explosion | RUBILYKSKOYE INBOX.

[ the telepathic network and her tether to aristaeus has given her a sense of how to manage the same with her own power. she tries it now, reaching out to wanda, not because she doesn't want to use the network that already exists, but because she is more determined than before to stretch and test her power. ]

( Where I come from, the clans tell stories about people like us. How we can change someone's thoughts, their heart. They say it is how the Kossians draw so many to them. I have never seen it. )

( Is it true? Can you do this? )

[ Fuck.

This question was, like Thanos, inevitable.

Perhaps it's best that it's first asked by Mavis, someone who at least understands the scope and weight of having a power like this, than someone who simply doesn't. There's an opportunity for understanding than fear and blossoming paranoia. ]

( Yes. )

[ It's best not to lie. Eventually, Mavis will learn the truth. It's best it comes from Wanda directly than indirectly. ]

( But it's not something you should do lightly. Some would say at all. )

( When I cannot fight, I need a way to keep others from fighting me. )

[ a noble, understandable impulse. she had been too tired to properly defend herself against felipe after the challenge. she had tried to be like a stone, but he had not been deterred. it was only strength in the end that had cowed him.

it would have been better, she thinks, if she could have simply stopped him. ]

( What do you mean that people are still fighting you when you can't fight? )

[ That's a great cause for concern. Generally, when someone was knocked down or spent, the bad guy tended to either leave them alone and recite a big monologue or aim for the killing blow. They usually opted for the former.

There weren't any big villains in town, but there were hot tempers. ]

( Did someone try to hurt you? )

( No one who could succeed. )

[ but who could put up a good enough fight, while she was tired, that it left her uneasy. that, at least, is what she attributes the lingering malaise to. not to felipe's tone, not to the intimacy of the violence. ]

[ Wanda hesitates. Reading minds is its own kettle of fish. Controlling them is an entire ocean of problems. But if someone's attacking her… self-defence is a buoy. ]

( What have you been able to do with your power so far? I know you can read minds. Have you ever felt yourself go beyond that? )

( I think I changed Aristaeus's mind. )

[ she has never admitted this. not to anyone. ]

( When I connected us. He was going to kill me. I couldn't let him. I had tried so hard to survive all that time and I couldn't — )

( So I tried to take something from him. I reached into his mind thinking I might take his training, his skills, and turn them on him. Instead, I connected our minds. His is mine, and mine is his. I can feel what he does, and see him when he is not here. We dream together. )

( And I stole him. He has wanted me since then. Not for Kossos, for himself. )

[ Wanting to try and turn Aristaeus on himself tells Wanda a lot more than perhaps Mavis knows. (Hadn't she done this to Vision in the 1970s?)

But she needs a moment to piece it together. She's only ever spoken about mind control with two people before, and while Pietro and Vision did their best to understand, they never could without experiencing it as the driver and not the passenger. ]

( How did he respond when you did it? Did he seem to be aware of you? Or did he act like he didn't know what was happening? )

[ it's a specific enough question to disrupt mavis' line of thinking, the way she blames herself. it stirs her out of it. she tilts her head, considering. ]

( Aware. Why? )

( You don't want them to know that you're doing it. )

[ Which is tricky, she knows. But Aristaeus is probably an outlier, much like Vision. From what she's gleaned from her interactions with him and what Mavis has revealed, he's certainly not a Muggle.

Non-psychics and non-enhanced are easier to manipulate if you do it right. ]

( If they know that you're subtly changing their behaviour or thoughts, it'll become harder for you—and not because of your power. People stop trusting you once they know what you can do. What you've done. )

( Are you worried about Aristaeus hurting you? Is that why you're asking about control? )

( No. If he tried to hurt me, I would hurt him back and worse. I am stronger than he is. )

[ strictly speaking, this makes him stronger, actually. by kuruko standards, at the very least. but she says this all matter-of-factly. ]

( He challenged me so that he could keep me alive. He won because I yielded. Because I do not want to die. )

[ that is, perhaps, the most comforting and relevant part. ]

( But Felipe attacked me. I do not want to hit him back. )

Edited 2023-08-29 00:38 (UTC)

[ Oh, Felipe (disappointed). ]

( Are you okay? )

[ Perhaps the most important question in Wanda's books. Felipe is tall and lean, although she's not quite sure if he's capable of a good right hook. She's been taken by surprise by others. What's the saying? Don't judge a book by its cover.

