OTHERWORDLY.

[yoloed]

Otherwordly Meme

Sometimes all you need is a word to spark off an idea.

1. Post a comment with your character's name, canon, and any preferences you may have (no shipping, no smut, etc.)

2. Leave the comment blank or post a word or two in the body.

It may also help if you list scenarios you would like to play.

3. Reply to other people, either with words you picked out, or words they posted as prompts for a thread.

( A cleanup of the previous Otherwordly Meme. )

Comments

wanda maximoff ( mcu )

[allages]

[nostalgiabomb]

1 | 2 | 3

[allages]

[ the sky is grey the day wanda leaves earth - not the dark and ominous kind that comes before a thunderstorm, just grey and monochrome, bland in a way. maybe it's fitting - there is nothing holding her here anymore. bright blue and sunshine would have felt like a mockery somehow. she'd tried, after everything: she'd tried being an avenger, she'd tried reparing the damage she'd done, but the immutable truth is that her brother is not coming back, and every moment she spends here is just a reminder of his death.

pietro had been everything, and now she's only oe half of a whole.

maybe out in space, things will be easier - and so when the guardians of the galaxy and the avengers team up for the first time, she talks to steve and then she takes peter's offer - something he'd said half jokingly, "we could use someone like you"- and follows him to his ship. she sits in the co-pilot's seat, now, hands folded in her lap, subdued and hopeful at the same time. ]

Where are we going?

[nostalgiabomb]

[ Peter's first trip back home -- well, he had hoped it would be on his terms, in his own time, but things never pan out so nicely. Mostly it involved a lot of busting through several no-fly zones and ignoring more than a couple of interplanetary treaties. He's pretty sure he ran a few red lights, too.

But it had been worth it, in the end, to race ahead of the invading Badoon fleet, worth it to team up with the Avengers, worth it to meet the Captain America and protect what was once his home. The streets of L.A. were damaged, sure, but the loss of life had been almost nothing; with the Guardians' warnings, they were able to evacuate the city with time to spare before the Badoon touched down. After that, the fighting had been brutal -- and it's still mostly a blur to Peter, who worked exclusively on adrenaline and a fair amount of caffeine all through that day.

Wanda -- code name Scarlet Witch -- had saved his life by taking out Badoons leaping at him from his blind spot. The fourth occasion, he had tossed it out: "We could use someone like you." Granted, it was also preceded by, "Oh my God, I love you right now," so he was surprised when she actually took him up on his offer.

Then again, he was also not idiot enough to turn her down, and so here they are. The Guardians' modus operandi is not to stay around too long. Get in, fix the problem, get out. So Peter's still sporting some bandages and bruises from the brawl in L.A. His right arm is wrapped securely -- a sprained wrist, which he had evidently been just shy of actually breaking -- as he reaches over to tap at a screen. ]

Headed to Xandar first. I imagine Nova Prime's gonna want to slap our wrists for ignoring her orders. [ He pauses, then shoots Wanda a quick reassuring smile. ]

You'll like it there. It's like, all glass and chrome and fountains. Chic.

[allages]

[ there is a saying in the military that no plan survives enemy contact. wanda isn't familiar with the saying, but she's very much familiar with the sentiment. any plan she'd had to protect her country, to get revenge on tony stark and keep him from doing what he'd done to her brother and her to anyone else had not survived for long after meeting the avengers, though it hadn't been due to their actions so much as it had been due to ultron's intent, more far-reaching than anticipated.

sometimes, a bigger threat means you have to become allies with your enemies, doesn't it? and now she is an avenger, or perhaps she isn't anymore because she is in a spaceship and flying towards a world that she has never seen or heard of before. it's a fresh start.

he offered her that fresh start, and wanda has seen inside his head: he is a good man, or a little good and a little bad, and that is something she can relate to. so she smiles at him, now. ] Any place that is not rubble and destruction is chic to me.

[ the word sits oddly on her tongue, chic. how strange that even in space, everyone speaks english better than she does. ]

[nostalgiabomb]

[ Peter doesn't know all of Wanda's reasoning for leaving with him on the Milano; all he knows is that kind of firepower isn't the kind one can turn down easily. So he said, Fuck yes, let's go, and here they are.

