For lastvoyages Spam for Gym

[scarlet_discord]

He's here. 

Oh Gods, he's here.

But it's not him at the same time. Not him.

And Xavier. The same. They're young.

[Wanda's thoughts whirled furiously through her head and she did her best to fight down the accompanying panic. She was in the gym--she was often in the gym--and breathed deep as she focused as best she could on her weight-machine reps.]

Think! I don't have to deal with them. They don't know about me, they're both too young for me to have been born yet. Be calm. Stay focused. I can avoid them. I don't need to deal with this. Just like I don't need Tony. Or anything.

[Her arms started to ache as she pushed the bar away from her chest over and over again.]

I can handle this. I can handle this. I can handle this.

Comments

Spam

[darknessb4me]

Wanda?

[That look of panic was not normal for the weight machine.

Arthas looked rather distracted himself, but had expected to be here alone.]

You should have a spotter for that.

Spam

[scarlet_discord]

Arthas. [She was one of the few on the Barge who said that name with heartfelt relief.]

[His words brought her attention to what she was doing, and she slowed immediately, taking the resistance down several pegs.] Ok. I'll ease off.

I'm just...in need of a distraction.

Spam

[darknessb4me]

[Yeah, relief. Okay, something's going on. He just nods, though.]

I'd like to talk with you about what I'm planning, perhaps. Or we could train.

[Shrug. He doesn't really know how to Friends, but he can fight and plan.]

Spam

[scarlet_discord]

Let's train as a cover for talking then. I've got nothing left to lose here so...I'm more in than I was before.

[She pushes the bar up and slips out from under it, taking a moment to catch her breath.]

Spam

[darknessb4me]

[He nods and reaches under one arm to undo his cape and spiked pauldrons. They're hard to maneuver in and slightly dangerous in close quarters - normally that would be the point, but not in an exercise. It diminishes his silhouette significantly and for a moment he's just a tired-looking young man bound in dented metal.]

How much access do you have to your magic?

Spam

[scarlet_discord]

[She covered her face with her hands briefly in frustration.] Very little compared to what I should be able to do. That bastard Tony never did give me back even enough of my powers so I could defend myself. Why do you think I work out so hard and constantly?

Spam

[darknessb4me]

[Arthas had a degree of respect for Tony after the Nicolas incident, so he simply hung his cloak on the chin-up bar and turned back to Wanda.]

Show me.

Spam

[scarlet_discord]

[A soft sigh. Again with the humiliation of throwing everything she had at him and barely making him stumble. But there was no helping it. Setting her jaw, she focused as hard as she could.]

[A tremor went through the room; the lights started flickering. She felt a surge of frustrated rage and tried to tap into it; the mirrors started to film over and small cracks appeared. One by one, the lightbulbs started to blow; the windows rattled in their frames.]

[Sparks showered down around her as she tried as hard as she could to destroy the room. What came instead was a heavy-distraction level of mayhem...and a pounding headache.]

Damn him. Damn him, damn him!

That's all I can do.

Spam

[darknessb4me]

[More of what had happened on deck was what he was expecting, so the cracking and splintering of the whole room made his eyes go wide.]

I understand the frustration. Are you alright?

Spam

[scarlet_discord]

Head hurts. It'll pass.

That's what I have. I can focus really hard and provide a general distraction, or wreck one piece of equipment like a gun or a computer, or distract someone so they can't use their powers.

Spam

[darknessb4me]

It's more than most people can do. You could bluff well with it, and sometimes that works just as well.

Spam

[scarlet_discord]

I...guess I could. [That makes her feel a bit better.]

So...will my powers be useful to you in this matter?

Spam

[darknessb4me]

Not sure, but for the most part it doesn't matter. You're sharp, focused, and reliable. And you don't deserve to be stuck here.

[Not quite as warm as it should be, more a recitation of facts.]

Who taught you to use your abilities?

Spam

[scarlet_discord]

A Salem era witch named Agatha Harkness. She was classic. No mutant powers but she could handle anyone no matter how powerful. She's one of the original American witches.

I hope to go back to her if--when--I get out.

Spam

[darknessb4me]

Alright. Did she teach you anything about identifying magic coming from things around you?

Spam

[scarlet_discord]

That's pretty basic magic. I can do it better with my blocks off, but I can.

Spam

[darknessb4me]

Excellent.

[wecanavenge]

[The Barge, on the whole, has done nothing but disgust Erik. The claims that this isn't a prison, despite every appearance otherwise - the claims that he is here to be helped are the worst. No - the fact that his powers are limited has been the worst.

Still, loathing isn't going to keep him from knowing everything about the Barge. When he lived in the ghetto, he smuggled, and he only managed that by knowing every crack in every wall and every patrol the SS walked. Maybe there was nothing to smuggle from here, but old habits died hard.

He almost couldn't hold back the snort when he found the gym. It was a prison or a school. Few would see the difference. Erik would have walked away, but for the girl lifting weights. For a moment, he wondered if Raven had been aboard without saying anything - but then he realized, it was the girl from his introduction. He headed toward her.]

