( a voice — almost like a french accent, but not quite, something alien about it — issues forth from the blue sending crystal that wanda was issued upon arrival, low and feminine: )
This is... ( someone is consulting her notes. ) Wanda Maximoff?
( huh. the name is a strange coincidence, but wanda maximoff is a rifter, not an elf, so she sets it aside. )
My name is Captain Gwenaëlle Baudin, I understand you're new to Forces.
[ It's only a matter of time until she's discovered—although if Wanda wanted to be hidden, she's certain that she would've succeeded in it. She knows who Gwenaëlle Baudin is. It's important to know the cast of characters she suspects will feature quite frequently in her character-centric episodes.
She responds with a perfect American accent - ]
I am.
[ Tone warm, too. Friendly, open—everything that she needs to be to be someone who is approachable and likeable. ]
If I'm receiving a call from the captain, does this mean I'm in trouble? I promise I put everything back where I found it.
( the brief pause really isn't Wanda's fault. neither is the incrementally more reserved tone that follows, )
No, you're not, ( but Gwenaëlle is, momentarily, thrown by the unintended mirror of a recent, difficult conversation.
it's not an auspicious start (probably there's a version of this conversation where she says something funny about it being the commander when she's in trouble and they laugh and it's very smooth), but this can't possibly go as badly as that. )
It's only record keeping. Did you arrive with any particularly exciting weaponry, what do you typically need in the field, is there anything specific you need for training, sparring, etcetera.
Any questions you might have about the guard duty roster, as well. You'll be on shifts with someone more familiar to start, to get to know it.
[ If she were responsible like Steve, she'd inform Captain Baudin that she is the weapon she arrived with. But she's not responsible like Steve, and she doesn't want to label herself so soon. She's just a simple girl who fell asleep under rubble and woke up here. This is a fresh start. ]
I don't like guns.
[ Do they even have guns here? Does it matter? It answers a question she needs a few moments to mull over. ]
I have some experience with sparring, but… I'm not the best. Do Forces offer that? Hand-to-hand? Weapons training? Ways to outsmart a punching bag that's bigger and heavier than me? I know how to hold my fist for a punch, but I've been told I hold my weight all wrong.
[ This is supposed to be endearing. To Wanda's ears, she sounds like she doesn't belong in this division. ]
( to gwenaëlle's, too; her increasing dubiousness about this person is audible, even as her answer comes measured and polite. )
Ouais, that can be provided. You understand that you've specifically signed up for your physical skills and combat to be the basis of majority of your work?
( like. just to be clear. she could not sound less endeared, but she is definitely trying to give wanda the benefit of the doubt, a handhold in the conversation— presumably there's some reason she chose forces over the alternatives.
most things and people are bigger and heavier than gwenaëlle; she's less concerned about that than the way wanda is talking to her now. )
[ Perhaps she's playing her cards too close to her chest. Hadn't she been informed magic was a no-no here? She is magic. But if she were assigned a task as part of Forces, wouldn't she eventually reveal what she's been hiding?
It'd been easier with the Avengers. She spent most of her time in New York under house arrest while everyone else led the missions and roped her in when they needed the manpower. She was always a guest star. She was never a key player.
She weighs up the potential consequences. ]
I can move things with my mind.
[ Her heart may pound, but Wanda's voice comes out strong, unwavering. Her fear is hidden. What's another world that hates her? (Too much.) ]
I've always relied on it. Throwing punches is not my specialty, but I would hope that someone in Forces could teach me how. I've had some training.
[ But one of her trainers is dead, and the other is an old man too content with his happily ever after to return to what he used to be to her. Wanda is displaced, and she has no idea how to navigate it. Forces had been the best path forward: it sounded familiar. (The name sounded on par with The Avengers.) ]
I used to be part of a team. This is what I know best.
[ WandaVision proved she'd be amazing in research. ]
( if the endearing patter and easy friendliness had put her off, equally the straightforwardness (and the caution she can read into one after the other) sets her more at ease— )
Good, ( is matter of fact and instantly more amiable, ) that's what we need.
( the team part, mainly, but as for the rest: )
It sounds like we might make good training partners on the physical side of things; I'm slight, so it's about speed and agility, not brute strength. Our previous two Commanders trained me, and I had to retrain one of them, long story. We can probably work something out with your, what's the word— télékinésie, if you want to practise to account for however it's likely changed from where you were to here, which I would recommend because finding out in battle sounds like a clusterfuck.
