WHO: Charles Xavier and Wanda Maximoff WHAT: Telepathy WHEN: This afternoon WHERE: Starbucks WARNINGS: Nah STATUS: Closed/Completed Gdoc
The number of mutants and powered people in this town surprised Charles. He wasn’t used to people being so open about it. In his world, it was something that they had to hide for reasons of safety. Mutants who were well known to be so found it difficult to lead a normal life, or faced persecution because of their differences.
But here...it was not so. People with all sorts of strange abilities - even mythological ones like werewolves and vampires - walked around freely with no fear of anyone finding out what they were. They held jobs. They had relationships. They were free. Really, if anything came close to the world that Charles had always dreamed of in his mind (at least in reference to its treatment of mutants) it would be Madison Valley.
This morning he was sitting in Starbucks reading the paper, letting peoples’ thoughts bounce off his mind without thinking about them one way or another. He couldn’t avoid them in a crowded room like this, but it wasn’t like he actually cared or actually listened. But suddenly, one drew his attention. It was a powerful mind, but one that was also blocked off to him - something he’d discovered other telepaths were usually capable of doing. Many times he could break down their walls, but that just seemed rude, and he rarely tried.
Searching around the room, he tried to locate the person, but couldn’t find them. So he retreated inside his mind, sending a message that he knew the other could receive.
Hello, he said politely. Where are you?
***
Wanda still didn’t fully understand all of her abilities or what she was capable of and that frightened her. As a result, she generally kept them very tightly locked down so she didn’t accidentally harm someone. She knew there were a lot of people here who had similar powers and might be able to help her learn better control, but she was busy with school and work and taking care of the boys, so it wasn’t a top priority.
It was finals week, so she stopped by Starbucks before her shift at the Creamery to pick up some coffee so she could study. She was stirring in cream and sugar when another mind touched hers and startled her so much that she knocked the cup over, nearly spilling it everywhere. Instinctively, she reached out with her telekinesis to right it and avoid making a mess.
Uh, hi. Wanda looked around, trying to figure out who was communicating telepathically. When she saw Charles, she relaxed slightly, knowing he was trustworthy. Professor. Shall I join you?
***
Indeed, he said, giving a gentle smile outwardly. That would be lovely.
He knew of Wanda, although he couldn’t say that he knew her well. Still, talking to another telepath (at least a telepath who wasn’t the enemy) was always a joy, and he appreciated the chance to be able to do it.
When she joined him, he made room for her at his table, folding the paper he was reading and putting it aside.
May we speak this way, or would you prefer to speak aloud?
***
This is fine,, she said. I don’t do it often though, so I apologize if I’m rusty.
Frankly, Wanda’s powers frightened her most of the time. They were complex and dangerous and the result of scientific tampering by an unethical, immoral group. They were part of her though, so that meant she needed to accept them and learn not to be afraid of them. When Charles was around previously, they’d started to work on that, but hadn’t gotten very far before he was sent home.
She hadn’t intended to stay here with her drink. Spending a little time with him was worth putting her studying on hold briefly.
***
There is no need for apologies. I don’t mind. And the best way to take care of that issue is to practice. He smiled encouragingly. He’d come across surprisingly few telepaths in his days and it was refreshing to find another.
How long have you had your abilities?
If they were new to her, then the fact she didn’t use them often made sense.
***
It wasn’t so much that they were new as it was that she didn’t entirely trust how she obtained them. Less than a decade, she said. The time she and Pietro spent in custody undergoing experiments was fuzzy and it was difficult to pinpoint with any degree of accuracy. Add to that the odd things that happened with time around here and Wanda couldn’t give a more specific answer.
I am not proud of how I came to have these abilities, she admitted. At the time, it seemed like the right thing to do. Knowing what she did now changed her perception of that.
***
Charles raised an eyebrow curiously. That wasn’t something he was used to. Mutants, in general, were born with their abilities, and while they could come on later in life, that was very much of a rarity.
Would you tell me how you did come by them?
Understanding that would help him to help her, if the time came that she needed help.
***
Wanda sighed a little and sipped her coffee. Rather than trying to explain with words, she closed her eyes and actively remembered the events that led to her and Pietro’s decision to submit to the experimentation and what happened once they did.
Once she was certain he had a good sense of what happened, she stopped thinking about her time in the facility or what happened once she and Pietro left and joined the Avengers.
***
True sympathy showed on Charles’s face as her past played itself before him. It was terrible, what she’d been through. While her decisions might not have been the same as his would have been, they were understandable. The pain she’d suffered as a child had been terrible, and he had known others that when faced with such tragedy had lost faith in humanity as she seemed to have done.
At least temporarily. It didn’t seem like that was the path that Wanda followed now. If it was, there would not have been so much regret tinting every memory.
“I am sorry that happened to you,” he said, and it was empathy, not pity in his words. “But it matters less how you get your powers than how you use them once you have them.”
*** “I am trying to use them to do good,” Wanda said. That didn’t always go the way she hoped, like in Laos, but she was trying. Being an Avenger, even though she was technically a fugitive right now, was something she was proud of and she wanted to help people that couldn’t help themselves.
Spending time with Steve Rogers was good for inspiring people to do good things.
She gave him a slightly rueful smile over the rim of her coffee cup. “To be honest, I don’t use them much here.” Except when weird things happened.
***
“Do you wish to use them more?” He asked. If she didn’t, then he certainly wouldn’t pressure her one way or the other. But if she did, he could help her to find peace with them, as he had so many times before.
“Or is it fear that keeps you from using them?”
***
Fear was a large part of the reason she didn’t use them a lot. Which was ironic given that one of her abilities was being able to see what others feared the most. Wanda knew her gifts were powerful and potentially harmful though and she had no desire to hurt anyone.
“I wish to understand them more,” she said. “So that I may use them without fear.”
***
“If you would allow me, I think that I could help you,” he said gently. “Back home, I run a school where I help mutants learn to use their powers. You may not be a mutant, but it is close enough that I think that I could be of use to you. If you wish it.”
He was not pushing her to accept his offer, only making it, sincerely.
***
Wanda hesitated for a moment before nodding. “I think I would like that,” she said. She’d been planning to do that with Charles the last time he was in town, but they hadn’t really gotten started before he was sent back.
“I need to get to work now. I’ll contact you once finals are over and I have a bit more time, if that’s okay.”
***
“Of course,” he nodded, glad that it seemed she would allow him to help. “Contact me whenever you are ready, and if I am still in Madison Valley, I will be glad to help.”
He didn’t see himself leaving any time soon, but with the strange way this town worked, you could never be sure.
***
“Take care, professor,” Wanda said, offering a smile as she stood and picked up her cup so she could go to work.