Billy Kaplan (actualdemiurge) wrote in soulboundic, @ 2020-02-06 18:05:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !log / thread, -player: chele, -player: mena, billy kaplan / wiccan (616), wanda maximoff / scarlet witch (mcu) |
Who: Billy Kaplan & Wanda Maximoff
What: Meeting, talking, finding family
When: mid-January some time [backdated]
Where: Coffee O'Clock
Rating: Low
Status: Complete
Wanda was getting used to being outside of her apartment. It was easy, the first week after her arrival to be secluded, but she knew she couldn’t keep up with it forever. Sooner or later her friends would notice and push her to get out, she could imagine, easily, the lecture she would get from Steve if she continued to shut out the world. Agreeing to get coffee with Billy was an easy decision. He was nice and she enjoyed the few conversations they have had before, and it wouldn’t hurt to get to know more people.
Coffee O'Clock was a good place, it was quickly becoming a favorite of hers. At the moment she was holding an iced coffee, after taking a drink she smiled at Billy. “This place might still be strange but at least they have good coffee.” She paused for a brief moment. “Thank you for inviting me, turns out I can be lured out of my apartment with the promise of coffee.”
Billy bit back on his like mother, like son comment. He and the Wanda in his world had a few similar quirks when it came to hot chocolate and some other drinks or foods that indicated more of a familial connection that was lacking in the biological arena. He wasn’t sure what to make of a Wanda that wasn’t his Wanda, it was weird. A lot about this place was weird.
“I can go anywhere as long as it’s got good coffee,” he said honestly which wasn’t a lie. Billy’s caffeine addiction had only gotten worse since giving up and then quitting quitting superheroism. Some days he was pretty sure he was more caffeine than person. He leaned his elbows on the table and looked over the table at her. She was pretty, and much younger than the Wanda he knew. Still, there was familiarity with her and that in itself was comforting. “How’re you finding it here?”
Wanda smiled. “I know that feeling.” She didn’t consider herself to have any kind of addiction towards coffee, but she certainly had a fondness for it. As she looked back at him, there was something there that Wanda couldn’t quite place. Natasha especially had trained her to be perceptive and how to read people, though with her abilities, she had a natural talent for it anyway. Wanda wasn’t uncomfortable, more curious.
“It’s alright,” she admitted. “I can’t say there’s a lot about this place I dislike, but I suppose we’ll have to wait and see. They didn’t call us here to do nothing, so I guess time will tell if it was worth it, but I have more reasons to like this place than not.” She smiled at him. “What about you? You’re friendly enough and seem to be doing well here. Do you typically settle into strange places easily?”
“I’m not a stranger to reality hopping,” Billy admitted, sipping his drink and then pausing to add more sugar, stirring it in. “I’ve done it more than a few times, it’s part of the job I think,” he smiled a little, “besides, my fiance’s here, so everything’s a little easier when there’s someone you know and trust with you, right?”
Wanda nodded, “Teddy right?” She smiled. “I’ve spoken to him a little, he seems nice. And you’re right, it’s a lot easier having people you know and trust with you. I don’t know how I’d handle being here without any of them.” She paused briefly, unsure how much to tell Billy. She was slow to trust but she got the sense that Billy would be someone that would understand. “Let’s just say things weren’t great back home, and being here feels like it was meant to be, that I needed it. It’s even better knowing that Steve and Natasha are here.” The others too of course, but it was Steve, Natasha, Clint and Sam that really took her in, but the last two weren’t here. Well, a version of Clint was, but he wasn’t the Clint she knew.
Billy smiled a little, “Yeah, I’m not sure how I’d handle being here without anyone I know. There are… there are people here that I know and I’ve worked with but they’re either from a time in my past - like Clint is - or they’re from an alternative reality, like you and your friends are.” His smile turned a little sad at that and he lifted his drink again, taking a sip and just cradling it in his palms. “I’m sorry that things weren’t great for you where you came from,” he told her sincerely, though he could completely sympathise. “I’m glad that being here’s working for you.” He tipped his head, “If you- uh, if you don’t wanna tell me that’s totally fine- but if you don’t mind, what did happen?”
