...And also these.

[thespaceopera]

[ Calibration Rooms ]
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ROOMS BY CHARACTER

N - Q Nami Natasha Romanoff Nelkeila Tarid Nux Nyssa al Ghul Octavia Blake One Peggy Carter Phèdre nó Delaunay de Montrève

R - U R. Daneel Olivaw Rapunzel Remy LeBeau Riku Robin Redbreast Rogue Santanico Pandemonium Shawn Hunter Stefan (Alesci) Salvatore Steve "Orion" Rogers Steven Quartz Universe Souji Seta Stiles Stilinski Syeira Tadashi Hamada Tekhetsio

V - Z Vash the Stampede Vima Sunrider Vision (The) Wanda Maximoff Wrath Yamanaka Ino

Comments

[lord_wizard]

[He pulls his hand back and holds his fingers against his mouth, to stop the sound that wants to come out. That idyllic scene of happiness ripped apart in moments had been so vivid that even in the memory, part of him had reached out to try to save the parents before they'd fallen into that void. Also very real is the pain and anger the memory elicits. He'd been victim to that paralyzing helplessness before, though it hadn't been his parents he'd watched die.

There's nothing he can. Nobody he can punish.

It takes a moment for him to steady his breathing and look back at her. He feels useless here, and the search for words only elicits a simple question]

How old were you?

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[The girl actually turns away from the levitating blocks, looking over at Felix. This is the first time she's shown any indication of acknowledging his presence. A small, weak smile appears on her face. She holds up a finger, writing a number in the air. As she draws the digits out, they actually take shape in the air. Like a burning, red sliver slashed into the air itself.]

10

[lord_wizard]

Saints and powers...

[He follows the quiet oath with a hand scrubbed across his face. Everything about this is so wrong, but a thought occurs to him as he stares at numbers. Clearly, she hadn't had her magic then, or she might have at least attempted to use it. She told him she'd been given that power. Were the two things connected]

What was it? Some sort of war?

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[Wanda nods her head. She points to one of the pictures on her wall, it's the newspaper clipping--the photo of the six heroic looking figures. Following her finger, one might guess that she's pointing directly towards one of those figures in particular. A man with black hair, well trimmed facial hair, clad it what might look to Felix like a suit of armor--his chest and and arms completely covered by it, only his head exposed.]

[lord_wizard]

[He frowns at the clipping, trying to figure out exactly what relation they might have to that kind of conflict. Soldiers, perhaps? They certainly lacked for a uniform except..

While he can't be certain, the figure she's pointing at suddenly sparks a memory of his own. Someone he might have known about back at the castle.

Before he can voice the name, however, he goes over to touch the picture, fairly certain of what will happen this time, but sure it will answer at least one of the many questions he has at this point]

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[When Felix touches the clipping, he doesn't receive quite as powerful of a vision as before. Instead, he sees the figures from the clipping all standing together, valiant, triumphant after a hard-fought victory. Their names float through his mind... Iron Man... Tony Stark... Black Widow... Natasha Romanov... Hawkeye... Clint Barton... Thor... Captain America... Steve Rogers... The Hulk... Bruce Banner...]

[Then the other five figures disappear, evaporating into smoke. Leaving just the one identified as Tony Stark, the Iron Man. He grins, cocky, charismatic, but then he is replaced with just his last name "Stark." The word contorts, ages, it is now plastered upon a missile shell. Sitting in a pile of rubble. A rather familiar scene, no?]

[But there's more... metal men, robots raining from the sky, guns, missiles, munitions, explosions, fires, people running, yelling, screaming... the sound of gunfire, angry voices shouting orders... The word Sokovia hovers in Felix's mind. And then, nothing... the memory or vision or whatever that was ends.]

[lord_wizard]

[He turns back to her, and the anger on her behalf is plain in his eyes. The picture paints them as heroes, but the things Wanda had been seem to tell a completely different story.]

Stark? Is he responsible for you being in this place?

[His fist curls into a ball, mostly unconscious. It's not in his instinct to throw punches, but the idea would be severely tempting if the man were present]

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[The girl shakes her head at Felix's question. His name might have been on the shell casing that leveled her family's building, killing her parents, but he was not the reason for why she was in this cell. To answer that question, she extends her arm one more time, pointing towards a different picture. This one is of a golden scepter with a blue jewel and a strangely bladed end.]

[lord_wizard]

[He eyes it, unsure of what connection to a place like this it could possibly have. The more he learns the more he wants to shatter the glass and take her away from all this, but he's also afraid to try and fail, just as he'd already done for her already.

He doesn't bother to ask this time, but instead touches the picture and waits for another layer to be peeled away]

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[This time, you suddenly find yourself lying on your back, staring up at a bright fluorescent light on the ceiling. The cold metal of the operating table causes chills your back, causing the hairs on your neck to stand on edge. You try to move your limbs, but you quickly realized you are strapped down. No way to move, no means of escape, no room to struggle. You try to relax, but, as the sound of footsteps draw closer, a mounting sense of dread overtakes you.]

[You can't see the figure drawing close to you. His footsteps stop, you can tell whoever it is standing right next to you; yet, you still cannot see him. Then a voice, most likely the figures, echoes out from the darkness to your immediate right. The voice is low, a little raspy, the sound of a man in his early to mid 40s.]

