open + overflow post

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OPEN POST

AZIRAPHALE

BUCK

ERIK

HUA CHENG

STEVE

WANGJI

Comments

[redchaos]

The boys. [The tips her head to the side.] ... and me.

[incogneto]

If I choose to believe that other universes exist, then reasonably, there is one where you are my daughter.

And I choose to believe.

[ It's as simple as that. ]

You may not want to accept me as family.

[ You know, considering. But they're in the same boat now, huh? ]

[redchaos]

I had a father.

[And she loved him dearly. Still does.]

... and you had a daughter. As long as we know such things can't be replaced, I'm...

[She frowns, not wanting to offend, but still hesitant all the same.]

I'm not going to push you away.

[incogneto]

[ He nods. ]

What was his name? Your father.

[ He doesn't want to replace him, any more than he wants to pretend that Wanda is Anya all grown-up. But he does want to know about him. ]

[redchaos]

Oleg.

[Time for another dose of depressing. Wanda is sure he's not surprised at this point.]

He and my mother were killed when Pietro and I were young.

[incogneto]

I'm sorry.

[ He doesn't really want to ask how. He knows he doesn't like discussing how his parents were killed. ]

But you and Pietro, you raised yourselves fine.

[redchaos]

We managed. It was never easy.

[She watches him in silence for a moment.]

I don't think our family has it easy in a lot of universes. Not all of them. We're simply unlucky we ended up in this one.

[incogneto]

Unlucky is putting it mildly.

[ But after a brief pause, he wonders: ]

Tell me about Pietro.

[ He'd never considered a son, so, he just wants to know what he was like. Maybe he was very much like Wanda. ]

[redchaos]

[The interest in the people she loves most draws out another small smile.]

I think he would test your patience.

[incogneto]

Oh?

[ He arches a brow, but he's curious. ]

How so?

[redchaos]

Talked a lot. Fast. Always moving, always doing something. Liked being the smartass. But... he was good. Funny. Wanted to help people.

[Wanda was the angrier one that tended to brood. Twins, similar enough, but different, too.]

[incogneto]

[ Actually, that sounds a lot like someone he knows.

Cautiously, he asks: ]

How fast?

[redchaos]

Faster than the eye could follow.

[Just not fast enough at all times to avoid bullets.]

[incogneto]

[ Erik reaches into his pocket and takes out his phone, scrolls through to show Wanda a picture of Peter. ]

Did he look like this?

[redchaos]

[Wanda's baffled expression gives the answer before she verbally replies.]

That's not Pietro. That's--not him, but I've met this person. Who is he to you?

[incogneto]

He's one of us. A mutant. I - Charles heads up the school, for people like us.

They call him Quicksilver.

Why? Do you recognize him?

[redchaos]

He's not.

[Said maybe a little too quickly, and Wanda shakes her head.]

Not in my universe. He was... used by a witch, to trick me. She made me believe he was my Pietro.

[So, maybe in another universe, he is indeed... whatever they are. Mutants.]

[incogneto]

Oh.

[ He doesn't know how to process that. And then he thinks about something Peter said to him once. ]

I think. He might be. In mine.

...I don't know if he has a sister.

[redchaos]

[Wanda tries not to look... surprised, but. It's there in the lift of her brows despite her attempt to look neutral.]

Oh.

I'm sensing... a story, there.

[incogneto]

I'm not sure if he knows, either.

I haven't met his mother. I think.

[ This is confusing. ]

I guess it doesn't matter. He has a family.

[redchaos]

You're starting to make my life sound tame.

[She's happy to not think about this "Peter" and how she was so certain this was her brother, even if it hadn't made sense at the time. Magic and grief are funny things.]

[incogneto]

It's been... interesting. But I've also had my powers for nearly fifty years.

[ Which honestly, is so weird but at least Wanda knows she's going to age well. ]

I feel like you're just now growing into yours.

[redchaos]

[Trauma keeps the wrinkles away.]

What I'm capable of keeps surprising me. I thought I was normal, for a long time.

[incogneto]

Don't we all?

I still don't think I understand it. Your power.

[ Technically, Erik's is also a lot more than what's presented on the surface, but Wanda's? Wanda's needed a lot more explanation. ]

[redchaos]

[That makes two of them, but she likes to at least give the illusion that she has her shit together when it comes to her abilities. He doesn't need to know the whole mess.]

I can alter reality. Alter minds. Move buildings with just a thought. Those are the broad strokes.

[She nods towards him.]

And yours revolves around metal?