[ He listens to her, trying not to make comment though he fights himself on it multiple times, and when she's done, he gives pause, just in case. And then, he folds her into his arms. ]
I'm sorry.
They shouldn't have... You were in a crowd. What did they think would happen if you hadn't shot upwards?
[ Honestly. Why are people always getting punished for making the right call? Nobody wins in this case. But this was just to stem their losses. Were they so blind to that?
And to top it all off, putting her in a power-inhibited straitjacket. He holds her tighter, thinking of how miserable it must have been. ]
[she really doesn't hesitate in returning the hug.]
Well. The idea was to not blow up people in a building in the process. And on top of that, it was me doing what had been done to me seventeen years before, when Pietro and I were ten, and a shell hit our apartment building, killing our parents and leaving us stuck in rubble for two days. [If she could just never witness another exploding building that'd be super g r e a t okay thanks universe.]
Let them? He might as well have asked them to; he likes me about as much as I like him. [that is: -25362746% of a favorable opinion, for the record.] I think if he could have, Tony would have happily put me in the cell and restraints himself and melted the key.
[ Wow, other Tony was right, his MCU counterpart is completely useless. ]
Wanda, I'm sorry.
[ In an attempt to soothe her, he runs fingers softly through her hair. ]
I'm sorry I couldn't have been there to help you, or free you.
[ Or have made sure she wasn't the one destroying buildings in the first place. It's a specialty of his. And he can take that-- the blood on his hands, the political strain, the scrutiny, hell. The prison sentence. But he does not want that for Wanda. Even though she's known war, she's known suffering, she's still innocent to him. She's still relatively untainted. ]
I know that I probably wouldn't have even gone through most of that had you been alive there; it's not as if when I was back there, I was mad at you for being dead. I know my friends there tried to protect me from experiencing what did happen, and I'm not even mad at them for failing in that. [She knows that her family would protect her better than any other options when it came down to it.]
But it was my fault - that mistake was the last one that people were willing to accept from us, and we probably made ourselves look even more stupid by the very public fights we had over that issue. Because, yeah why not have a group of people wreck an airport when they're already way past the 'on thin ice' stage with the public? And there are the sides of the right versus wrong, good versus bad, lines that I thought I was on, and then there are the sides I'm actually on. [It's simple to her: If she were on the side of good, she'd not have been arrested. If she were right instead of wrong, she'd not have to run as an international fugitive after the escape.]
And here, where I have more family than I've had in seventeen years, thanks to the multiverses, I still manage to be terrible at that. I feel like I should have said the most about this to you sooner, but instead I ... kept it, and even then until I felt like I had no other option. [Not that she'd really said anything to anyone, but still. This should have been the exception.] What I mean is, I'm sorry, I-- [She cuts herself off; she should probably stop talking for two seconds.]
[ He takes it all in, doesn't move to interrupt her until she interrupts herself, studies her face, keeps a steady grip on her shoulders. And when she is done, he lays a soft hand on her cheek, tries to reassure her. ]
Don't. I won't begrudge you your secrets. But I don't know why you should feel ashamed of yourself.
I'm not.
You have done everything in your power to do what you think is right. The deaths of those people was not your fault. Not everyone can control their powers; you hope for zero casualties but you still celebrate a smaller number of casualties than you would've otherwise had. What about the person who designed the bomb? Who set it off?
How do they expect you to act when they punish you for something like this?
[ Because like, um, maybe don't go to your dad for advice on this since his reaction is like, kill the president on national tv? ]
Wanda, you have a great power. People don't understand it, and they will try to contain it and strip it from you and assign to you burdens that aren't yours, for their own comfort. It's an easier narrative for them to make you a villain, because they're scared of you.
[that.. sounds like what Steve said, about how sometimes not everyone can be saved, but you try to save everyone. shows you how well she listened to that.]