But it's easy to tear that book apart. Wanda needs a moment to think of how to show Mavis how one avoids a paper cut when handling a book that bites back (even weakly). ]

( He did not hurt me. )

[ which is not the same thing, really, as being okay. ]

[ It's seriously not, Mavis!

But Wanda doesn't press, able to read between the lines. She noticeably pauses, going quiet as she considers. The way she dealt with obstacles in the last few months was too violent—something she's sure Mavis could be capable of, but that's not the solution she wants to give her. It's not very useful; it only makes everyone afraid of her. ]

( I can show you how to make someone stop. But I think I'll need to see what you can do so far. )

[ As much as Wanda wants to find Felipe herself, she recalls the Duchess's words. What happens when you do everything for everyone and you end up disappearing? ]

( We can try it on one of the townspeople. Just… make them stop. Make them go still. If you can do that, you can stop anyone from attacking you again. )

( How does that sound? )

( What if it doesn't work, and they want us to leave? )

[ that was how the kuruko felt. the knowledge of that power had led them to drive her from their home, from her own community. she may be open with the void-touched about her power now, but she is not remotely as comfortable with the people of rubilykskoye finding out. it's too likely that they wouldn't tolerate it. ]

[ Wanda doesn't have the best answer for that. Hadn't she left Westview? Hadn't she let Wundagore shield her from everything she had done and from everyone she had hurt? But Wanda can't let Mavis think that's the end of the story for her. It shouldn't be. ]

( It will work. )

[ Because Wanda knows that it will. She won't accept any other ending. ]

( They won't ask us to leave. They know that they need us. There is a reason why we're here; there is no one like us. )

( There were no Kuruko like me. They told me to leave, anyway. They lived without us. )

[ they could do it again. ]

( They won't. They need people like us. )

[ Wanda doesn't speak from experience. Mavis describes what she's lived a few times over, but perhaps Rubilykskoye will be different. She wants to believe it can be. ]

( You can't let their fear control you. That isn't for you to bear. Your people never should've made you. )

( They were protecting themselves. )

[ there's a defensive edge of warning to it. aristaeus has tried this angle, too. reassuring her that there was some wrongness in the kuruko's decision to exile her in the first place.

but they are gone now. how can she bring herself to admit their wrongdoing? isn't that at odds with honoring their memory? ]

[ Aren't they always trying to protect themselves? Wanda's always found their strikes a little too pre-emptive.

She remembers sitting on the eery Raft on a different level than her friends, bubbling with anger. How is that protection when it had been a punishment born from their fear? ]

( What about you? Are you not allowed to protect yourself, too? )

( Easier to survive here, with them, than alone. )

[ if that means not using her power to protect herself from them, or testing it on them, or even show it to them, then ... so be it. she'll be a little shadow of herself, something palatable. she learned from her mistake. ]

( You won't be alone. I'll always be here with you. )

[ And for her, but Wanda feels that there's something a little more powerful knowing someone will always be by your side. ]

( If it will make you feel better, we can ask who would like to help you learn. No one can hate you for asking for permission. )

[ And the townspeople seem more willing to help the Void-touched than the civilians Wanda bumped shoulders with at home. (Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that their town has remained standing unlike the cities the Avengers have desecrated without looking back.) ]

[ it goes a long way, what wanda offers. especially when paired with the fact that she knows she has aristaeus and john. she has people, even if she doesn't keep this town, this community. she will have people.

but it's also not quite the same as having a place. so she has to sit with it. ]

( I will think. )

( You let me know what you want to do when you're ready. )

[ It's thought gently. ]

( This isn't something we can do in a memory. It won't prepare you… I don't want you to get hurt if you try it. )

[ However that hurt may manifest—on herself or on the person she cares about. It won't show her the complexities of someone's response when Wanda is not subduing them. And while Wanda thinks to offer that as an alternative, if Mavis is afraid of being attacked when weakened, Wanda doesn't want to warm her with a butter knife when she needs a steak knife. ]

RUBILYKSKOYE INBOX.

(mavis-and-wanda telepathy, hard mode)

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(cw: ref to gendered violence)

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