( CLOSED ) WE NEVER LEARN, WE BEEN HERE BEFORE.

[manipulative]

Who: Stefan and Katherine Petrova | Amos Burton and Wanda Maximoff.
What: April shit ft. portals.
When: April.
Where: Around the twist.

Content Warnings: Mentions of death, grief, genocide and war. Most likely NSFW.

Comments

WONDERKIND | WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?

[manipulative]

[ when katherine and stefan find out about the random portals appearing throughout the trench, well… of course, katherine wants to investigate them. what happens if one of the portals has good shoes?

uncharacteristically, katherine holds stefan's hand and characteristically swings it wide and annoyingly as they walk through the street a block away from their home. she squeezes his hand in excitement when an orb appears before them and begins to split. slowing down, she watches it, taking a small, unnoticeable step forward so that she appears to be the one who's in front even if stefan's still somewhat at her side. ]

It looks like one of the portals is appearing. I wonder if it'll have some nice shoes.

[ she says it to get under his skin, of course.

when the portal finishes forming, katherine tugs on his hand eagerly but gingerly approaches. the last thing either of them need is to be sucked back into jumanji and straight into that pit of quicksand.

the closer they get, the more interesting the portal appears. it's clear that it's showcasing a well-decorated room (something very akin to nadia's in their home).

a voice out of view rings loudly in bulgarian. ]

Luca, will you stop that?

[prescind]

( while katherine's more than ready to go out and see these portals, stefan's a little more wary. he doesn't want to end up in some other world and get stuck there.

but he's not going to let katherine go alone because he doesn't want a building to fall on her. again. so, he goes with her and when the portal starts to crack open, he steels himself like he's waiting for something to happen.

and something does happen and it makes his heart thump so, so fast. )

Oh my god.

[manipulative]

[ katherine opens her mouth to say "what?", but that question is answered when she hears her.

nadia.

not the little nadia that deerington had kindly given her. it's nadia—her nadia, the one who's grown and always tends to flutter in and out of her life like a good token. katherine remains still, waiting for the voice to disappear and simply be a mere part of her imagination. but considering how stefan's heart paces wildly in his chest, she knows it's not her. she begins to smile without realising. ]

Stop that.

[ nadia doesn't seem wisened to the portal. neither does luca, considering he seems to send a ping pong ball across the room.

and nadia curses in bulgarian. that's without a doubt her nadia. ]

[prescind]

( stefan doesn't even know what to do. that sounds like nadia and he can feel that it's luca there with her but he doesn't know if he should talk or just stay quiet and not disrupt.

beside him, katherine's gone quiet too so he's guessing they're both surprised. he swallows and glances over at her, trying to discern her feelings right now.

he opens his mouth to say something and then closes it again. )

[manipulative]

[ katherine sighs and rolls her eyes at the children who remain out of view. ]

You need to take him out of the house, Nadia.

[ shaking her head, she looks at stefan as if to say "can you believe she's letting him toss a ball around inside?" while being a mother isn't necessarily something katherine's had any experience in aside from the times nadia has come to visit them, she easily falls into the role effortlessly.

she lightly smacks her hand against stefan's arm for support. ]

[prescind]

Why does she need to do that? Let him toss the ball inside. He's not hurting anything.

( yet. )

There's too much outside that might hurt him.

( not that he knows how old this version of luca is but still. )

[manipulative]

[ katherine regards stefan like he's grown a second head. ]

He can go outside with Nadia. And if he trips and grazes his knee, at least he's being normal.

[ the ball goes flying again across the room, smacking into a lamp. ]

WONDERKIND | PROTOMOLECULE TAKE TWO.

[explosion]

[ wanda doesn't question the fact she's spending more and more time with amos. he's not bad company. he can be quite fun to be around even if he's surly at best and oftentimes laughing at her rather than with her.

but he's not bad company.

it's why she'd called him when she had sworn she'd seen sparky in one of the portals that had miraculously appeared and then disappeared. she'd needed him to come and be dog bait. while sparky was a well-behaved dog (as she had willed him to be), amos didn't need to know that.

standing in the middle of the street, wanda looks around as she searches for a light splitting across the sky. ]

It's not coming.

[ disappointment settles in her gut. quietly huffing, wanda holds out her hands which begin to glow instantaneously. ]

Are you allergic to dogs? I should have asked before.

[ but like clockwork—or magic—an orb slowly appears as if summoned by the sheer will of her power and begins to open. ]

[rocinantes]

No, I'm not.

( he shoots her a look for that one. if he'd been allergic to dogs, he probably wouldn't have said anything anyway since he doesn't know what's about to happen and he doesn't want her out here alone.

doesn't matter if she's got some big time magic, he doesn't care. she's one of the few people that he likes and he wants her to stick around. )

You expecting a dog to come out of this thing?

[explosion]

Yes.

[ she says so with a toothy smile over her shoulder. sparky is dead, but sparky had been a figment of her imagination and one of her best creations. she knows he's somewhere close. she can feel it. ]

I have a dog. [ she furrows her brows. ] Had a dog. I heard him when one of the other portals opened. You should meet him. [ she smiles. ] He'd like your plants.