So, what, I just hope that doesn't happen again? Let me tell you how optimistic I am about that, especially when I don't even know what else is a part of me. [who the fuck knows what kinds of magic, or other kinds of alien space energies are part of her now after being exposed to the mind stone and shit? not her, that's who knows.] In which case, they might not be wrong to be that scared.
You aren't alone, Wanda. I see mutants every day who don't know the depth of their power, who don't think they can control whatever it is within them. I was like that too, once.
The only thing you can do is hone your craft. Learn your limits. Don't take it away from yourself.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
I'm sorry.
They shouldn't have... You were in a crowd. What did they think would happen if you hadn't shot upwards?
[ Honestly. Why are people always getting punished for making the right call? Nobody wins in this case. But this was just to stem their losses. Were they so blind to that?
And to top it all off, putting her in a power-inhibited straitjacket. He holds her tighter, thinking of how miserable it must have been. ]
Tony let them arrest you?
no subject
Well. The idea was to not blow up people in a building in the process. And on top of that, it was me doing what had been done to me seventeen years before, when Pietro and I were ten, and a shell hit our apartment building, killing our parents and leaving us stuck in rubble for two days. [If she could just never witness another exploding building that'd be super g r e a t okay thanks universe.]
Let them? He might as well have asked them to; he likes me about as much as I like him. [that is: -25362746% of a favorable opinion, for the record.] I think if he could have, Tony would have happily put me in the cell and restraints himself and melted the key.
no subject
Wanda, I'm sorry.
[ In an attempt to soothe her, he runs fingers softly through her hair. ]
I'm sorry I couldn't have been there to help you, or free you.
[ Or have made sure she wasn't the one destroying buildings in the first place. It's a specialty of his. And he can take that-- the blood on his hands, the political strain, the scrutiny, hell. The prison sentence. But he does not want that for Wanda. Even though she's known war, she's known suffering, she's still innocent to him. She's still relatively untainted. ]
Tell me you understand it wasn't your fault.
no subject
But it was my fault - that mistake was the last one that people were willing to accept from us, and we probably made ourselves look even more stupid by the very public fights we had over that issue. Because, yeah why not have a group of people wreck an airport when they're already way past the 'on thin ice' stage with the public? And there are the sides of the right versus wrong, good versus bad, lines that I thought I was on, and then there are the sides I'm actually on. [It's simple to her: If she were on the side of good, she'd not have been arrested. If she were right instead of wrong, she'd not have to run as an international fugitive after the escape.]
And here, where I have more family than I've had in seventeen years, thanks to the multiverses, I still manage to be terrible at that. I feel like I should have said the most about this to you sooner, but instead I ... kept it, and even then until I felt like I had no other option. [Not that she'd really said anything to anyone, but still. This should have been the exception.] What I mean is, I'm sorry, I-- [She cuts herself off; she should probably stop talking for two seconds.]
no subject
Don't. I won't begrudge you your secrets. But I don't know why you should feel ashamed of yourself.
I'm not.
You have done everything in your power to do what you think is right. The deaths of those people was not your fault. Not everyone can control their powers; you hope for zero casualties but you still celebrate a smaller number of casualties than you would've otherwise had. What about the person who designed the bomb? Who set it off?
How do they expect you to act when they punish you for something like this?
[ Because like, um, maybe don't go to your dad for advice on this since his reaction is like, kill the president on national tv? ]
Wanda, you have a great power. People don't understand it, and they will try to contain it and strip it from you and assign to you burdens that aren't yours, for their own comfort. It's an easier narrative for them to make you a villain, because they're scared of you.
They don't know you. I do.
no subject
So, what, I just hope that doesn't happen again? Let me tell you how optimistic I am about that, especially when I don't even know what else is a part of me. [who the fuck knows what kinds of magic, or other kinds of alien space energies are part of her now after being exposed to the mind stone and shit? not her, that's who knows.] In which case, they might not be wrong to be that scared.
no subject
The only thing you can do is hone your craft. Learn your limits. Don't take it away from yourself.