driftfleet | (no subject)

[A sad smile finds its way to Wanda's face. She is happy for her friend, that she has a family and a home to return to. Wanda was not so lucky, and it was hard not to feel a little envious.]

It must be nice. You must do a lot of catching up whenever you visit home.

I haven't been back in a while. But...yeah. I used to come and go when I was younger. She'd always be there waiting for me. It was nice.

[It kept her whole.]

...

I'm sorry you don't get to do the same.

[It's hard to read that look any other way.]

[Wanda bites her lip for a moment. Realizing that she's bringing the mood of the conversation down, she tries a warmer smile and a change of topic.]

So you were fond of adventures even as a little kid? Have your own ship back then, too?

Ah... not quite. It's complicated. [Aheh. She doesn't mind people knowing, but Nami doesn't want to bring the conversation down either. Her smile is sheepish, but her tone is light.]

I may have borrowed a ship or two.

[That gets a knowing grin out of Wanda. In her youth, she was not exactly a stranger to the old five finger discount.]

As a kid? That must have been somewhat difficult to pull off.

Just a bit! Only small ones I could manage on my own, or I'd stow away on a ship. Once, I just gatecrashed a super luxurious party out on the ocean. That was fun.

[Wanda chuckles at that.]

You crashed a party in the middle of an ocean? As a child?

[It's not so much a question of disbelief as it is a prompting for Nami to tell her the story.]

Well, I was a good bit older by then, to be fair. I was almost eighteen. Dressed up for it and everything. Probably just as well I know how to act like a lady.

[Wanda smiles knowingly. To her own credit, when she was that age she and Pietro had been actively involved in pro-Sokovian peace and anti-military occupation of their country. One of the reasons they had even agreed to Strucker's experiments was because they were promised that the shelling of Sokovia would cease. Still, it wasn't exactly as glamorous sounding as dressing up and sneaking one's way into a high-profile party in the middle of the ocean.]

How did you manage to get in?

By being ultra cute and having a fake name.

[A sly, knowing smile from Wanda.]

I suppose one could get in almost anywhere with just those two things.

Some luck and skill goes a long way. But for the most part...yes. Probably. A lot of men don't tend to think very clearly when a pretty girl is involved.

[Wanda thinks on this for a moment. In her case, a killer robot did not show her much lenience when he sent a legion of his mechanical bodies at her. She's also had armed men fire guns at her--clearly, not showing much care for her looks there either. The only instance she can think of when she may have been treated with kid gloves was when the Avengers were clashing with one another at the airport. But that had been different. That had been a fight between friends, and it was very difficult not to hold back in that kind of situation... even if she had chided Clint about it at the time.]

I guess I'll have to take your word for it.

[Oh, don't worry. Nami's had plenty of people open fire on her without regard for her looks. Skewered her a few times too, it's downright rude. But there's certainly a lot of underestimation that goes on when they see such an ickle pretty girl in a short skirt facing off against them, that's for sure.]

Everyone takes you super seriously back home? That's a pity.

"Super seriously..."

[An amused giggle from her.]

Yes, that is one way of putting it... In the Avengers, I am the youngest member. That tends to lean the others towards seeing me as a child or sometimes, more affectionately, a younger sister. As for the people we usually go up against... well, they are not the type to care who or what you are. If you're standing in their way, then that's enough for them to shoot.

What's the Avengers?

...sounds kind of like a pirate crew. [She grins a little.]

[Wanda blinks for a moment. Then, the image of each of the Avengers -- Steve, Natasha, Barton, Sam, Vision, Rhodes, Tony, Barnes, even Scott Lang, all of them in pirate get-ups pops into her head.]

[Give her a moment Nami, because she's currently come down with a bad case of the giggles, which quickly becomes a full-on laughing fit. Complete with snorting, bright red cheeks, watering eyes, and a gasping for air in between bouts of laughter.]

[Once that finally passes, Wanda takes a moment to catch her breath, fanning herself with one hand. She tries to regain her composure though one or two stray giggles do manifest here and there. Whew, she has not laughed like that for quite a while. She clears her throat before answering Nami's lingering question.]

No, not a pirate crew. We're a... a team that protects people. Sometimes that means from other, bad people, and other times it can mean from an army of genocidal robots.

[is this
is this where she says her crew has done those things
genocidal robots and all

Nami's lip twitches up a little, but let's not go there. It was hella entertaining to watch Wanda collapse into giggles, but she gets the impression of vast difference.]

So you're more like the marines. Loosely speaking.

Marines?

[She considers the comparison briefly. For a moment, her eyebrows narrow in a pained look, but it is quick and fleeting. Gone and replaced with her previous nonchalance. Though, it is clear that the warmth that laughter had created has largely evaporated.]

Not exactly. The Avengers... were not meant to operate under any government. We acted independently, going where we believed the greatest need and greatest danger to innocents was.

[...so that's a strike on marines and her brother. She wonders if the two are connected. Hitting too many of the wrong targets today, Nami.

More soberly, she says:] That's good. More than good. It means you won't get tied up into politics anyway, right?

My mother was a marine. [She smiles, a little wistfully, though there's no real pain in it. More nostalgia.] But a lot of them aren't, uh. Well, they're our natural enemies back home. A lot of them are good people. Some of them... definitely aren't.

We weren't supposed to, yes. But, perhaps in some ways, it was naive to think we wouldn't get inevitably tied into them somehow.

[A sigh from Wanda. Things back home were so complicated that in some ways it almost made being in the Fleet preferable. Not that she'd ever admit that out loud.]

Enemies? The Marines? Well, being pirates I suppose that makes sense. What did your mother have to say about your career choice?

[Her smile deepens at that, though she looks away.]

Well, she doesn't know. She died when I was a kid.

...but the general consensus is she'd raise hell over it.

[And that revelation takes Wanda's breath away.]

Nami, I'm-- I'm so sorry.

[She knows they're just words, but then that's all she has. She tries to inject them with as much empathy as she can. She is quiet for a moment, looking to be considering something, before she speaks again.]

My mother died when I was 10.

[There's a small huff of laughter at that. She doesn't find anything particularly funny, but the similarity there...]

Mine too, actually. You never really get over it, do you?

[Though Nami's reaction catches Wanda a bit off guard at first, she's not offended. If anything, in fact, she begins to feel a little relieved by Nami's reaction. Glad to see she hadn't utterly ruined the mood of their conversation.]

No, not really.

I had Pietro though. Together, we managed to keep on going.