But he knows all about wanting a fresh start, wanting to forge a new life after the universe kept tossing piles and piles of shit on him. So he would understand, at least. He was only a kid when Mom died, but the second it happened? He instantly knew he needed to get away as fast as possible. But then again, his leaving didn't come without regrets that grew and grew over time, which is why Peter pauses as he's fiddling with a control panel, turns to look at her with a concerned gaze. ]

You sure you wanna do this? You're gonna be a long way from home for a while.

[allages]

I lost my home when my brother died.

[ because that is the truth of it: earth is not her home, pietro had been, and pietro is dead. it's simply stated, for all that it's a devastating truth, perhaps the sinle one defining truth of her life now.

it used to be that she'd always have her brother; now it's that she doesn't. ]

[nostalgiabomb]

[ Ah.

Peter nods slowly, turns his attention back to the control panel to plug in their coordinates. This trip back to Earth had been spent mostly shoring up defenses and coming up with battle plans. Not much room for learning much about each other.

He takes a breath, and with a few gestures, he engages the autopilot. They've got plenty of time before they reach Xandar. ]

I'm sorry. About your brother, I mean. [ Peter Quill's never really been one for condolences, unfortunately, so the delivery is slightly awkward, though earnest. ] Did you-- if you want me not to bring him up, I can do that. And I can let everyone else know, too.

[allages]

It's fine.

[ it isn't, of course, or at least the fact that her brother is dead is not fine and never will be. people mentioning him, though - that does not bother her because any mention of pietro is not like pressing on a bruise that doesn't otherwise hurt. his death is a gaping wound that she feels constantly, and so any mention would not be a reminder of pain, will not add to the hurt already felt.

his condolences are a little awkward, but wanda can see the sincerity behind the words. softly: ] Thank you.

[ for more than just the condolences, really. for taking her away, for giving her an opportunity - ]

[nostalgiabomb]

[ Rather than answer her thanks aloud, Peter just nods again. Hard to say "you're welcome," when he knows that, in a way, she's trying to run from a pain that won't fade, will probably never go away. Peter knows how that sadness and that ache of loss just coalesces in one's gut, a weight that's always present. He knows what it's like, and he knows how impossible it is to escape -- he had, after all, been trying to do the very same for twenty-six years.

So instead of accepting her thanks, he stands, offers her a hand. ]

C'mon. I haven't given you the grand tour yet.

[allages]

[she knows that too. she knows how sadness can linger; she's made people see their worst fears and been in enough corners of the minds of others that it's something she'd understand even if she wasn't faced with the reality of it herself now. some wounds will fade with him, but never go away.

pietro was half of her soul; of course it won't go away. but at least she will not need to look the reminder of the events leading to his death in the face every day. ]

I am - how do they say? [ she says it with a twisted little smile, because the words are pietro's, not her own. ] All ears.

leaves you more

[speedtrap]

[allages]

[ it's drizzling, a fine rain that keeps on falling, and the sky is grey and dark with it, heavy with the drops that haven't fallen yet. she's in upstate new york and this is a new life, and it could be the way that she buried her brother, but it isn't.

he died, but he didn't stay dead, and so she doesn't have reason to mourn him — and yet, she cannot stop thinking about that moment, the pain of losing him and of how it had felt like her heart was being ripped from her chest, how she'd lost a part of herself, if only temporarily.

so the weather suits, in a way. she could be inside, standing with him and the other avengers, this new team that they have joined, but she does not want to be around people now, so she is outside, her leather jacket wrapped tightly around her upper body, head tilted forward to protect her eyes from the rain. ]

[speedtrap]

[He died but he didn't stay that way. It's a weird feeling. He feels like he doesn't deserve to be here. He feels distanced from everyone on the team and like he doesn't belong because he's not right. Despite the assurances from the others, it doesn't seem to sink into his head. Pietro is a ghost and he knows the only thing holding him here is Wanda.

Here being with the Avengers, in New York, on this planet.

He notices when she slips outside, pretends like he doesn't and keeps on training with the others until the are given a break and then Pietro disappears too. It's easy for the Maximoff twins. She can turn minds the other way and he moves faster than the eye can see. If they wanted, they would never have to be seen again.

Who wants to see a ghost? Maybe that is the better question.]

Wanda. [His voice his quiet, but then he stops so close to her that he doesn't need to raise it.] What's wrong?