United Heroes MUSH - User contributions [en]

Stepford Cuckoos

2024-08-29T17:54:28Z

Kstar:

{{CharacterNew
|NameOnMUSH=Stepford Cuckoos
|Color=#333
|TextColor=#c1c1c1
|Char_id=1702
|Img=https://www.unitedheroesmush.com/images/8/8f/StepfordCuckoos.jpg
|FullName=Sophie, Phoebe, Irma, Celeste, and Esme Cuckoo
|Gender=Female
|Species=Mutant
|Theme=Marvel
|Chartype=FC
|Active=Approved
|Occupation=Students
|Citizenship=US Citizens
|Residence=Xavier Institute
|Education=Some high school
|Groups=[[Mutant-OOC]], [[Brotherhood]], [[Xavier's School]]
|Quote=Irma, Sophie, Celeste, and Phoebe: "Esme! What is wrong with you?!" 
Esme: "I... I can't..." 
Irma, Sophie, Celeste, and Phoebe: "There is no 'I' Esme, there's only 'we', you're nothing!"
|PAge=23
|AAge=23
|DOB=11 August 2008
|Height=165 cm (5'5")
|Weight=47 kg (103 lb)
|Hair=Blonde
|Eyes=Blue
|Actor=Skyler Rose Samuels
|Song="We Are Family" by Sister Sledge
|Profile=The Cuckoos are clones of Emma Frost who have been sent to the Xavier institute to infiltrate and gather the details of the place. They are fresh from their vats and aging tubes, as well as new to Xavier's school with deeper unknown sinister goals.
===Current Player Approved: April 04, 2024===
|Description=
'''Description:'''
 
The Stepford Cuckoos tend to be in the full group five (Unless specified) and they all wear identical clothes. The girls have the same hair, same facial features, same physique and even the same attention. The girls have a shorter blonde hair cut, hanging just down to their shoulders and smoothed perfectly without a strand out of place. Their piercing blue eyes belie their ignorance, with unknown wisdom and stolen intelligence. They wear a standard school girl outfit style with the button up blouse and a deep red tie and a pleated skirt down to their knees with a pair of socks that go up and cover their calves. Covering their fancy socks each wear a pair of clean white tennis sneakers.
|History=
'''History:'''
 
The history of the Cuckoos is a short one, in that they're technically not even a year old yet. The story of clones tend to have that lack of depth and yet they're so full of drama. Starting when Emma Frost was kidnapped by one Mister Sinister, the clone's piece of genetic sample was taken from the White Queen against her will and even her knowledge. Skip ahead and Sinister would have been coerced with a large sum of money and favor to sell the sample (At least a portion of it) and the buyer quickly went to work creating his greatest weapon. The Thousands of clones that will be used to take over the world! With the aging artificially sped up, the man sent out a quintuplet of his creations out into the world. He was overly careful to avoid having his own mind read by the group of girls. The five were given names, and identities and sent out in the world with a simple goal to infiltrate and report about how best to remove the X-Men from their 'father's' way in order to take over the world.
|Personality=
'''Personality:'''
 
After getting some time in the Xavier Institute, the girls, while still a hive mind, developed individual personality traits: Phoebe has demonstrated some aggressive behavior, Esme is power hungry and rather selfish, Sophie is heroic, and along with Esme they are both above the rest in terms of power and are able to lead the hivemind, Irma enjoys playing piano, and is the most romantic, Celeste was initially the most timid and affectionate of the Cuckoos, she is the third contender for the leader position and is generally defined by being more mature than the others. According to her sisters, Celeste has began to think she is better than them. Celeste has urged her sisters to watch something a bit more self-improving than Glee. Collectively, For their age, the girls are pretty well put together. They lack a lot of the immaturity associated with girls their age. Like Emma, they have a very refined nature which is displayed in their usual mode of dress and the way they carry themselves. They can be cold, well-spoken and knowledgeable. They do what they have to do to get what they need to get done, regardless of feelings from others or circumstances with extreme results at times, giving them a questionable sense of ethics. Despite their vast powers, they rely primarily on cunning. They can be ruthless, but care deeply for their friends. The Cuckoos are supremely confident in their abilities, yet tend to underestimate their adversaries and allies alike. Perhaps their most defining personality trait is their desire to be in control, both of herself and their environment.
|Abilities=
'''Flawless Diamond Form:'''
 
Flawless Organic Diamond Form: Like their biological mother, the Cuckoos have the ability to transform themselves into a flexible, translucent, organic diamond-like substance while retaining mobility. In this form, their skin is as hard as real diamond. In this state, food and water are not needed for a undetermined amount of time. Their diamond form does require a conscious hold as however. Unlike Emma Frost, their diamond forms are completely flawless. Nothing can enter or escape from their core. However, maintaining this form for extended period of time reduces their emotional capabilities. While in their Diamond form, the girls have specific traits: Telepathic Immunity: Although they are immune to all psychic powers, they can not use their telepathy. Superhuman Strength: In diamond form they can lift 2 tons.(maximum) Superhuman Stamina: Their diamond form grants the ability to sustain peak exertion for up to a day. Superhuman Durability: Their diamond form augments their skin, bone, and muscle to become stronger and harder than human. They're far more durable in this form, but capable of being shattered or broken by diamond objects or harder than such with enough or repeated force. Compartmental Diamond Transformation: Unlike Emma, the Cuckoos can selectively transform discrete parts of their bodies. 
'''Hive Mind:'''
 
