deercountry | ( CLOSED ) I DON'T WANT A LOT FOR CHRISTMAS.

[ is that the joke? (wanda knows it's not.)

she presses her hands against the ice and ignores the chill that runs through her. despite knowing it's useless, she wants to do it. maybe if she does it and shows him… she'd hope the ice would budge. ]

It's too thick.

There has to be a way. We aren't going to die here.

( fuck that. he is not going to let this place kill him after so long avoiding that. )

[ bubbles appear before wanda as she exhales. luckily, she isn't in any sort of distress. while she's freezing all over, she looks up at the ice and squints against its brightness.

the glow on the ice is from the red in front of her mouth. slowly, she extends that along her arms, wrapping tendrils of scarlet over her fingers. ]

It's not going to work.

[ if she couldn't blast herself out of here earlier, there's no way she can now. ]

Then, what?

( what the hell are they supposed to do? he wants out of here. it's freezing. )

I am not dying here!

[ she's let them both down, hasn't she? she can make a titan sweat until he's risking the lives of his troops on the off-chance a missile hits his tormenter. she's taken over a town and written it into a perfectly scripted sitcom. she's recreated the mind stone from scratch and destroyed it by sheer will. she should be able to obliterate the ice wall, but she's so cold.

her hands continue to glow, though. this is just the rubble all over again, but cooler. ]

We need to find a crack.

[ wanda moves away from him, keeping her hands on the ice. she expects him to follow. ]

( amos starts punching at the ice over and over again. throwing punches in the water isn't really smart but he's got nothing else. )

And what if we can't find one?

[ wanda doesn't take to the ice in the fashion amos does. she presses her hands against it, ignoring the way the chilly surface makes her fingers feel numb. there has to be something within the ice that will give. she can feel the slight tremors of it beneath amos' attempts to crack it.

there'd never been any other alternative than to continue digging until she and pietro made their way out of the ruins of their own home. ]

Then you make one.

You don't think I haven't been trying?

( and he honestly doesn't know why he hasn't lost consciousness already. he can hold his breath for a pretty long time but this —

he knows it's been too long. he should have passed out. )

[ ✨ the magic of wanda ✨

she ignores him for a moment as she presses the heel of her hand firmly against the ice. wanda wants to blast it, but she knows that sometimes brute force isn't the answer. steve taught her that once. ]

Put your hand here.

[ she doesn't move her hand away from the ice, a little too frozen to do so. ]

Fine.

( he moves slowly, limbs sluggish because of the cold but he does put his hand where she's indicated and he pushes up. )

What are you going to do?

Push, too. I'm not enough.

[ for once, she's not enough of a presence to make the enemy shake in fear. if anything, she's the one who's shaking now, but the cold water prevents that from being entirely too obvious.

wanda pushes the heels of her palms into the ice and looks at him. ]

( amos grits his teeth and pushes as hard as he can. his fingers are numb, eyes starting to sting from being underneath the water so long.

he wants to think that he feels the ice starting to crack but he can't really see anymore, eyes growing tired and gritty. )

[ wanda would kick him, but kicking him would require moving and moving would mean her hands lift off from the ice. she can feel it give, even if it stubbornly refuses to heed them. so instead of kicking him and giving up on placing pressure on the ice, she sends a very small jolt throughout him. ]

Now is not the time to take a nap.

[ honestly, amos. timing! ]

My eyes hurt!

( he is not asleep! he's not that much of a lazy ass. he just wants to be out of this goddamn water. )

Push harder!

[ lazy, lazy, lazy ass. a complete and total one! ]

I am!

[ wanda huffs in the water, a parade of bubbles leaving her nose. she's trying! her strength has always been in her powers. while wanda had trained with sam and steve and natasha, she was never formidable in combat without her powers as her weapons. this is her out of her element...

and her arms are tiny. leave her alone! ]

All that muscle and you need me to help!

[ wanda has a feeling goading him will help see the ice crack. the red around her hands grows. ]

You really want to do this with me right now?

( can a mental voice sound angry? well, if it can, that's what amos sounds like. he pushes harder and harder, trying to get the thing to crack.

he pulls his hand away and punches at it over and over as hard as he can. )

Stop.

[ wanda tries to hold her hand over his to prompt him to stop punching the ice. it feels strange when he does it. the resistance grows thicker and the efforts they had made seem to undo themselves. ]

Punching it will only set it back. You have to push.

How do you know?

( but he does stop punching, at least. he shivers hard, rubbing his hands over his arms. they need to figure this out soon. )

Fine, then push!

If you listen, you can feel it.

[ it won't make sense, not to someone who hasn't been inside of people's heads and used those undercurrents of energy to determine her next steps in controlling them or infiltrating their minds. but to wanda, it's perfectly logical. the ice won't respond to a fierce punch, but it will to a firm push.

she pushes against the ice, feeling some of it give. it doesn't break as one would hope, but she can feel the cold water move around them. it's almost as if the ice itself is starting to give way and become rubbery. ]

We're under water, I can't hear anything!

( but he does push when she does and he thinks he can feel the ice giving a bit. or maybe he's just imagining it.

he just knows he wants out of this water. )

[ wanda shakes her head, which might have been a mistake given how she feels colder from the act. she wants to tell him to listen—to really listen—but it's hard to do so when body parts are growing numb and the water is really fucking cold.

so, instead, she opts to forgo that little lesson for now and pushes with all of her might against the ice. it moves as though it's made out of rubber, but the hard, thick ice no longer feels dense beneath her palms. ]

Push. It's moving.

[ it feels as though she's trying to break out of a thick bubble of magic. if she continues to push, it'll give. it always gives. ]

I am pushing.

( just in case she has doubts about that, he's pushing as hard as he can. he wants that goddamn ice to start cracking. but he can feel some give so he hopes that they're almost there.

his lungs feel like they're starting to give up on him and he knows that's not good. )

[ all she can think of is: ]

Push, push, push, pushpushpushpush.

[ but it's not an order to him; it's to herself, encouraging her to not give up. it's the chant she'd uttered under her breath when the rubble's dust had been thick and the bed had groaned and nothing had moved. everything concludes with a happily ever after at the end of an episode—and wanda felt they were coming toward one very, very soon.

the ice splits to create a fissure. ]

( amos keeps his thoughts to himself but he listens, pushing as hard as he can. when he hears the ice crack, he feels relief flood through him and he keeps going.

the crack seems to grow bigger and bigger and he gives it one last shove with every single bit of strength to get out from underneath this ice. )

( CLOSED ) I DON'T WANT A LOT FOR CHRISTMAS.

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