“It’s weird to see Clint,” she admitted. “Knowing he’s not the same Clint I know. He-” She stopped unsure if she wanted to say more but Billy was kind enough to want to listen. “I don’t mind.” Usually she did, but there was something that told her that she didn’t have to be so closed off around Billy.
“I don’t know if you had Ultron in your world but there was a time when my brother and I helped it. At the time we-” She wanted to be careful with her words. “Pietro and I only had each other, our parents were killed and for a long time we blamed Tony and the Avengers by association.” Wanda remembered the anger and pain but also there was a spark that drove to why Wanda and Pietro wanted to help their people, it wasn’t perfect but it was home. “We thought he just wanted the Avengers, and my brother and I were all too willing to help.”
“When I realized Ultron’s true intentions, we left and sided with the Avengers, but Pietro was killed.” Saying out loud, she was surprised by her own calmness. “Steve and Natasha took me in and started to train me as an Avenger along with Sam and Vision.” Saying Vision’s name hurt and she felt her throat dry up.
“A lot happened between now and then, I suppose the most important part was Thanos.” She felt her body tense and her hands clenched into fists.
Billy’s eyes widened a little as he listened to her story and he just nodded, half-reaching out for her but catching himself as they weren’t that familiar yet. He knew Ultron, though he hadn’t been old enough to fight him the first time around (he’d read about him in comic books) and the second time he’d been around the Avengers had done it on their own without the need for the Young Avengers to help.
Of course, any comment about Ultron and her getting powers was overtaken immediately by mention of Thanos.
Proper behaviour be damned, Billy reached across the table and covered her hand with his. “Damn, Wanda, you guys fought Thanos?” He saw her shoulders tense. “You don’t have to- you don’t have to tell me anything about it if you don’t want to. I know who he is, I can’t- I can’t imagine how awful that must have been.”
Wanda glanced down at the table and tapped her fingers on the cup. “It might be good for me, to get this out.” How much could she say? As the words came out of her, she felt as if she was in one of those long montagues from films when you see two people talking about something serious but they don’t show everything being said, just glimpses of the characters and sad ominous music playing.
She told him as much as she knew, Wanda only got caught up on a few things that happened off world, but she told Billy as much as she knew, up until shortly after Vision’s death.
“He only needed the stone from Vision. I tried to stop him, I destroyed the stone but Thanos had what he needed to reverse time and-” Her hand squeezed the handle of her mug. “Vision was in my arms and then nothing. The next thing I knew, it was five years later and we were all called back for another fight. I had a chance, I should have just ended it there but I was blind and arrogant.” Wanda sighed. “Maybe if I hadn’t been, Tony wouldn’t have had to sacrifice himself. It was only after the fight that I found out we lost Natasha too.”
Billy felt his chest clench in sympathy for Wanda. He shook his head, “No- Wanda, that- none of that is your fault.” It sounded, or seemed like, her powers were different in the world she came from. The Wanda that he knew, his mom, would have been able to just twist reality to her whim, the same way he could. He covered her hand again, just gently squeezing her fingers before letting go.
“I’m so sorry, Wanda,” he said. “That’s a lot of loss to deal with. I’m- I’ve never had to fight Thanos, but I- I’m sure you did everything you could and that has to be enough. But none of that, not what happened to Stark or Natasha, is your fault.”
Deep down Wanda knew Billy was right, but it wasn’t easy to convince herself. “Thank you, I appreciate you saying so.” She gave him a small smile. Wanda truly did appreciate Billy’s kindness and it was nice to have someone that didn’t see her as a ticking time bomb. Or to at least see past it.
“Did-” She paused for a moment. “Did she have similar struggles? I mean the version of me in your world?” Wanda wanted to fight against the question, there was a part of her that wasn’t sure if she wanted to know, but she couldn’t help herself. Knowing there was another Wanda Maximoff out there, it made her feel like she wasn’t completely alone, that there was someone out there who would understand her.
Billy understood feeling guilty for things, the main difference as far as he could see was that the things he felt guilty for he had actually done, though it had been an accident he had actually done it. He wet his lower lip and nodded, “I mean it, but you’re welcome.”
