[OPEN] Can the city forgive;

[mindbend]

Who: Wanda Maximoff & you!
Where: Training Center & Magic Training Room
When: 10/21
Rating: PG?
Summary: Slowly but steadily, Wanda is learning to trust herself and her powers as well as her teammates, but there's always room for more practice.
The Story:

[The morning of the 21st finds Wanda in the Training Center shortly after breakfast. It's still empty when she gets there, although she's sure it won't stay that way for long-- she expects people to trickle in throughout the course of the day, teammates and other Wonderland residents alike, but she likes it best when it's quiet. Over time, she's improved when it comes to working with her teammates, but she still feels safest when she has the opportunity to practice alone. She hasn't had any accidents since arriving in Wonderland, but she still doesn't quite trust herself-- or how much stronger her powers seem to be than she first realized.

She spends the better part of the morning training with the targets provided, flinging hex bolts of various sizes and strengths, testing and aiming to refine her control over distance and impact as well as aim. Steve was right when he told her that she would learn more when there was another party involved, especially when it came to having to think on her feet, but she maintains that there are certain things she can only do by herself, things that can only be properly tested and practiced in a controlled environment.

Late in the morning, one of her bolts goes rogue and damages one of the dummies she'd been practicing on more severely than she'd intended. Grimacing, she levitates the target itself from its post and detaches it, bringing it to her rather than walking over to investigate, turning it over in mid-air before she passes a hand over its body, focusing until the metal itself begins to bend itself back into shape, mending.

The rest of her training goes mostly without incident, and after lunch she dips into the Magic Training Room. While she doesn't have any lessons planned with Billy today, she's been meaning to take the time to spend an hour or two looking through some of the books in the collection he's assembled during his time in Wonderland. As it turns out, she ends up staying there for the better part of the afternoon, and can be found either perusing the shelves, investigating potion reagents, or sitting in front of the fire with one of the books she's helped herself to.]

Comments

[mindbend]

She shakes her head once more, discouraging him-- it was not Brennan's responsibility to know things that were beyond his ken, or to carefully navigate around them. Besides, shying away from the loss-- it would have been a disservice to her brother and what he had sacrificed.

"Whether or not you had brought it up, it would have been on my mind regardless," she tells him, her smile faint and unquestionably grim. "The loss of your other half is one not easily forgotten. Twins are never meant to be apart."

[outofthebreach]

"I have siblings that are twins. A few years older than me," he offers with an understanding smile, a lingering hint of sadness in his own gaze. "I think I understand, a little. I'm sorry for your loss. And for reminding you of it, even inadvertently."

[mindbend]

"Thank you." Her response is brief, succinct, but the smile she offers him as thanks is genuine. "He died a hero. People say that like it makes things better-- but I do not think it does." She pauses, closing the book she'd previously held open on her lap. "You do not need to apologize, though the thought is-- appreciated. You did not know."

[outofthebreach]

"Maybe it makes things better for him, if he's listening somewhere. Which he probably is, since I imagine not even death would change his desire to watch over his twin, if you were as close as you say," Brennan answers gently, leaning forward a little until his arms rest atop his knees to support him.

[mindbend]

"It is nice to think so-- a pretty thought," Wanda confesses, "But this is not our world. As much as I would like to believe it is possible... I don't feel him here."

And in life or death, she's certain that she would.

[outofthebreach]

"What we experience here seems to be at the whims of this place's magic - a fickle thing at best, I'm finding," Brennan answers, shaking his head. "The magic here doesn't follow any rules but it's own. Just because you can't feel him doesn't mean he can't sense you. Not to mention, this place doesn't seem constrained by time, or life and death, or so I've been told. Although to be honest, I'm not sure that would make things better or worse."