bad enough. A few months ago, Wanda would have questioned this, would have recognized it as blatant manipulation. As it was, she was so preoccupied with the glimpses she was getting of her children that she didn't seem to realize that what started off as curiosity had slowly turned into a single-minded obsession.

Wanda knew that her dreams were windows into the multiverse, she knew that somewhere out there her boys existed. They had seemed happy, wherever they were, but it wasn't enough for her. She had lost them before; she wasn't about to let their fate be left in the hands of someone who wasn't her--even another version of her.

So she had a goal. Get to the other universe where her boys were and get them back. The only problem was she had no idea how in the hell to get through the multiverse. Turned out Portalocity wasn't a wish-granting device that could obey the direction of "take me to where my kids are". So another solution had to be found.

She knew the answer was somewhere in the Darkhold. The more she read, the less answers the book seemed to give, which was just making her more angry and desperate. Unfortunately, that was exactly what the book wanted.

[The usual 'slow descent into madness' post ABC's apply here -- NFI, NFB but OOC is good]

It had been a weekend of studying, which rolled into Monday morning. Wanda hadn't even realized she had been engrossed in the book so long. It was fascinating, all of the things she could learn, the power she could have, if she trained properly.

Suddenly, though, voices broke her concentration. Children's voices, familiar voices--

"Mom, help!" Tommy's voice cried out.

Billy's followed, "Mom, please, they're hurting us!"

Wanda's grasp on the Darkhold loosened, the book falling to the floor. She whipped her head around, looking frantically for where the voices had come from. But her apartment was empty, like it always was. But she heard their voices. She did.

She looked down at the Darkhold, which had fallen open to the chapter on the multiverse again, and shook her head. She needed to get some sleep.

[NFI, NFB, OOC is fine]

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]

Wanda had woken up tiny, brunette and alone, but that was fine by her. There were frozen waffles and a toaster, which her 10 year old self could handle just fine. Even better, she turned on the TV to find it already set on a channel that played the old sitcoms her mom and dad played for her and Pietro.

It was entirely possible older Wanda never strayed far from that channel.

The Brady Bunch was playing, waffles were made and Wanda shot off some messages to people on her phone to come and join her in the Saturday morning fun.

Somewhere in space, Carol Danvers was very confused.

[If you think Wanda has your number, she likely sent you a text to watch TV with her. Open!]