He leaned back when she asked him about his Wanda. He didn’t speak for a moment, trying to figure out how to best word an answer to her question without it being completely morale shattering. He just nodded, first. “Wanda in my world… she has different powers to you but yeah, she has similar problems. And so do I.” Like mother, like son. “So I understand.”
Different powers? That certainly caught her interest. “Different how? To be honest, I’m entirely sure what I’m capable of. It seems like I’m still learning every day, pushing boundaries. I can do a lot.” She motioned with her hand again. “But I don’t know where it ends.”
“Both Wanda and I have similar powers,” Billy said, after another moment’s pause. “Reality warping, kind of. Do you have… I mean, do you have anything like that? Power wise? She can use her powers like telekinesis, so can I.” Billy had a lot of other powers too that he knew Wanda didn’t, but that was part of him being the future Demiurge and all that and he spent a lot of time trying not to think about but it crept in all the damn time.
He cleared his throat. “It’s always hard when you’re talking about powers, considering.” He smiled a little. “Are you- were you born with abilities? Do you have mutants in your world?”
Wanda remained silent as she thought about her answer. “In a sense.” She wasn’t particularly proud of herself to tell this story. “When I was first against the Avengers, I was able to manipulate some of their minds, but I can use my powers like telekinesis.” Reality warp. That part intrigued Wanda, could she be capable of something like that? If she could make reality into what she wanted, her mind started to race. Could she bring them back?
His next question cut her off, and she pushed the thought aside for now. “Mutants? I’m not sure, I haven’t heard that term before, but I believe we have people born with powers. The Mind Stone was what gave me and Pietro our powers but-” She shrugged. “A part of me wonders if there was something different about us, other people have been experimented on but we were the only ones that survived.” She thought about trying to go more into detail but something about his wording caught her off guard.
“You and Wanda have similar powers?”
“Uh- yeah, we do. And my twin brother’s got similar powers to-” Billy cut himself off, remembering that she’d said Pietro was dead. There wasn’t any point in hurting her by telling her about Tommy, not only that they were twins but that Tommy had Pietro’s powers. He swallowed. “You know, I think- Well, yeah. We do. But she’s a lot older in my world. Like, in her thirties at least.”
Wanda studied him curiously when he cut himself off and changed his comments. “You and your twin, you both were born with your powers?” A question started to form in her mind, but she wasn’t sure if her instincts were right or now, she wanted to know more before making quick assumptions.
“Yeah,” Billy answered easily. “In my world, we’re called mutants. We’re born with powers that manifest when we’re teenagers. No infinity stone required. Sometimes it’s passed down from your parents and sometimes it’s totally random. But a lot of kids get to go to the Xavier school. I never did, so I learned to control my powers on my own and honestly I- I sucked at it for ages. I hurt a lot of people. And being a mutant kinda sucks since everyone hates us, even though there’s at least twelve teams that regularly save the world and they’re mostly mutants or gifted humans at least.”
“I know that feeling.” Wanda said quietly. “I made a lot of mistakes.” She didn’t like the idea of people hating them just because they were mutants, but it wasn’t anything new in their world. Wanda knew there were those that disliked them all, no matter how many times they had saved everyone. “Did your parents have powers?” Wanda thought of her own, and as far as she knew, from what she remembered, they were just...a family.
Billy wrinkled his nose again. “My… my family’s kind of complicated. My birth parents don’t have powers, they’re totally normal and as far as I know, Tommy’s parents don’t have powers either. But our situation’s… yeah, complicated.” He sipped his drink, feeling that it had cooled and scowling at the cup, curling his hands around it and muttering under his breath until steam rose, indicating it had been heated up again. Much better.
Wanda watched him and as he heated his cup, she smiled brightly. “Well…” She paused. “We have time, unless you don’t want to talk about it, which I understand.” What he had said so far did sound complicated. It had been easy for Wanda to open up to Billy, but she didn’t want to make that same assumption about him. If he didn’t want to dive in further, he had a reason and Wanda completely understood.
