walk into my nightmare

"I haven't screwed anything up? Causing millions of dollars in damage to a German airport wasn't screwy enough for you?" she asked, her tone taking a cynical turn. "Sorry..." she said, fearing that she was being a bit ungrateful. But soon she realized he wasn't talking about her crimes, he was talking about her personal life. Maybe he was right, that it was just yet another speed bump, but... she couldn't shake the feeling that things hadn't worked out with Vision because of her, that it was her fault.

Her eyes lifted, though, to hear him speak of his own romantic misfortune. Suddenly she felt a little bit bad for complaining. She wasn't the center of the world and of course he had his own painful problems to deal with. She shouldn't have just come in complaining right out of the gate. "How are you sure it's over, though?" she asked, trying to be encouraging... in a way no one ever really was with her and Vision. "Maybe... if you just gave it some time and tried talking to her again?" She knew sometimes relationships weren't that simple, but... then again, sometimes they were. "I'm... I'm sorry it didn't work out, though. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be. Do you even believe in things like fate, or are you one of those people who thinks mankind makes its own destiny?

She sighed, feeling tired again. Not the sort of tired that makes one want to sleep, but soul tired. "I have invested everything in the people I love. And they all died or left me. What if I'm done investing for a while? What if I'm tired of trying?" she said in a bit of a biting tone, but it came from pain rather than anger. When he said that if anyone could bring out the best in her, it was him, she couldn't help but smirk. "Oh, is that so? You're a very humble person, Mr. Strange, has anyone ever told you that before?" she joked, chuckling.

As he told her that he never dated his students, and yet was promising to help her unlock the potential of her powers, Wanda's brow furrowed as she grew perplexed by the mixed messages. So you don't date your students, until now, you mean, she had been about to ask, not that she was immediately agreeing to it or anything. But unfortunately she couldn't say it. Her mouth had been sealed with another kiss from him before she could get any of the words out.

She felt guilty for kissing someone so soon after breaking up with Vision, and she wasn't quite sure what was even happening here, since she'd just met Stephen in any real capacity tonight, but... after a while she just gave into it and kissed him back because... well, he was a pretty damn good kisser and she was only human, after all. She was a good kisser too, though she had no idea of that. Her hand lifted to cup his face as the next five minutes passed about sinfully as it could given only their lips were involved.

So many times she had been met instead with people pushing her away in favor of not having to deal with her negativity on top of whatever else they were dealing with in their own lives. She was told to pick herself up, to be more positive, to break the cycle of negativity. That was easy to say, but not so easy for someone who had been through as much as Wanda had to actually do. But Stephen seemed to take it all in stride, and that actually helped Wanda to relax a great deal. Instead of feeling like she had to filter herself or hold back, she felt she could say whatever she wanted without being judged or immediately shut down. That was worth its weight in gold to her, and she was starting to think that she'd come to the right place to look for assistance.

"I honestly don't know that much about your... results," Wanda said. "You and I haven't exactly had a chance to get to know each other very well over the years, but maybe that'll change now. I hope it will." She smiled a little. "But if I was to go by confidence, then you've certainly got enough of that to last you a lifetime, so for all I know, maybe you do get results. All I can do is try to live up to all that potential you seem to think I have, I guess. What is that American phrase I keep hearing people say? Fake it until you make it? Maybe people need to have a lot of confidence and believe that they can do something long before they actually can. I'll try to believe more in myself, and maybe someday I'll have a reason to."

"Yeeeah..." Wanda said awkwardly, smirking a little. "Means and a stable home and knowledge about what the hell is happening to me are all things I've had in really short supply in my life. Especially now that I'm a wanted fugitive. That tends to make even small things like visiting the local grocery store a hassle and a challenge," she said a bit dejectedly. When he hugged her, she hugged back rather readily, being starved for just the most basic forms of human comfort of late. "Thank you," she whispered, finally feeling supported for the first time in months.

It was incredibly nice to have a room to stay in and a bed to sleep in where she felt there were people around her watching out for her. She felt safe, and like she didn't have to constantly look over her shoulder for the first time in so long. But that was when she was awake. Once it was time for bed, Wanda found herself inspecting her room, taking a while doing random things in the bathroom, and staring off into space instead of actually getting in the bed and attempting to sleep. She did all of that because she was a bit afraid of sleep, if she was being honest.

