driftfleet | "My mind's like a deadly disease..."

Who: Wanda Maximoff
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Starstruck
When: Now

Broadcast - Text

[Wanda's presence, both in the Fleet's comms and aboard its vessels, has dwindled, slowly but surely, over the course of the past month. There was period of time, around the beginning of the month, when she couldn't be found or reached at all--save for by Misty, Vision and Pietro. More perceptive fleet members might recall that her disappearance occurred around the time that rumors of a dragon and its rider terrorizing Solrius were circulating about. However, she did pop back up a little while later, seemingly as though nothing was wrong. However, those that know her well may have picked up the subtle tells that there was something she was not saying. Something that she was trying to bury. And so, she became more and more scarce around the Fleet. At least, until now...]

What do you think happens after death?

[The message is short and simple. Anyone familiar with the festivities of the month of October, perhaps this is simply her way of trying to get into the spirit of things?]

Starstruck - Action

[Friends and shipmates of Wanda's, if they want to go looking for her, will find her either holed up in her bunkroom aboard the Starstruck, or in a corner of the ship's kitchen or shuttle bay at times she thinks no one would typically wander in. By the look on her face, it is clear something is troubling her.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I ask myself that question a lot.

[First Kara and now Barnes. She had suspected that her question would likely dig up some painful things for others. That's why she'd tried and brushed it off on her own, trying to just move past it like she had with so many other things in her past. Yet, just like those other ghosts, this one kept coming back. Finally, she had caved to it. She wanted answers or reassurance or something. Something that she hoped someone in the Fleet would provide.]

And?

[She hopes Bucky interprets her one-word response as the invitation to share his thoughts as she means it to be.]

Catholics believe in life after death, where the sinners go to hell, the ones who are lost go to purgatory, and everyone else goes to heaven. That's always the goal. Do good in life, you get into heaven.

Wherever I'm going when I die, I know it's not there.

[ Of course, that doesn't mean he believes in any of that anymore. It's something to fall back on, anyway. ]

I'm willing to accept that there's nothing, too. That might be nice.

[A lengthy pause before Wanda's next response.]

You won't be the only one.

[Another pause but shorter than the previous.]

If you could know, would you want to?

No. It would be too much like watching over my shoulder for the inevitable. When it happens, it happens.

[Whether or not Bucky knows it, his words have hit on a definite truth in how Wanda's been feeling. She cuts the public feed. Seemingly, she's dropped the conversation. But then, a private line opens up from her.]

What if when it happens, it's not permanent?

Then you count yourself lucky that it's not over.

You're young, you still have time to change things. Even if it doesn't feel like it.

I don't feel lucky.

No, I'm sure you don't.

[There's a long pause before Wanda's next message. She knows this next question is a difficult one to ask of anyone, and to lay it at Winter's feet seems almost unfair.]

You don't think I should have stayed dead?

[It even hurts her to type that out. She thinks of Pietro and Vision. How they would feel knowing this is something she's been dwelling on for so long.]

That it's not right for me to still be alive?

[ He's not sure if she really feels like she should stay dead or if it was because she was pulled from..wherever it was that she ended up. It pains him that Wanda is going through this after what went on back home. After getting her brother back. The poor kid needs a damn break. ]

Not for a second.

The world is better off with Wanda Maximoff in it.

[There's a long pause after that. Reading Barnes' words... they really meant a lot to Wanda, and they hit her in a way that she hadn't quite expected. She was... happy? Tears were falling, but they were not the same sad ones she'd cried many times before. These were tears of gratitude. Gratitude that someone would be so caring. She knew Pietro and Vision had wanted her to live, that their fear and sadness over losing her was the reason they had sought to bring her back. Yet, to hear their sentiment echoed by someone else-- Someone who Wanda did not have as strong of a connection with, yet still viewed as an ally. It meant so very much to her. Finally, a response comes from her.]

Thank you.

[It's two words. Two, simple words. But she hopes they're still enough to convey the depth of what Barnes' own words had meant to her.]

[ Sure they don't know each other quite like how she knows Steve, but they've been in the fleet together this long already, and are part of a team back home. Even if he wasn't around much when she got to Wakanda. ]

You impact more people than you think. We'd miss you if you were really gone.

"My mind's like a deadly disease..."

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