(no subject)

[witchweird]

I didn't run away to join the circus, only the circus archaeologists. [Wanda's TAB displays a stone carving of an acrobat, and then a figurine of a bull. They're sitting on a shelf, and the wall behind the shelf looks like rough stone.]

They're replicas... I asked if I could have one of the real ones, because there were about a million of them just in the tiny tunnel we were excavating, but they wanted to catalogue them all, so I went to the museum and bought the acrobat. The bull...I carved that myself, to the pattern of the real ones. It's only a keepsake...

It's funny, there are a million of the acrobats in the archaeological records of Deslora, but the bulls were new to the site I was working on. They want to discover what it means, whether the acrobats and the bulls are connected. They think the site used to be... important... Sacred dances and ritual danger -- that's funny too. Ritual danger.

But I missed the fun house and the crowds, I went to the fair and all I got were these tiny figurines.

[She zooms the camera view out, so that the whole shelf is visible, dwarfing the few things on it. Two figurines, a few origami figures.]

Oh, and this is my house.

[Zoom again, and pan to show a very simple room with wooden furniture that looks like someone fashioned it with an axe. There are a lot of cushions, though, in many bright colours and patterns, and a number of plants growing out of the floor. There are no windows, but light filters in from somewhere above, skylights perhaps.]

I'm still working on it, I've mostly been away...

[Zoom in, back to the shelf.]

It'll fill up with memories, eventually. At least that's the idea...

[Wanda sighs.]

It doesn't really feel like home.

[She turns the camera on herself for the first time. Looking directly at the camera--] What do you think makes a home a home?

Comments

video

[krasnayapautina]

[Natasha has noticed there being two "Wanda Maximoff"-s on her TAB contact list, mostly just assuming it was some dumb glitch. Until now, when she finally sees a broadcast from this Wanda -- the way this Wanda speaks (what she says and how she says it), seems to differ some in ways from the Wanda she has known here.]

Hey -- Wanda? [Does this Wanda know her? Get along with her? She'll say more in a moment, once she figures out exactly what is going on.]

audio; private

[witchweird]

[Ever since she arrived and saw who else was here, Wanda knew this might be coming eventually. She's done it several times before, talking to various versions of Natasha Romanoff, trying to come to some sort of balance over the whole Avenger situation, past and future -- but the last time she'd talked to Natasha Romanoff, Natasha had been playing games with her, and left Wanda gritting her teeth and swallowing bile.]

[She was about to reply with extreme resignation when the things she'd been thinking about since talking with Peter -- multiverses, multiple versions of people in different worlds, everyone having an unknowable past when they came here -- combined with the idea of playing games. Do you like to play games, Natasha Romanoff? But the shoe would be on the other foot this time. The satisfaction of that thought carried Wanda through setting up a very private channel through which to talk to Natasha, audio only.]

Shh. It's Petra, remember? I'm so tired of answering to Wanda, I'm not going to take it from you.

Why are you contacting me? Did you find anything?

[Extreme annoyance gave her voice pretty real urgency, she thought as she flipped off the TAB to wait and see if she'd get a response. Was it enough? Would Natasha take the bait?]

voice;

[brokeassgoing]

Not exactly MTV's Cribs but it'll do. You lookin' to be a super greenthumb and lumberjack?

By the way, a toilet makes a home. With good reading material.

Re: voice;

[witchweird]

[Not what she was expecting, but...] Yes, that is better than not having a toilet in the home.

[She's usually good enough at English to get by, but she didn't quite get the first comment and has to listen again, before she adds--]

Thank you, I think. I'm just trying to make it comfortable for me. It's nice to see things growing so easily.

[brokeassgoing]

All you need's a picture of a clown above the toilet and you're set, honestly.

[a chuckle]

Yeah, that's all we can do out here. You mean you didn't do anything special with those? Huh.

[witchweird]

[Wanda almost asks (clowns?), but she's not that curious.]

You mean the plants? I made sure they had a good place to grow. Dirt, water, light...easy. No terraforming required.

[brokeassgoing]

But in the floor like that? Do roots work like that?

[can you tell this isn't a guy who has a green thumb]

[witchweird]

[At first Wanda isn't sure what the problem would be, but a few seconds later the question makes her think of a potential problem.]

