deercountry | ( CLOSED ) BITE MY TONGUE.

[ it takes her a moment to even think about trying to test his question. when she shifts her leg, she finds that the rubble is as loose as it had been a lifetime ago. it's settled upon them and still remains covering item as if a bed frame shields them. there is no bed frame, but wanda can feel it there.

she nods. ] Yes.

[ without needing him to further encourage her, she peers up at the rubble overhead and decides to do as she had been trying to do, but at a smaller rate. some of the stone glows red until the scarlet colour eats away at the plaster. it disappears, opening some of the air up for them. ]

Can you?

Yeah.

( there's a lot of debris on him but he can still move, wiggling free of some of the heavier pieces as he tries to slide out and away from it. )

Are you hurt anywhere? Any injuries?

( could they get injured in a place like this? )

[ wanda solemnly shakes her head. ] No.

[ not where he can see, at least. her magic is slow to eat away at some of the heavier pieces of rubble. some of the stone feels as heavy as it should, but other pieces feel as light as foam. wanda knows this isn't real by how the air lacks certain toxic stuffiness and how soot doesn't cling to her skin like a carnivorous animal.

but the bomb continues to beep. STARK stares at her back in blinding white lettering.

wanda frowns at it as she thrusts her hand away from her to pelt it with a small red energy ball. the bomb quivers, but it doesn't disappear. her magic slides off its slippery dark surface. ]

Wanda, stop focusing on that.

( she's tried and she's failed to move it or dislodge it or do anything to it. either it's stronger than she thinks or it's not going to move because of whatever this is. )

We should focus on getting out of here. That thing's there, it's not going anywhere. Let's get out of here.

[ she shakes her head stubbornly. the bomb hadn't gone off for two long days. she knows it's depowered. the blinking is torturously loud, but she knows the bomb itself is dead.

she still wants it gone. the one thing she wishes she had done as a little girl is to defeat the bomb. perhaps if she did, the path she travelled wouldn't become as lonely as it has.

when she faces amos, she intends to be cool, calm, and collected. but her eyes widen and she sounds very much like the young girl she used to be, frightened of the blinking, red dot that intimidated both her and her brother. ]

It's a bomb.

Wanda, we just had a building fall on us and we're both fine.

( dirty, dusty and a little scared but fine. he glances at the bomb and then at her. )

It's a bomb but we need to figure out how to get out of this place. This isn't real. This is the past. We're in your past just like we were in mine.

[ although wanda knows this—hadn't agatha taken her on a trip down memory lane as part of a depressiing flashback episode of wandavision?—she doesn't want to believe it. this can't be an unchangeable moment. she's come back here twice now. something has to give; something has to change.

but no matter how much magic she throws at that bomb, it doesn't move. it remains as a fixed point. unchangeable. out of all the timelines strange had once seen, she imagines this bomb is in every single one of them.

her face crumples. ] I don't remember how we got out. It was all Pietro.

Let's start by looking for a door, okay?

( he reaches for her hand, sliding his around hers gently before he starts to move, seeking out a door that's accessible in the mess of the apartment. )

Just stay with me and watch the debris, Wanda.

[ she nods. that's something she should be able to do, even if she keeps glancing at that bomb.

something has to give. surely, something will give. would a bomb bewitched with a probability hex outmanoeuvre the magic?

she doesn't remain lying on her belly. wanda wriggles out from the remaining rubble and stands, covered in dust and soot. she ignores the small cuts on her legs—they'd been there before, so long ago—and glances around as she tries to remember her apartment before. ]

Over there. [ she nods towards their left. ] There used to be a door.

[ now, it's just a caved-in wall. ]

Okay, so it stands to reason that there's a way out there.

( he moves to the wall and looks at it. it doesn't look stable but amos let's go of her hand and starts kicking at it, hoping to put a hole through the plaster so they could wriggle out. )

Let me know if you see it start to give.