( the voice of someone intimately familiar with rifters and their unique challenges, to be sure— )
No one's tossed things at me to see if my shield can block them for a while. I'm not a mage, myself, but my anchor-shard has certain abilities that aren't the norm. Shield barrier included.
[ Perhaps we should be glad there appear to be no car dealerships in Thedas. ]
You'd trust me to use my power on you? [ Not with. Wanda's learned from in the field that it's always on or against. That's how the media likes to portray her power usage, after all. Better to lean into it. ] You don't know me.
[ There's no accusation in her voice. Incredulity, yes. She's open to it, of course—someone wishing to participate with her is enough to have her consent, but… It's not common. Even the Avengers had approached her trepidatiously back in the day. She's used to the fear. ]
With me, ( is an easy correction. she's not the telepath; she doesn't, can't know what wanda's thinking, or the context in which it lives. what she does know is that the entire point of all of this is that they are all working together,
and: )
No one twisted your arm behind your back and made you join. If you had decided to sit down and sulk, then you still would have been provided with a roof over your head, food at mealtimes, and the protection that living within these walls affords. You've been dropped into a shit situation without so much as a by your leave, in the process leaving behind probably everything you knew prior, and you've chosen to do this work.
I'm doing you the courtesy I do everyone here of assuming that you did that because you want to do the work. If you're going to take the opportunity in front of you and piss it away that soon in turning on everyone around you, ( her tone doesn't change at all because it isn't accusation so much as imagine how goddamn absurd that would be, ) it would be incredibly poorly calculated to do it in the middle of the training yard.
( and then, laced with dry humour: )
You haven't been here long enough to want to take a crack at me. Give it time.
[ She makes an amused noise. Gwen reminds her of Sam, although Sam's way of relating to others was through dad jokes and snorting at said jokes. She ignores the ache such a thought prompts. ]
The last time I was recruited into anything, it wasn't like I had much choice.
[ She's considered her words and what she risks by sharing this information. She has nothing to lose. Who are the Avengers here, if not a group with a stupid name? ]
They kept me in my room, afraid of me. [ Not entirely the truth, but it became it in the end, didn't it? ] I guess I expected that would happen here, too.
[ But — ]
I'll use my power with you. I may even let you get a few hits in before I embarrass you in front of everyone.
[ Her tone is teasing. She's trying this out, this whole… being a comrade thing. How long has she been alone? How has it ruined her ability to simply banter and—well, trust is the beast waiting around the corner, isn't it? ]
( gwenaëlle always finds it a little bit funnier to let people just find out what she can do, which is itself a milder form of her inclination never to make any threat she might want to act on. )
To your first point, you've more or less described what being a mage was like for the last, I don't know, several centuries. You might find more understanding here than you're accustomed to. I won't pretend to you that the reception won't be varied outside of the Gallows — there'll be as many that just objectify you in new and annoying ways as are frightened — but we're the problem children. You're in fine company.
( like, the commander of forces is a really cool war criminal. )
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
crystal, first.
This is... ( someone is consulting her notes. ) Wanda Maximoff?
( huh. the name is a strange coincidence, but wanda maximoff is a rifter, not an elf, so she sets it aside. )
My name is Captain Gwenaëlle Baudin, I understand you're new to Forces.
no subject
She responds with a perfect American accent - ]
I am.
[ Tone warm, too. Friendly, open—everything that she needs to be to be someone who is approachable and likeable. ]
If I'm receiving a call from the captain, does this mean I'm in trouble? I promise I put everything back where I found it.
no subject
No, you're not, ( but Gwenaëlle is, momentarily, thrown by the unintended mirror of a recent, difficult conversation.
it's not an auspicious start (probably there's a version of this conversation where she says something funny about it being the commander when she's in trouble and they laugh and it's very smooth), but this can't possibly go as badly as that. )
It's only record keeping. Did you arrive with any particularly exciting weaponry, what do you typically need in the field, is there anything specific you need for training, sparring, etcetera.
Any questions you might have about the guard duty roster, as well. You'll be on shifts with someone more familiar to start, to get to know it.
no subject
I don't like guns.
[ Do they even have guns here? Does it matter? It answers a question she needs a few moments to mull over. ]
I have some experience with sparring, but… I'm not the best. Do Forces offer that? Hand-to-hand? Weapons training? Ways to outsmart a punching bag that's bigger and heavier than me? I know how to hold my fist for a punch, but I've been told I hold my weight all wrong.