{ @glitchexmachina, continued from here. }

In her frantic state, Wanda thought of the first person she thought would understand, the first one she thought might be able to comfort her and make her feel safe. That person was Tyson. Responding to her thoughts of him, her magic sent her straight to his front door, and after banging on it for a short while, Wanda was so glad to see him finally open it.

"Tyson!" she yelled, practically flinging herself at him and wrapping her arms tightly around him as if clinging to a rock in a storm-tossed sea. "Help me! It's gotten out of... of control and I... can't stop it!" she sobbed. "It whispers to me! It... tells me to harm people... and... I'm starting to... to want to... and I..." She shook her head, closing her eyes tightly. "I don't want that... but... I'm afraid... I won't resist it much longer..."

"Do you think he'd help us, or..." Wanda paused, suddenly feeling a bit apprehensive. "What if he just thinks I'm crazy? Or... a danger to the public?" Which I am, she thought darkly and with no small amount of shame. Tyson had a point, though. This problem might require more heads combined than just their two alone.

Wanda watched as Tyson saved recordings of their failed attempts, wondering if Strange would take any of this seriously at all. She hoped that he wouldn't just shut her down by saying her children weren't real anyway. The man was sometimes down to earth to the point of being almost cold, in her opinion, a strange way for a sorcerer and former doctor to be.

She couldn't help but burst out laughing at his next comment though. Destiny... with his face on it? Wanda lifted a hand to cover her face as she laughed. "I'm sorry, it's just... That is a very interesting mental image. I can't say I've ever heard destiny calling out to me, but it'd be a little unnerving if it had your face." She chuckled a bit more before sighing. "Just a metaphor, I know," she admitted. "It just struck me funny, I guess."

it was becoming clear to Wanda that Stephen was far more of a gregarious and even flirtatious man than she ever realized. Not... that she'd known him very well to begin with before today. "To empathize, maybe, but not... automatically want to date them. Right? I mean, you didn't go around wanting to date all of your patients all the time, did you? Or... you don't want to date all your students here, right?" Or maybe so, how the hell should she know? Maybe he just had that massive of an ego, or he was a lot more casual with his relationships than most people. "Yeah, I... don't tend to move that fast. I've only ever had one relationship, and that was Vision, so..." And that was over now, apparently. She didn't want to dwell on that, though, or it would bring down her mood after she'd just managed to lift it up a bit.

"Beautiful and troubled. You sound like you're describing a soap opera star or something..." she said with an awkward smirk. She wasn't too good with flattery. It always made her feel shy and awkward, and she never knew how to respond to it. "It really isn't, though." Unbelievable? No. Just necessity. "I don't really have a choice but to keep going on with my shitty life, it's not like the universe gives me options," she said before she could thiknk better of it. If ever there was a mood killer, Wanda thought, there it was. Apparently not, though, because the next words out of his mouth were telling her to... to...

"I haven't screwed anything up? Causing millions of dollars in damage to a German airport wasn't screwy enough for you?" she asked, her tone taking a cynical turn. "Sorry..." she said, fearing that she was being a bit ungrateful. But soon she realized he wasn't talking about her crimes, he was talking about her personal life. Maybe he was right, that it was just yet another speed bump, but... she couldn't shake the feeling that things hadn't worked out with Vision because of her, that it was her fault.

Her eyes lifted, though, to hear him speak of his own romantic misfortune. Suddenly she felt a little bit bad for complaining. She wasn't the center of the world and of course he had his own painful problems to deal with. She shouldn't have just come in complaining right out of the gate. "How are you sure it's over, though?" she asked, trying to be encouraging... in a way no one ever really was with her and Vision. "Maybe... if you just gave it some time and tried talking to her again?" She knew sometimes relationships weren't that simple, but... then again, sometimes they were. "I'm... I'm sorry it didn't work out, though. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be. Do you even believe in things like fate, or are you one of those people who thinks mankind makes its own destiny?