[ standing behind him, wanda shakes her head. the wall doesn't give even though its structural integrity has gone to shit. it should be weak and it should crumple, but it remains standing tall and proud and impenetrable.

she knows it won't break from a mere man's kick. it needs a bigger punch. something stronger, swifter. magical. ]

No, no. [ it's hardly emotional; she's still a little disturbed from finding herself beneath the rubble. ] It won't give. Let me.

All right.

( he steps out of her way but doesn't move too far from her side. )

Do it. Be careful.

[ she wiggles her fingers dismissively in a "yeah, yeah, i'll be careful". but given her history so far of pushing the foundations of the house to its very brink, perhaps that's needed to be said. ]

I am always careful.

[ raising her hands, wanda sets her shoulders down and exhales roughly. very slowly, she pushes magic out from her fingertips to slide along the wall. she waits until the plaster is coated in a sparkly red before she tries to push at it.

it rumbles like an earthquake. bits of plaster and dust fall from the open crater of a ceiling as if it's not in complete disrepair. ]

Yeah, right.

( that's not true and they both know. still, he steps back to watch her try and make an opening. the walls start to rumble and plaster starts to fall but he doesn't seen an opening just yet. )

You sure this is smart? Don't take the whole building down with us inside. Be careful.

Considering you were crushed and are still able to walk...

[ wanda heaves an exhausting breath. being back here is as tiresome as it had been when agatha had taken her down the daunting yellow brick road. while she wishes to be here for the chance to see her family again, she wants to be gone. there are too many ghosts here.

the walk begins to crack and a top puzzle piece shape of it caves in. there's nothing but darkness beyond it. the plaster continues to crack beneath the bright red of her magic. ]

You will be fine. I promise.

Yeah, yeah.

( she manages to cave in a portion of the wall and amos moves closer to it, trying to see what was beyond it. )

Shouldn't there be other apartments? Maybe a lobby or something?

Some of them were completely gone after the bombs.

[ how the building remained standing for two whole days is beyond wanda. but she does wonder... perhaps it had been her keeping the foundation of their home upright and strong. ]

The building collapsed a few hours after we left. Maybe there was nothing there at all.

[ maybe all amos will find is pure darkness of nothing remaining behind. ]

How about you let me go in first? You keep everything from falling down around me and I'll see if I can wiggle through to find something.

( he doesn't know if she's going to agree to that but she's the powerful one here. she can keep this thing from coming down on him. )

Let me help you.

[ wanda eyes him for a moment as she considers how to say "no". no, this is her home. she knows the way. while pietro had been the one to guide them down the dilapidated stairs and out the door, she's the one who's lived this before.

but she finds herself nodding and the intensity of her magic increases as the apartment creaks and the plaster is pushed back into place. she holds the apartment up. ]

Be careful. There are sharp things.

I've crawled through some pretty terrible places. This is fine.

( he nods at her before he crouches down and then starts moving into the darkness. he can smell plaster and ash but he takes a breath and starts crawling, angling himself through the path she's made.

it's darkness for a few feet though before he sees a slash of light ahead. )

I'm still okay!

[ that's a relief. wanda continues to piece the broken bits of plaster together in the form of a very poorly built puzzle. she does listen intently to him in what's become a crawlspace. that used to be another room. it wasn't one in their apartment, but it was one that she'd been in a few times. the peeling wallpaper would be ash by now. ]

I think you should come back now.

[ who's to say the crawlspace is a crawlspace? the apartment has collapsed but hasn't fallen on top of them as it should've. ]

I can see some light ahead, I'm gonna keep going.

( nice try, wanda. )

I just want to see if it's somewhere that we can go to get out of here.

[ she swallows thickly against the building anxiety. ]

And if there isn't?

[ what if they're just trapped here for a lot longer than two painfully slow days? ]

We can't just stay in that one spot, Wanda.

( he pulls himself down towards the light and once he's underneath it, he turns onto his back to peer up. he sees a ceiling that's fairly well held together. )

How many floors is this place?

A lot.

[ wanda hasn't thought about the building beyond her floor in years. she furrows her brows as she tries to think. the building had been in disarray, a mere memory, for so long that she's made up the number of floors it once had so many times over. ]

Maybe twenty? There were a lot.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject