Magic Box | Tuesday

[scarlet_chaos]

Look at who remembered she had responsibilities outside of the Darkhold today. Wanda hadn't showed up to work on time, but she had shown up. She had noticed the cats, sure, but she figured one of her employees was taking over the Halloween decorating since she sure as shit wasn't doing it this year.

Live cats was a little over the top though...oh well, not her problem.

She did conjure up some toys for them to play with though, she wasn't totally heartless.

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[scarlet_chaos]

"Now I realize that it wouldn't have been what my parents wanted," she said. "At the time I went in there to get the tools to hurt the people that hurt me. Namely the U.S. government. And Tony Stark."

[hasaknightjob]

"Okay, well, disappointing parents, now we're talking my language," Marc said, with something like approval. Then, on the odd chance it mattered - though fuck knew why he cared if it did, "US government kicked me out for being crazy and I never cared about Stark one way or the other so the rest is whatever to me. Course now I'm in an interesting position: do I go way bigger than that but general or smaller but more painful?"

Marc motioned at her to indicate he was offering her the choice.

[scarlet_chaos]

"I don't think you can beat me on bigger," Wanda shared. "So try me for smaller."

[hasaknightjob]

"You never know," Marc said. "But okay. I met my girlfriend when I told her her dad died. Except we were together ten years before she found out it was my fault her dad was killed."

Marc realized how he put that and then added, since the correction and explanation went hand in hand, "Ex girlfriend, now."

[scarlet_chaos]

"Well I should hope it's ex now," Wanda said, though her tone was still light. This was nice and light trauma dumping, okay? From two people who probably desperately needed therapy.

"I'll admit, that's pretty bad," she said. "Wanna hear bigger? You have to promise not to run away, though. If you do leave it has to be a casual trot away so you don't hurt my feelings."

[hasaknightjob]

If you couldn't trauma dump with someone you barely knew except for how they seemed to have fucked up issues just like you, who could you trauma dump with, really?

"Already got my exercise in this morning," Marc said. "So I can keep it to a brisk walk, sure."

[scarlet_chaos]

Wanda reached out to allow the cat on the counter to butt its head against her hand. "After everything with Thanos, I settled in a small town in New Jersey and forced the inhabitants to live out my ideal life. It was an accident at first, and when I realized what I had done...well, I didn't let them go right away."

It had taken her a loooooong time to be comfortable with saying that. Now she realized it had just been a step to getting her kids and didn't necessarily regret it so much anymore.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc needed a sec to mull that one over. Not in disgust, more he was trying to picture it since it wasn't anything near something he could've come up with on his own as something someone would want to do.

And while the issue of forcing people to do anything wasn't great, on the other hand Marc had a fairly unsubtle system for knowing when somebody had done something which had crossed the line. Konshu wasn't saying shit about it, which meant it wasn't Marc's business to worry about diving into the details and figuring out any nuance about where this shook out morally. Konshu didn't think Wanda was in need of his justice so Marc didn't either. Easy as that.

(Which was good because Wanda would destroy him in less than a second, let's be real.)

So, after giving it that thought, Marc said, "Yeah willingly moving to Jersey is pretty bad."

[scarlet_chaos]

Wanda burst out laughing, scaring the cat that had been on the counter. She should have expected the dry humor by now, since that seemed to be Marc's thing, but it still got her. "To be fair, I'm from Sokovia, my knowledge on what states to avoid is limited."

[hasaknightjob]

The laugh might've gotten a smile out of Marc except Marc didn't smile, so clearly any appearance otherwise was an illusion. "That's fair. Lemme help you out: lead with the forcing people part and if anybody asks where just mutter something about tri-state and change the subject. They'll think you mean New York."

[scarlet_chaos]

"And that's a more acceptable place to mind control people?" she asked.

[hasaknightjob]

Marc had pictured something more violent when Wanda said she'd forced people. In hindsight mind control made more sense as something that could start by accident than whatever it was Wanda did when making red lights come out of her hands.

In Marc's defense violence was how he handled things so it'd been his go to assumption. Besides, his accidents ended up killing people so who the fuck was he to judge Wanda for just screwing with people's heads?

"Oh, well, mind control," Marc said. "Yeah that'd probably be a problem. Don't think Yankees fans have those."

[scarlet_chaos]

Some people took more offense to the mind control than the killing, which was something Wanda had noticed after doing both. But when you really thought about it, death was quicker than spending an eternity being a Brady Bunch extra.

Poor Agatha Harkness.

"So, in conclusion, we've both screwed up a lot," Wanda said. "And probably will again in the future?"

[hasaknightjob]

Steven would definitely have more follow up questions about it than Marc did. But Steven wasn't there right now. And considering all the things Marc had done and hid from Steven in the name of trying to give Steven a happy, normal life -

Well suffice it to say Marc sure as hell would have used reality altering abilities to make that happen if he'd had them.

"Agreed," Marc said. He held out his hand to shake as though they were agreeing to a deal. "Though you definitely beat me on the Jersey thing. Congrats."

[scarlet_chaos]

"Thank you, I try," Wanda said, shaking his hand. "I'll let you know if I ever top it."

So...give her a couple weeks.

[hasaknightjob]

"That why you came here?" Marc asked. "Getting away from Jersey?"

For whatever part of Jersey Wanda wanted to get away from.

[scarlet_chaos]

"Yeah, it is," she said. "Thought a different small town would be nice to settle in. And then I was here for more than five minutes and I realized this was not a normal small town."

What with the alive versions of Steve and Tony.

"Were you looking for the quiet life for Steven?"

[hasaknightjob]

"Kinda, yeah," Marc said. "His idea. Got it into his head we needed a new place if we were living together. I didn't give a shit but it made him happy. Wasn't what I thought this would be though. I figured it was more like Madripoor."

[scarlet_chaos]

"Madripoor would be a good place to lie low." Why hadn't she thought of that? "But Madripoor doesn't have random cats showing up."

At least she didn't think it did.

[hasaknightjob]

"Place like Madripoor would have eaten him alive," Marc said, by way of agreeing with her. He looked down at the cat which had fallen asleep against his foot. "This place is weird but better."