Well, now... let us see if this one offers any potential.

[The sound of a machine whirling up by your head. It gets louder, the whirling faster. Then, suddenly a flash of blue light, and then blinding white. Pain. All you feel is pain. Everything in your body, your mind screams. It burns, every bit of you to your very core is stinging, blisteringly hot.]

[You try to open your mouth to scream, but you can't. Somehow, in all the pain, some small part of you is able to remember that you have been muzzled. Like an animal. That is the last thought that crosses your mind, before you give into the surge of white-hot pain and start to pass out.]

[As everything starts to fade to black, you hear the voice once more, now growing more distant, more numbed--like hearing someone on the other side of a glass wall.]

Promising... very promising... continue your tests doctor. And do not worry. Should the experiments fail... well, there are plenty of spares...

[lord_wizard]

[Even before the cell comes back into focus, Felix recoils from the memory so violently that he slams his back into the opposite wall. It wasn't just that it had been so brutally real but that it cast a mirror on a memory of his own - the table, the straps, the complete helplessness, and the utter, blinding, all-encompassing pain - that for a moment the operating room and the old basement of St. Crellifer's blended seamlessly. It didn't matter that he hadn't thought about that for years or hardly remembered the details; it had left an impression of terror behind that he could probably never erase. He couldn't entirely stop the sob that tumbled from his lips, despite the hand that went up to try to catch it; nor could he stop the flash of panic that sent everything but his feet racing. There was no where else to run.

It takes a long, painful minute for him to assure himself that the pressure of straps across his limbs were phantoms of his own making, and that the real victim here, this time, was Wanda. Outrage is what finally starts to clear his mind. She was just a girl, and though he lacks a crucial amount of context, he knows that whatever her willingness in the situation, she'd been used. Whoever that had been had not cared about her at all.]

Why? Why did they do that to you?

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[She looks at him, at first looking a little confused by his question. Then she looks down, around herself. When she looks back up at Felix, her eyes are glowing with that familiarly, crimson-red energy. She holds her hands up, open palmed for him to see. They are glowing with the same energy. All around the room, things begin to softly levitate a few inches off the ground. They are then slowly lowered, as the light in her eyes and round her hands fades. She looks at him expectantly, hoping he understands her answer.]

[lord_wizard]

[He watches the display with wide eyes, and suddenly their past conversation clicks into place. She'd told him she'd been given this power. As if were a gift. But this looks quite a bit more like a curse. The bridge between here and the first memory suggests a story that is again, altogether too familiar in theme.

He feels sick as he continues to lean back against the cold wall of the cell, uncertain that his legs will hold him on their own.

Felix understands, but as it often is, the knowledge is a burden he's not sure he's fit to carry.]

That's how you got your powers. [It still doesn't explain why they'd do that, but maybe that's beyond her ability to explain]

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[Wanda nods her head. A small, weak smile on her face, apparently glad with his understanding.]

I volunteered.

[She speaks. Her first cohesive, verbal response that she's had to Felix since his arrival. Her behavior is still that of someone in a daze, however. While she is clearly directing her words and attention towards Felix, she still looks as if she is distracted by some far off thought.]

[lord_wizard]

[The words catch him by surprise, and not just because of the breach of silence. That, at least, is where his experience diverged from hers. He looks to the wall of pictures with a frown, however, and has an idea of why she'd do such a thing, even if that reason was simply a place to sleep.]

Why? What did they promise you?

[He suspects that the word of men like that would only have been lies, but it's what she wanted that matters]

[notmutantbutmiracle]

The people of Sokovia... my city... they are being attacked. Bombed. Shelled with artillery. To make them stop... we volunteered.

[Another moment of silence, Wanda's face twists a little in anger, grief and disgust.]

And... they promised us a chance... for revenge.

[lord_wizard]

Revenge. [He mulls the word over, his voice flat. He's still reeling from that last vision, but no matter the reason for it, he can't quite reconcile the idea of using a child for such a thing.]It should not have been on you to fight that battle.

[He couldn't deny, though, that her anger seemed to be justifiable. The fact that her expression showed anything but anger made him wonder.]

Did you succeed?

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[The question actually gets a small smile out of her, but it is not pleasant looking. It is a sour smile, one that is filled with a certain sense of malice.]

In a way, I was.

[lord_wizard]

[He feels a slight chill in his stomach mixed with a slight jolt of elation on her behalf. It's a strange cocktail, and he wonders if she feels it too.]

What happened?

[notmutantbutmiracle]

[She turns away from Felix. Not wanting him to directly see the mixture of emotions that play out on her face as she tells her story.]

My hometown... my city... Sokovia, has none the violence and destruction of war for some time. The enemy's weapons were almost entirely created by one man's company. Tony Stark... the war profiteer. We were offered a chance by one organization, Hydra. They offered to have the shelling of our city stop if there would be those in the town to volunteer for some tests. They were not clear on what the tests were or what would happen. They only said that they could grant us power. To my brother and I... it offered us a chance to avenge our parents' deaths.

We were the only survivors of Hydra's tests. And indeed, we did receive great power from them.

We were able to use our new found gifts to pick apart the team of so-called "heroes" that Stark had aligned himself with. The Avengers. Yet, it was a bitter sweet victory. For it seemed we had chosen to align ourselves with the wrong side...