She sighed, feeling tired again. Not the sort of tired that makes one want to sleep, but soul tired. "I have invested everything in the people I love. And they all died or left me. What if I'm done investing for a while? What if I'm tired of trying?" she said in a bit of a biting tone, but it came from pain rather than anger. When he said that if anyone could bring out the best in her, it was him, she couldn't help but smirk. "Oh, is that so? You're a very humble person, Mr. Strange, has anyone ever told you that before?" she joked, chuckling.

As he told her that he never dated his students, and yet was promising to help her unlock the potential of her powers, Wanda's brow furrowed as she grew perplexed by the mixed messages. So you don't date your students, until now, you mean, she had been about to ask, not that she was immediately agreeing to it or anything. But unfortunately she couldn't say it. Her mouth had been sealed with another kiss from him before she could get any of the words out.

She felt guilty for kissing someone so soon after breaking up with Vision, and she wasn't quite sure what was even happening here, since she'd just met Stephen in any real capacity tonight, but... after a while she just gave into it and kissed him back because... well, he was a pretty damn good kisser and she was only human, after all. She was a good kisser too, though she had no idea of that. Her hand lifted to cup his face as the next five minutes passed about sinfully as it could given only their lips were involved.

"So... distractions, then. They can be useful to set boundaries and focus on something you like. But it's also good to... be aware of our emotions, so we can stop ourselves from spiraling further." The empath paused, antennae moving softly, as if reacting to her thoughts. "Have you tried to keep any sort of record? Of your emotions, I mean. Writing them down, identifying them, naming them... Those are only some of the exercises that can help you. And talking as well. Talking about how you feel."

It seemed as though simply listening to Wanda was already a step in the right direction. The absence of comfort could be extremely painful. Mantis knew that well.

"Why is it good to feel all those terrible things?" To keep from spiraling, Mantis said. "But letting myself feel them causes me to spiral," she disagreed. After all, she'd released such a terrible burst of energy after Pietro had died. If she'd only held her emotions in instead of letting them destroy things around her and hurt others.

"Like a journal, you mean? No, I haven't ever done that. When you write things down, you commit them to memory much better, and I... I have a lot of things I would much rather forget forever."

{ @retiredcapsicle continued from here. }

Wanda was happy to see Steve. There had been a time when she'd resented him a bit, along with a few others, for not checking up on her after they'd defeated Thanos. But now that she'd been able to bring Vision back again, it was all water under the bridge. Everything was better now because of that. Everything was going to be okay. She was sure of it.

"Yeah, he... he probably should rest, you're right," Wanda agreed, but when Steve said she should get some sleep, she shook her head. "Oh, no, I couldn't. I'm much too excited to sleep right now." Clearly she was very wound up, despite having expended so much energy to bring Vision back as she'd said she did.

"Art? I never would have expected that," she said. "So you are enjoying your retirement, then, huh? It's well-deserved, in my opinion." Steve had been alive a long time, and so Wanda thought it was great that he was finally getting time to relax and pursue some hobbies for once.

As he began to talk about caring for his friends and that she was worth it, Wanda's smile faded and her gaze lowered. It was hard to hear that she was loved, because she didn't feel that way. And that... wasn't his fault, it was just that so much loss in her life had far outweighed the goodness and the love in it.

{ @glitchexmachina, continued from here. }

In her frantic state, Wanda thought of the first person she thought would understand, the first one she thought might be able to comfort her and make her feel safe. That person was Tyson. Responding to her thoughts of him, her magic sent her straight to his front door, and after banging on it for a short while, Wanda was so glad to see him finally open it.

"Tyson!" she yelled, practically flinging herself at him and wrapping her arms tightly around him as if clinging to a rock in a storm-tossed sea. "Help me! It's gotten out of... of control and I... can't stop it!" she sobbed. "It whispers to me! It... tells me to harm people... and... I'm starting to... to want to... and I..." She shook her head, closing her eyes tightly. "I don't want that... but... I'm afraid... I won't resist it much longer..."

But when Tyson asked if spending time with him was a positive or negative thing in her life, Wanda couldn't help but smile. "Positive. It's always been positive, when I'm with you, Tyson. And I thank you for that. You're a good friend." She really meant that. He always had an air of positivity around him, and it was downright infectious. Maybe that's why, when she'd been desperate and searching for help, her magic had led her to him.