• OPEN •

[carmesi]

Who: wanda maximoff + others
When: september/october
Where: solvunn, horizon, nocwich
What: catch-all for the month! including quest, and general top-levels for solvunn. horizon threads based on request! additionally, she'll be in nocwich teaching high magic basics.
Warnings: blood??

Comments

[falcony]

[ they're the little things at this point - something easy to wear around the house. something he doesn't have to spent twenty minutes lacing up or worry about the durability of fabric. honestly, if wanda does decide to do anything, sam would absolutely be taken by surprise. he's given up on those comforts of home by this point.

but no, he hasn't done a lot of lounging lately. it's hard to find the time when he's so worried about...well. everything. everyone. but today, this evening, right now - right now, this is probably as close to a lounging evening that sam gets. ]

We knew that when she got here. And we'll know it if she shows up again, too.

[ sam hates that there is something...not quite flat, exactly, but experienced in how he says it. how much it hurts to see these people that he cares so much about coming, and going, and sometimes coming back again with no memories of what's happened.

wanda pulls back to look at him proper and sam takes the change to look back at her, too. he sees the pain in her eyes, something she can probably see in his too, but his attention catches on something else instead. because it's probably the exact moment he really sees the little things she might have been trying to hide - how exhausted she is, the circles under her eyes, the fact she's a bit thinner than he last remembers. sam frowns, about to say something about it, when wanda asks about the beer.

he snorts, then nods. ] Yes, I'm buying. And if I gotta carry you back to the inn for the night I can do that too.

[ he's not worried about the tab tonight. ]

[carmesi]

Must be nice to make so much coin over in the Cities.

[she says lightly, pulling away from tugging at the scab of natasha’s leaving. they’ll have plenty of time to ponder over that in the following hours, she’s sure.

wanda moves towards a stool, and sits on it, leaning against the table, boots kicking up some dirt.]

You know, I don’t think I’ve ever gotten drunk. Pietro was enough of a warning for me not to go hard on drinks.

I’d rather Matt didn’t think of me as a drunk either, thanks.

[falcony]

You think I have coin? Girl, this is all favor and work based. I helped these guys out with the construction a couple months back so now they go easy on me when it comes to tabs.

[ sam follows her, easily and with enthusiasm. because while a good part of this meeting was for the chance for the two of them to grieve together, to not be alone in the knowledge that nat is gone and they, in some timeline in some other world, are the ones of their family left standing, he also. is pretty alright with simply seeing her.

so she heads to a stool and settles and sam goes to take the one across from her. the pitcher arrives a couple of moments later - sam thanks the werewolf before turning back to wanda. ]

I'm sorry- stop. Wait. You've never been drunk? Ever? I mean- [ he pours them both a drink, waving at the exact moment he expects her to interject. ] I know, I know, I'm just surprised you never tried at any of the Avengers parties. Or just, ever. Getting drunk to know what it's like and being a drunk are also super different. You should try it once.

[carmesi]

I’m just saying—

[she starts, not wanting to get a lecture from sam; there’s laughter in her voice.]

We don’t get coins for working in Solvunn, you know. You don’t have to show off how nice you are anyway.

[that’s what she meant with it being nice to get coin, for solvunn is almost strictly a bartering community. she shoves at sam a bit, offers him a smile, and then they’re both seated. her eyebrows raise at his surprise, knowing this was something sam was going to zone in on.]

It’s just not for me. [she takes the glass with ale, but doesn’t bring it close to her lips.] Who knows what drunk me would do with all my powers, you know.

[and, perhaps, there’s a bit of a worry there, too—what if she did more damage than good, if she wasn’t entirely in control?]

[falcony]

[ and sam, because he hears the laughter from wanda, very dramatically puts a hand to his heart - a bit like he's being shot, a bit like he's just giving her shit. ]

Me? Showing off? I'd never. [ she shoves him, and sam just grins through it, the two of them finding a spot to settle as the conversation shifts to something else entirely.

and yes, wanda has every reason to be wary. it makes sense why she's never tried it out. still, sam shrugs. ] Fair- it's not for everyone, and I can understand why you'd be worried. But if you did ever have the urge, we could always find a way to make sure you're safe. You should get to try these things if you want to- but I won't pressure you, that is not my goal here.