Excuse me, [he said once he was close enough.] I don't think we've met.

[scarlet_discord]

[She heard his voice and her whole body stiffened up in alarm; she shoved the bar up so hard that the weights clanked loudly against the weightstack. Faint blue light bloomed around her hands instinctively.]

Oh GODS he's found me! And there's too much metal in here! I'll have to cancel his powers if he tries anything--

[She slipped quickly out of the machine, putting it between the two of them. Her heart was beating so hard that her head started to hurt. Her eyes showed all the wariness and rage she was trying to push down.]

What the hell do you w-want? Leave me alone.

[wecanavenge]

[And there was that reaction again. At least this time there are words, but it's the blue light that caught his attention. Erik held up both hands, palm out - but only for a moment, because then he was pointing at her hands.]

How are you doing that?

[scarlet_discord]

[Her lips twisted bitterly. She wanted to tell him to mind his damn business, but then her anger spiked and the threats stared spilling out.]

I'm an Alpha class mutant, and if you try anything I will make you suffer for it.

[wecanavenge]

[Alpha class? That's new. He'll need to remember that and - no, not talk to Charles about it. (Maybe talk to Charles ab out it.) Erik flattened his palms again in that universal 'I'm harmless' gesture. He reached for the metal around him, not moving anything, just comforting himself that it was there.]

What is it I'm meant to be trying, exactly?

[scarlet_discord]

Don't play naive with me. I know who you are. Everybody back home does. And I know well enough to stay the hell away from you. I won't allow you to hurt me anym--

[She bit back the last word.]

[wecanavenge]

Anymore? [Now he's thrown. Erik takes a step toward her, head tilting in his confusion.]

I don't know you. I don't know what back home is, so how can anyone there know me?

[scarlet_discord]

The Eric Magnus Lehnsherr-- [She brought up his middle name as proof.] --I know is an older man. It's 1992. He's a goddamned terrorist who uses other mutants as his cannon fodder for a cause which ultimately benefits only him--because all the other mutants are fit only to be his pawns. Even his own children. And his daughter got even worse.

[There was deep hatred in her eyes now as she stared at him. Things were slipping out that shouldn't, but she was too upset to help it.]

He--you--ruined my life. Because of you I spent most of my childhood a prisoner. Because of you, I died at seventeen. Don't you play innocent with me.

If you do anything to hurt me or even touch me I'll kill you. [Shit, now the eye-faucets were going and her voice was trembling like a hurt child's.] You've done enough--more than enough! I won't let you do any more to me!

[wecanavenge]

Ninety-two-- [Thirty years in the future. He wants to say it's not possible, wants to say this is a ridiculous game she's playing, but here? After everything he's read and seen here, he doubts what impossible means anymore.

It was seeing the loathing in her eyes that made him realize. He'd seen that look, in those eyes, for most of his life - staring out of a mirror.

A daughter. A daughter. Family - that had been at the top of his 'impossible' list for decades. And here she was, some daughter he hadn't yet had, and - and she was dead. Because of him? No, no. This couldn't be right. Impossible.

But he had no proof to the contrary, only his word.] I don't even know your name, [he finally ground out, working on hiding how startled he was.] How could I possibly hurt you? Why would I?

[scarlet_discord]

[And then her eyes stung and the tears just flowed like crazy, and she felt a lump in her throat the size of her skull.]

I don't know. You were never that way with my brother. But I got thrown away into a flatscan-run asylum and kept drugged and restrained twenty four seven. For years.

My name is Wanda Maximoff. My twin brother is Pietro. You'd have no problem recognizing him if he dies and comes here too. He looks like you at eighteen.

[She was babbling and worse, starting to talk to him like a person instead of an enemy. Maybe it was his obvious shock.]

If you'd done right by me I would have stuck with you even though I am a lot more moderate. Now I look at you, and I realize you're too young to even know about me yet, and I still want to run.

[wecanavenge]

[The idea that he could possibly make a prisoner out of his child is absurd. It's repugnant, it's - impossible is the word he settles on, the one he holds to with a death grip. (Twins is the other word, but that one is quieted.) Impossible. If he had a daughter - if - he would put in in an asylum. He would never leave her to go through anything remotely similar to what he did.

Shaking his head once, Erik let his hands fall to his sides, listening to every instinct that screamed at him to walk away from this situation.] I think you're mistaken, [he said, uncertain at first - those eyes - but gaining his usual confidence quickly.]

I don't have children. It's likely I never will. I'm not the Erik Lensherr you think I am.

[And he turned to leave, turning his head enough to add over his shoulder,] I have no intentions of hurting you, Wanda. You're a mutant. That is what connects us. [Not some absurd, other-worldly father-daughter relationship. Impossible, he reminded himself.]

[scarlet_discord]

[Wanda leaned back against a machine, the breath exploding out of her as he turned to leave. She wanted to yell at him to never have kids...better to never be born than to go through what she had. But instead she held her tongue and let him go.]

If he really was my father, with my father's memories and history...then I would have had to kill him. On fucking principle. Maybe that's for the best.