( january catch all )

[prescind]

Who: stefan salvatore (prescind) + katherine pierce (manipulative) + amos burton (rocinantes) + wanda maximoff (explosion)
What: new year's things, event things
When: january
Where: all around

Content Warnings: probably some language to start.

Comments

[explosion]

[ wanda doesn't answer him immediately as she listens intently. her idea of listening is to hear the humming but to see if she can feel an undercurrent that's different to the humming of her radio and other pieces of technology.

but where she focuses on the humming, she hears words uttered more clearly in sokovian. she frowns instantly. ]

What did you say?

[rocinantes]

Nothing.

( well, something but it hadn't been anything so intense as to what she seems to think. he shakes his head. )

I asked if you thought it was human.

[explosion]

Oh.

[ she furrows her brows, greatly disturbed by that. she does her best to try and ignore the whispering, going as far as closing her eyes and listening hard. but the whispering grows louder and sharper, wrapping around her much like magic. ]

You can't hear that? [ she looks at him, drawing her brows tightly together. ] The voice.

[rocinantes]

No, I just —

( amos pauses for a second, frowning. )

All I hear is the humming. You hear a voice?

[explosion]

Maybe.

[ wanda's not so sure anymore. now that he's asked, the voice is gone. it sounds naked and quiet in a strange way. she glances around in uncertainty.

she scratches her cheek. ]

I don't know. [ she settles for shaking her head. ] I think we should just keep walking.

[rocinantes]

Fine.

( walking, he can do that. he starts walking and actually starts humming himself so he can drown out the humming he hears. )

Let's hope we're walking somewhere and not just walking aimlessly.

[explosion]

Is that a song from space?

[ wanda doesn't particularly want to remain quiet if she can help it. the quiet means there's a chance that voice will come back—and it almost does until her voice bats it away. there's a whisper of it in the stillness between the buildings. a part of her wishes he hadn't brought her attention to the humming. ]

Do you have space songs? [ she's not as obnoxiously cheery as she would otherwise be. ]

[rocinantes]

It's just humming.

( so no, it's not a space song. he makes a face at her question. )

I don't know, I'm sure they do. I don't really do songs or singing or music.

[explosion]

Or dancing?

[ she's going to go out on a wild whim here and guess that. ]

But you do hum. Hm. [ she brushes her fingers against her chin as she nods contemplatively in an attempt to distract herself from what he's called attention to. ] That fits you.

[rocinantes]

Humming fits me?

( amos makes a face. he doesn't think that's true but — )

How do you figure?

[explosion]

[ wanda shrugs, although it's the type of shrug that suggests she's about to say something utterly mean (in a nice way). ]

You just seem tone-deaf.

[ never one to mince her words when it comes to him. ]

[rocinantes]

You say that like it's a bad thing.

( he doesn't need to be someone who sings and hums or plays instruments. )

You need better insults.

[explosion]

But I like my insults.

[ she purposefully pouts, although she smiles as she does so. she likes her insults because they are bad insults. they're the one thing that's hers and no one else's. they don't belong to a script that's been magically written. ]

I am very good at humming. See?

[ tilting her head up, she hums a very cheery tune. she widens her smile as she does so, grateful for the distraction. ]

[rocinantes]

Uh huh.

( he hums too, trying to follow her rhythm because anything's better than the humming he'd been hearing. )

You'd say you were very good at everything, though.

[explosion]

I am.

[ she presses her hands to her hips, bending her elbows as she playfully glares at him. ]

I am the best at many things. I'm good at humming [ obviously. ] and star jumps and magic.

[ one of those things is definitely the thing she's best at. ]

[rocinantes]

Can you tell me one thing you're not good at?

( or would her ego not allow her to do that? )

[explosion]

[ keeping people alive.

wanda taps her finger against her chin as she makes a show of mulling over his question. she could give him an answer pietro would give, but that wouldn't be responding correctly, would it? ]

Doing things without magic.

[ she's not overly smiley when she says it. in fact, she says it quite soberly, her seriousness apparent. it's one of the few things that she overcompensates with her magic. ]

[rocinantes]

( huh, he hadn't actually expected her to admit anything but look at that, she's surprised him. he smirks. )

Doing what kinds of things?

( that dependent on your magic, wanda? good to know. )

[explosion]

Fixing things. [ she shrugs and looks away. it's a confession of vulnerability. wanda's so used to trying to appear like she's in control because she wants to be in control that admitting anything but what she's perfect at feels like an admission of being subpar. ]

I'm very bad at defending myself without magic.

[rocinantes]

Have you ever wanted to learn? To defend yourself without magic?

( that was one thing he was pretty good at. )

[explosion]

[ she nods. being an avenger often means she's fighting beings that are on par with what comes naturally to her, but she knows she could've had the upper hand with proxima midnight a year or so ago (or years ago, given the blip) if she had spent more time with steve and natasha training. ]

I'm not always going to have my powers. [ the trench has taught her as much. ] It's something I think I should learn.

[rocinantes]

Why haven't you?

( learned, that is. )

You've been here awhile, right?

[explosion]

Yes…

[ she knows where this is going, and wanda hates that she flushes in embarrassment. she keeps her face turned away and her gaze straight forward. ]

There just hasn't been any time.

[ a lie. ]

[rocinantes]

Who've you asked?

( call him curious. )

Who do you want to teach you?

[explosion]

I had friends at home who used to let me train with them.

[ and wanda had learned some things that she could combine with her hexes, but she's still so reliant on her magic. ]

They're not here.