[rocinantes]

( amos makes a face at the fact that she knows he has plants and shrugs his shoulders. )

They're just plants. He'd probably eat them.

( he eyes the portal, waiting for some yappy dog to appear. )

[explosion]

Hopefully, they are good plants for dogs.

[ the last thing she needs is another agatha harkness killing her dog. she eyes amos for a moment, suspecting that he may end up transforming into said witch. he doesn't. ]

Maybe I will keep him away from you. I don't want him liking you more than me.

[rocinantes]

I don't think you have anything to worry about there.

( he had like one whole friend and she was pretty much it. animals weren't really his thing. )

He's not gonna like me more than you.

WONDERKIND | SOKOVIA.

[explosion]

[ neither of them learns their lesson, of course.

when the next portal appears, wanda doesn't zip them somewhere far, far away. she's curious. she knows amos is, too. if these portals can bring about gateways to their homes, then wanda wants to ensure she's at the door to greet every single one that's from her home.

all she wants is to see her family again.

when this portal opens, it exposes a plain-looking apartment. it's small and crowded and well-lived in. with warm browns and reds, it's truly nothing to write home about, but it warms and chills wanda all the same.

a loud, high-pitched voice shouts, ] Wanda! Waaaaanda!

[ and a little boy with brown hair zips into the living room, almost tripping over his undone shoelace. ]

[rocinantes]

( this is different than her thinking a dog was going to come through. this is...not that. he can feel the difference, the tension, the ache but he says nothing.

he doesn't recognize the boy so he's guessing it's someone she knows and he looks over at her to discern her reaction. when the little boy calls her name, he waits for her to respond even if that little boy can't hear them.

he still waits like she'll respond anyway. )

[explosion]

WAAANDAAA!

[ god, pietro is loud. he's louder than she remembers him being in life and in the memory agatha had pulled out from her. despite the clear sound of scuffling footsteps, pietro doesn't appear. she wants him to appear so desperately so, of course, he doesn't. he's always been aggravating like that.

wanda smiles bittersweetly without realising. something crashes to the floor—most likely a thick book—and pietro's cussing in sokovian. the trench becomes nothing to her.

she's quiet when she fondly says, ] He is very loud.

[rocinantes]

He is.

( he keeps his tone even, low. he can tell, even without looking at her, that this is affecting her a lot more than she's trying to let on.

he takes a step closer to her. )

Older or younger?

[explosion]

He is older than me.

[ or should be. she should be twelve minutes younger, but she knows she's a decade older than him now. it's not meant to be that way. she was never meant to outgrow him like that. ]

His name's Pietro. And he is so clumsy.

[ still, he doesn't appear in the portal's frame. he's off to the side somewhere, doing god knows what. he yells again, ] WANDA! WHERE ARRRRE YOU?

[ a smaller voice squeaks, ] If I tell you, that would defeat the purpose of game.

[rocinantes]

( he recognizes that voice even if it's younger than the ones he knows. )

You were close.

( that's not a question. he can tell they were close just by how she's reacting here. )

WONDERKIND | CHILDREN.

[explosion]

[ it's been a few months since wanda last saw stefan.

when she had first spotted him walking along the sidewalk in the opposite direction as her, she had the instinct to turn around and try and cross the road as if she was trying to avoid a friend. but she knows he's not a friend; he's merely an acquaintance she had ensured was still an immortal being during one of his more mortal tenures.

besides, wanda's never really been one to ever have a reason to turn around and avoid someone. while she had done so once or twice in westview, she doesn't wish to do that now.

so, she sets along her path as she had intended and smiles a little awkwardly when she sees him. ]

Hi.

[ and slows, just as he does. she doesn't realise a little orb is beginning to puncture the air in the form of a tiny spark. ]

[prescind]

Oh, hey.

( it doesn't take stefan long to realize who she is. he remembers her and how she'd helped put him at ease when he'd been a human. he hasn't seen her much since then but it's good to know she's still here and still okay.

so, he smiles and stops as he draws closer to her, hands loose at his sides. )

How's it going?

[explosion]

[ wanda shrugs, her arms lifting from her sides only to slap her palms against her thighs. that's how it's going. nothing to write home about and nothing to worry about, either.

famous last words, right? ]

It's okay. [ it seems like the usual safe response with acquaintances. wanda crinkles her eyes before she scrunches up her nose. ] As okay as me chasing a portal can be. I think that is a very normal use of someone's time, no?

[ she shakes her head sheepishly. it's so silly, isn't it? ]

[prescind]

You're chasing a portal?

( he and katherine had been lucky enough to find them but he hadn't chased anything down. yet. )

You expecting to find something specific in this portal or just don't wanna chance missing out on something?

[explosion]

I don't want to miss out.

[ that seems like the safest answer. if wanda says she wants to find something specific, it'll open the court to a variety of questions... and she's not entirely sure if stefan would even ask them. still... it'd be strange to say something like that and possibly set him up for asking questions he doesn't wish to ask.

she does realise she's overthinking it.

she tilts her head to the side. ] Are you not curious by them?

[prescind]

I am I'm also just...I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.

( he's gotten to see some good things from these portals but how long could that last? was it possible that nothing too terrible would happen? )

That one of these will open up and some kind of army will come through.