[ This is supposed to be endearing. To Wanda's ears, she sounds like she doesn't belong in this division. ]
no subject
Ouais, that can be provided. You understand that you've specifically signed up for your physical skills and combat to be the basis of majority of your work?
( like. just to be clear. she could not sound less endeared, but she is definitely trying to give wanda the benefit of the doubt, a handhold in the conversation— presumably there's some reason she chose forces over the alternatives.
most things and people are bigger and heavier than gwenaëlle; she's less concerned about that than the way wanda is talking to her now. )
no subject
It'd been easier with the Avengers. She spent most of her time in New York under house arrest while everyone else led the missions and roped her in when they needed the manpower. She was always a guest star. She was never a key player.
She weighs up the potential consequences. ]
I can move things with my mind.
[ Her heart may pound, but Wanda's voice comes out strong, unwavering. Her fear is hidden. What's another world that hates her? (Too much.) ]
I've always relied on it. Throwing punches is not my specialty, but I would hope that someone in Forces could teach me how. I've had some training.
[ But one of her trainers is dead, and the other is an old man too content with his happily ever after to return to what he used to be to her. Wanda is displaced, and she has no idea how to navigate it. Forces had been the best path forward: it sounded familiar. (The name sounded on par with The Avengers.) ]
I used to be part of a team. This is what I know best.
[ WandaVision proved she'd be amazing in research. ]
no subject
Good, ( is matter of fact and instantly more amiable, ) that's what we need.
( the team part, mainly, but as for the rest: )
It sounds like we might make good training partners on the physical side of things; I'm slight, so it's about speed and agility, not brute strength. Our previous two Commanders trained me, and I had to retrain one of them, long story. We can probably work something out with your, what's the word— télékinésie, if you want to practise to account for however it's likely changed from where you were to here, which I would recommend because finding out in battle sounds like a clusterfuck.
( the voice of someone intimately familiar with rifters and their unique challenges, to be sure— )
No one's tossed things at me to see if my shield can block them for a while. I'm not a mage, myself, but my anchor-shard has certain abilities that aren't the norm. Shield barrier included.
no subject
You'd trust me to use my power on you? [ Not with. Wanda's learned from in the field that it's always on or against. That's how the media likes to portray her power usage, after all. Better to lean into it. ] You don't know me.
[ There's no accusation in her voice. Incredulity, yes. She's open to it, of course—someone wishing to participate with her is enough to have her consent, but… It's not common. Even the Avengers had approached her trepidatiously back in the day. She's used to the fear. ]
no subject
and: )
No one twisted your arm behind your back and made you join. If you had decided to sit down and sulk, then you still would have been provided with a roof over your head, food at mealtimes, and the protection that living within these walls affords. You've been dropped into a shit situation without so much as a by your leave, in the process leaving behind probably everything you knew prior, and you've chosen to do this work.
I'm doing you the courtesy I do everyone here of assuming that you did that because you want to do the work. If you're going to take the opportunity in front of you and piss it away that soon in turning on everyone around you, ( her tone doesn't change at all because it isn't accusation so much as imagine how goddamn absurd that would be, ) it would be incredibly poorly calculated to do it in the middle of the training yard.
( and then, laced with dry humour: )
You haven't been here long enough to want to take a crack at me. Give it time.
no subject
The last time I was recruited into anything, it wasn't like I had much choice.
[ She's considered her words and what she risks by sharing this information. She has nothing to lose. Who are the Avengers here, if not a group with a stupid name? ]
They kept me in my room, afraid of me. [ Not entirely the truth, but it became it in the end, didn't it? ] I guess I expected that would happen here, too.
[ But — ]
I'll use my power with you. I may even let you get a few hits in before I embarrass you in front of everyone.
[ Her tone is teasing. She's trying this out, this whole… being a comrade thing. How long has she been alone? How has it ruined her ability to simply banter and—well, trust is the beast waiting around the corner, isn't it? ]
no subject
( gwenaëlle always finds it a little bit funnier to let people just find out what she can do, which is itself a milder form of her inclination never to make any threat she might want to act on. )
To your first point, you've more or less described what being a mage was like for the last, I don't know, several centuries. You might find more understanding here than you're accustomed to. I won't pretend to you that the reception won't be varied outside of the Gallows — there'll be as many that just objectify you in new and annoying ways as are frightened — but we're the problem children. You're in fine company.
( like, the commander of forces is a really cool war criminal. )