[carmesi]

—you're totally the "cool" [at this, she does raise her hands to do the air quotes with her fingers; totally teasing!] uncle that says that you'll try weed with his nephews so that they don't try it first with strangers, aren't you?

[she says all that before he's even done talking, trying to bring the conversation to — something else, apparently.]

You know, [she says, bringing a hand down and around her glass of ale] Pietro would drink so much until he threw up. You could smell the peach schnapps in his vomit.

[sam never got to meet pietro, but her brother's presence was heavy in the avengers compound for as long as wanda grieved for him. her words right now, though, are light—just remembering a fond (albeit gross) memory.]

That is another reason why I never want to get stupid drunk.

[and with that, she takes a sip of her ale.]

[falcony]

Hey- [ there's a complicated sort of emotion that wells up in his chest. the first is that he feels incredibly called out. the fact wanda knows, nearly word for word, something sam's thought about extensively is both nice (to be understood) and a little unnerving (she didn't read his mind, did she? not that he'd care, but.) and second, tucked somewhere deeper in his chest, is the realization that between his years on the run, the blip, and now abraxas - sam's probably missed out on that exact opportunity. if not for aj, then definitely for cass.

so sam's smile is there, and trying to hold on, but there's a waver. of lost time, of lost opportunities, of the complicated sort of understanding for himself that his insistence on trying to put it on wanda comes entirely from knowing he won't. be able to have that chance back home. ] I am always cool.

[ the mention of pietro catches sam's attention, and he listens. not intently, exactly, but with some focus. care. it's the mention of peach schnapps, though, that has his face screwing up a bit and his head shaking. ] No thank you- had my time with schnapps, we didn't get along. But I don't blame you- not with that experience.

[ sam laughs a little and shakes his head into his own ale. ] Let me guess- you were the caretaker?

[carmesi]

[almost as soon as she says it, as sam reacts, wanda feels compelled to apologize. of course sam would say that kind of stuff to his nephews, except he hasn’t—and might not—get the chance to create those memories with them. it’s a similar kind of pain, to not getting to see her own boys grow up.]

—yeah. [she says, faintly, looking to the side.] Someone had to be.

[wanda is more than certain that sam and the other avengers got a pretty detailed briefing of what things were like in sokovia, but it’s a matter of figuring if they wanted to read about it.]

Pietro took care of some things, and I took care of him.

[they had to grow up rather quickly.

and, suddenly, she’s bursting back to their previous topic of conversation.]

I didn’t mean it like that. About your nephews. [she quiets down a bit, then frowns, looking down at the table.] We all lost so much time with everything that didn’t stop happening, and you had a home to return to.

[it’s all a different kind of pain, and she doesn’t want to feel like she said something she shouldn’t have, or to think that she could have apologized but didn’t.]

[falcony]

[ someone had to be and sam just nods in agreement. he was definitely a part of the briefings about sokovia, but truthfully, he didn't really delve into the depths of wanda's past as it had been researched. there was something sam couldn't bring himself to do, something about reading a report on her and her brother feeling like he was accepting the government's want to turn them into subjects rather than people-

maybe that was a failing on his part, not wanting to know everything about wanda's life out of a courier new style font. but other than the bigger points, he didn't. he learned about them from her, whether through stories or otherwise. he picked up on enough, did know how quickly she had to grow up, did know to some degree the life she came from. ]

You're good at that. [ he says with a nod. ] Taking care of people.

[ when she mentions his nephews, sam has to blink, briefly wondering what it was he said before he remembers that it doesn't have to be about what he said. that wanda doesn't need words for that. he shakes his head. ] No, I know you didn't. Sometimes- I don't know. Sorry. They're never really far from my mind. [ a blessing, in a lot of ways, and sometimes it's something a bit harder. ]

I did have a home to come back to. I know I was a lot luckier than most. Am.