“It’s less that I don’t want to talk about it,” Billy was quick to reassure her, “It’s just… awkward and I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable.” He wet his lower lip and tapped his fingers on the edge of his mug. He glanced at her and hesitated for a moment before he nodded, making up his mind that he’d at least tell the truth. “My twin and I are- though we were born to other parents, our souls are-”
He frowned. “No, that’s not-”
He wet his lower lip again. “Okay. So. Are you sure?”
The feeling of her heart pounding in her chest, the nerves turning in her stomach, Wanda studied Billy carefully, every single detail to find any kind of hint. She didn’t want to say the words out loud, if her question was way off base then it could lead to more awkwardness.
She nodded carefully, and took a quick drink to keep her mouth from going dry. “I want to know, please, Billy.”
“There was an event that happened where the Wanda in my world- well, Pietro was killed so she tore reality apart, basically. Uh- created a new one where everything was kinda… better? Like, Pietro was still alive and she was with her dad. She had two kids there, twins called William and Thomas and they looked like her and Pietro. When things went back to normal, the souls of her kids kinda entered into two kids that were born or… something,” he waved a hand, “which is how Tommy and me are identical twins from different families with different sets of genetic parents but we’re still…”
He trailed off, glancing at Wanda and drawing in a slow breath. “We’re still the children of Wanda Maximoff. And the Vision, technically, though he’s got no biological part of our being created.” Since they’d been created in Wanda and Pietro’s image. “So I mean- I guess what I’m trying to say is that in my world, the Wanda I know is my mom and Magneto - Erik - is my grandfather.”
Wanda’s mind began to race. Children. In another universe she had children with Vision. Not biological, as Billy had said, but still. She tried to slow her breathing but it was difficult. “I’m sorry.” Was the first thing that came to her mouth, she hadn’t even realized at first that she said it. “I’m sorry that I’m not your Wanda.” It was the truth, she thought about their first conversation, and it must have been disappointing for him. “That’s incredible. Before I lost Vision, I thought...I wondered-” She paused because the idea of having a world where not only they were together but they raised a family hurt. “Is it the same Erik that’s here?” She only spoke to him a few times, but she thought that maybe it wasn’t or did they decide that Billy would be the one to tell her and not Erik? Wanda thought of her parents, she never considered but...if Erik was her father in another universe could that mean her father in her world wasn’t really her father? Did she have a whole lineage that she wasn’t aware of? Or could the universes be different when it came to some details?
“I’m okay,” She made sure to say. “It’s surprising, but not in a bad way.” Was she really capable of that kind of power? Maybe she could work hard to bring Pietro and Vision here instead.
“No, it’s- he’s a different Erik, again. I don’t think he- He’s definitely not the man I know.” Billy had been disappointed to learn that, too, but Wanda’s apology shook something in him and he reached out to catch her fingers again. “God, Wanda, no, don’t- don’t apologise. I wasn’t kidding when I said I’m used to alternative realities and it- Wanda, I didn’t say any of that to make you feel bad.”
Billy looked crushed; he hadn’t intended on upsetting her or making her feel guilty for not being the Wanda he knew. That hadn’t been his intention at all.
Wanda smiled and gave him a gentle squeeze. “I know you didn’t, I’m okay, I promise.” Yes, a part of her did feel bad, but it wasn’t something she could control. “And I know I’m not really old enough to be your mother, but after losing Pietro and Vision…” She paused. “What I mean to say is that you can still think of me as family, if you want to.”
Billy smiled warmly in return. “I think I’m meant to be the one saying that to you, Wanda,” he said quietly. “You can come and spend time with me and Teddy whenever you want. No matter what universe we’re in, you’ll always be part of my family. I don’t know if you feel like you’re alone, but you’re not. Not while I’m here.”
“Thank you, Billy. And I’d love to get to know you and Teddy more, and for you to tell me about Tommy too.” She gently gave Billy’s hand another squeeze before reaching for her cup.
Her eyes closed and she took in a breath then smiled. Even if she had mentioned it first, it was nice for Billy to say it all the same.
She had a family here.