Oh... Maybe as they grow I'll have to take up the flooring again and add some kind of irrigation system to get water as far out as their roots spread. I'm not sure, I just...did it because I could. It's all dirt under the flooring, but I guess if they don't like that, I'll work it out eventually.

[brokeassgoing]

That's hella dedicated...dunno much about plants besides sun and water and all that, but that's pretty cool, what you did.

[witchweird]

[Wanda is proud of her house, flaws and all, and it shows in her voice.] Thank you.

What's your speciality, then?

video;

[sketchycharacter]

There's an archaeology site on that planet? Shit, I missed out. You interested in that kind of history?

Re: video;

[witchweird]

It's still there, though there's not much to see. A collapsed tunnel isn't very easy to tour. The museum is just one room filled with acrobats and descriptions of acrobats.

It is interesting. I used to visit a lot of planets, but only for long enough to see the sights if I kept my eyes open. I never thought about the history, but thinking back now, I can catch glimpses that I wasn't paying attention to.

video;

[sketchycharacter]

Okay. That's a remarkably specific museum, and kind of creepy.

[But eh. Probably harmless. He shrugs.]

If you're from modern Earth, a lot of the history they taught you probably wasn't accurate or interesting anyway. You've gotta dig for the real stuff, but it's worth it.

Re: video;

[witchweird]

Is it? They're just trying to make a little money for their project. It's only open a few days a week and they all take turns running it.

What is the real stuff?

video;

[sketchycharacter]

Acrobat museum. Seems like pretty limited scope.

[Better than clowns, though.]

Well, once there was this famous explorer, hundreds of years before I was born. They say he died at sea and his body was committed to the ocean...except I found the coffin, brought it up, and boom. No body. He faked his death. History can be wrong.

Re: video;

[witchweird]

I guess you didn't miss much then.

That sounds like quite an undertaking, finding something that had been underwater for so long. But history takes on a life of its own...

Did everyone believe you?

[She's thinking of some historical stories of Sokovia that are important to her, and whether it would matter if they were exactly true or not. Yes and no?]

People get attached to stories. Maybe not that one, I don't know. But...it could be hard.

video;

[sketchycharacter]

It didn't make mainstream news or anything, but of the people who did hear, some believed it and some thought I was full of shit.

[The skeptics would bother him more if it weren't for the zombies. It's a good thing no one else is going after El Dorado to fact check his story.]

Plenty of stuff's hard. Doesn't mean there's no worth to it.

Re: video;

[witchweird]

[Wanda nods. About what she expected.] I suppose the real test is what version goes down in the history from then on.

[She hesitates.] No, not that... I once told a journalist that I knew what I experienced, and no one could change that by finding out a different truth. She was trying to convince me that finding out the truth about everything, but I think especially politicians' private lives, was ... valuable.

I kept thinking about that, though. I think we were talking about different things. Because there are things you have to know, and things that won't change a thing even if you do know. And maybe the truth you have to dig for ... if you're not talking about literal digging, because that I'm good at ... but maybe the hidden truth isn't the truth I'm looking for, or that I'd know what to do with. Maybe I'm more the kind of person who goes to the museum, even the little tiny one, and reads what's on the cards, and feels like I know something a little more than I did, even if it turns out that one of the cards was wrong.

audio

[worn_wings]

People.

[ That's a crummy answer in a place like this, where you don't get a choice in who comes through the Ingress or leaves, but in his opinion it's the only thing that makes home. Family, chosen or otherwise. ]

Re: audio

[witchweird]

[If she had an answer rather than a question, that wouldn't be too far from Wanda's own answer, though hers has other elements to it. Being needed, particularly. And something that was a little harder to explain...]

Specific people? Or people who ... form a community? Or...

[She's thinking about the country she left years ago, the people, the language, the feeling of being among... her people. It doesn't quite go into words right for her, and she finally sighs and lets it go.]

I don't know. I guess that's why I had to ask.

audio

[worn_wings]

Dunno. Depends on you, I guess.

People you give a shit about.

Re: audio

[witchweird]

Yeah... [Wanda's voice is thoughtful, and a little regretful.]

audio

[worn_wings]

I mean, you find folks. Don't have to be from home.

Just think you need people.

Re: audio

[witchweird]

When you put it like that, it sounds easy.

Re: audio

[worn_wings]

Nah, maybe not easy... Worth it, even if it ain't.

I mean, you're askin'.

[ That counts as looking for a connection, right? ]