out into the unknown (march catch-all)

[funbreaker]

Who: Thancred Waters & others
When: Throughout March
Where: Thorne & the Horizon
What: Eclipse stuff, quest stuff, Horizon stuff, anything and everything.
Warnings: Will add if something comes up.


[ Starters will be placed in comments below! If you'd like to do anything with Thancred this month, please reach out at demonology, demonology#1725 on Discord, or by PM. ]

Comments

[carmesi]

[thancred doesn't have to say anything; he could go, leave her alone. he could even ask her to leave, but it's his reaction that speaks much about the type of person he is, willing to welcome a stranger into his domain and allow them the room to cry, even when it should be none of his business.

wanda feels the surroundings shift around her, the crackling of the campfire gone, and she raises her head in time to see his offers. allowing her to stay.

sympathy in a drink and a handkerchief.

she reaches for the latter, to cover her face with it, momentarily. swallows hard when he puts his hand on her shoulder. fingers curl on the kerchief that's covering the lower side of her face, eyes red, giving him small nods in response to his words.

in abraxas, she's simply wanda, another one of the summoned. not the scarlet witch, doomed to bring destruction upon the universe, not a sokovian refugee, not an avenger turned fugitive. there is solidarity where it was difficult to find before, unable as she was to hide her background and her mistakes. she reaches for the glass, if just to keep her hands occupied.]

His name... was Steve. He was like a brother to me, especially when Pietro... [a shaky breath, drowned by putting her lips to the glass, taking a small sip. she swallows, bringing the glass down to her lap.] I hope they both — knew, how I felt.

[funbreaker]

[ As she offers up not only one name, but two, Thancred retreats to sink into the seat across from her. He doesn't want to hover and overwhelm her. He understands that she's sharing more than she might have if she hadn't reached that terrible breaking point when you couldn't hold back your emotions any longer.

Pietro must be her brother, and while she doesn't outright say it, there's a heavy implication that he's gone. Taken from her much too early. ]

I've lost someone as well. [ His voice is quiet, yet calm. He reaches out to run his fingers over the grain on the table, more as a means to give his hands something to do than anything else. ] She was something like a sister to me. Not by blood, but... [ In many ways, it hadn't mattered. They hadn't been raised together, and even after meeting he'd still had to exist apart from her in many ways, yet he'd wanted to look after her like a younger sibling.

He'd done his best to do so, even if he'd ultimately failed her.

He glances up, meets Wanda's red-rimmed eyes, and lets out a breath. ] I did get closure of a sort, with her. [ It had not been quite what he'd wanted, not when Minfilia hadn't been completely herself anymore, but it was arguably more than he'd deserved. And he would hold her words close until the end of his days. ] I may not know you well, Wanda, but you've shown me kindness in this short time. I have no doubt that they both knew how much they meant to you.

[carmesi]

[she hopes those words he says are true. it's one thing to assume that they did, but it's another to have that closure, that i know. similarly to when she lost vision, painful as it was, hearing his last words being that he loved her brings her solace now—after thanos, after westview.

wanda knows of the impossibility of getting such a thing in this world, even if she clings to the idea that one day—perhaps—steve might return, or even pietro could, if dead men like tony stark can be brought back. she dreams and wishes for the impossibility of her perfect life, thanks to the summoning, bringing the real vision, and even her sons, no binding to the hex involved.

she brings the glass close to her lips and takes a sip from it, then lets the cup rest on the table.]

Do you ever wonder about the past of those Summoned? I may have shown you kindness, but perhaps I am not someone you should entirely consider as just that.

[steve knew about her past and her mistakes, and he never judged her. but it was steve rogers, perhaps the kindest man on earth.]

[funbreaker]

[ It's a sudden question with a clear warning in it, that Wanda is perhaps not all that she's made herself out to be in this first meeting. Not that Thancred would ever assume he could obtain a true sense of someone from one conversation, but he does consider himself a decent judge of character.

More than that, he knows all too well the mistakes people can make as they continue down their path, and he isn't here to render judgment for such things. He's failed himself, far too many times, to expect anyone else to be without their flaws. ]

Of course I wonder. That's natural, isn't it? Yet I've been through enough to know that you can't expect someone to always be their best self. I've certainly gone through my ups and downs.

[ He's not giving exact details, and he doubts that Wanda will either. They've shared plenty with each other already, but how deep do they want to dig when she's already navigating through a rough patch?

After a pause, he cants his head until he can meet her downcast eyes and then lifts his drink up toward her, from across the table. ]

We've come out on the other side. Might we drink to that, at least?

[carmesi]

[thancred may never truly understand just how much his words mean to her, nor how much they certainly sound like something steve would say. it brings comfort where perhaps she didn't expect to find any, and there is solace in the fact that, somehow, tendrils of fate dragged her here in this moment, in this place, to meet a man that reminds her so much of the one she considered her brother at a time.

she picks up her glass and nods, taking a sip.

it's more about the gesture in the horizon.]

Thank you. You didn't need to — spend time with me or be nice to me, after I basically intruded into your space. I won't forget your kindness.