The Stepford Cuckoos have a linked hive mind, which allows them to share thoughts and maintain a continuous telepathic connection. The link is strongest when the girls are in close physical proximity. This mental phalanx also allows for increased telepathic strength and shared intellect. The girls' powers are greater the sum of its parts. A stronger personality can take lead of the hive mind, but the girls still maintain their independence. 
'''Telekinesis:'''
 
Telekinetic: At least one of the Cuckoos has unintentionally levitated small items. It is unknown if they can do this deliberately or not at this time. 
'''Telepathy:'''
 
Telepathy: The Cuckoos can read minds and project their thoughts to others with a range of roughly 200 meters. Though they individually possess their own telepathy, but their telepathic abilities are greater when the girls join together. The girls have stated that together they can block even very talented telepaths from reading their minds. Only able to use their mind alterining within 50 meters and 10 meters respectively. Even at their young age, they're nearly on par with 'mother' only in sheer telepathic strength. They lack the finesse, precision and experience that Emma Frost possesses, yet they are capable of an array of telepathic skills: Illusions: The Cuckoos can create realistic psychic illusions and cause people to experience events which are not actually occurring. Mind Alteration: The Cuckoos are able to alter the minds of others by force of will. This can be restoring memories or transferring knowledge. Telepathic Tracking: The Cuckoos' psionic senses enable them to detect and track other sentient beings by their unique psionic emanations or thought patterns. This ability is highly sensitive to proximity, but can be enhanced with the use of Cerebra. Astral Projection: The Cuckoos are capable of sending astral projections, astral travel, and communicating with others astrally through their own will, or through contact with the thoughts and memories of others. Paralysis: The Cuckoos are able to effect certain areas of the brain to induce temporary mental or physical paralysis. Memory Erasure and Restoration: The Cuckoos can erase any awareness of particular memories or cause total amnesia. They can also restore memories. Mental Triangulation: Due to their hive mind, the Cuckoos have the perspective of multiple directions and are able to triangulate on individuals' minds.
|Skills=
'''Acting:'''
 
The Cuckoos are gifted and talented actresses, in that they not only divine the reactions that are expected of them, but they're able to pull them off nearly perfectly with their own flair. The girls have seen and gleamed a few reactions off people that they're able to recreate at any time, yet these motions and reactions still feel alien and false to the girls. 
'''Home Training:'''
 
Taught by cold, calculating and manipulative scientists, the girls are aware of their powers and have several ideas of what they can do with them, and not taught how to use them with hesitation. They will kill and assimilate knowledge like they were taught to. 
'''Scientifically Minded:'''
 
The girl's don't quite possess emotions like normal humans or mutants, they're too fresh in the world and thus they possess a Spock like, analytical mind allowing them to think and process information entirely without emotional inhibitors. This is due to their rather, sci-fi up bringing and birthing process. The girls are incredibly open minded as far as what's scientifically possible.
|Resources=
'''Cuckoos:'''
 
The Cuckoos can always rely on their sisters. The five are rarely ever apart, so they always are ready to help each other out in any situation, as there's safety in numbers and especially when those numbers have a connection beyond their physical groupings, but an incredibly powerful mental connection. That's to say nothing of the nearly one thousand dormant fellow clones back at the lab where they Cuckoos were originally grown. 
'''Nanocarriers:'''
 
The 'father' figure did install in them nano-machines that are capable of broadcasting, and recording through their bones and brainstems, meaning they possess within them, advanced scientific technology, built for spying and recording for their nameless 'father'. 
'''Unknown Benefactor:'''
 
The Cuckoos do have a 'father' in a nameless man that was the one that started the cloning process and instilled them their goals and purposes, and despite the head strong nature they all possess, they're welcome back to the 'facility' they come from though to return would be a slight admission of failure and that's something the Cuckoo's refuse to allow to occur. But the resources are there. 
'''Xavier's:'''
 
The girls have access to Xavier's for a room and a school offered phone (That the girls refuse) and the laptops and a few others items. Like vehicles and clothes and bathrooms and shampoo and conditioners.
|Weaknesses=
'''Diamond Form:'''
 
While in their Diamond Form, the Cuckoos are unable to access their own telepathic powers. 
'''Unknown Host:'''
 
The quintuplets, (As are the rest of the unawaken clones) are all infested with nano-bots in their bone marrow, making them nearly impossible to detect, and even harder to counter. The machines do not send a detectable signal, unless requested to by an outside source, meaning they are only active when they're ordered to. They provide GPS and various other forms of feedback to the unknown individuals running the cloning facility and weapons program they're a part of.
}}
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</gallery>
[[Category:Mutant-OOC]] [[Category:Brotherhood]] [[Category:Xavier's School]]

16468/Scarlet Getaway of Doom Part Deux

2024-08-13T19:23:12Z

Kstar: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2024/08/09 |Location=Santorini Greece |Synopsis=A date from Doom in romantic Santorini turns into a test of wits with the alluring Queen of Chaos. |Cast of Characters=70, 130 |pretty=yes }} {{Poses |Poses=:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' In the soft glow of the evening light filtering through the open balcony doors of her Santorini resort room, Wanda Maximoff stood before a full-length mirror, the anticipation of the night..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2024/08/09
|Location=Santorini Greece
|Synopsis=A date from Doom in romantic Santorini turns into a test of wits with the alluring Queen of Chaos.
|Cast of Characters=70, 130
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' In the soft glow of the evening light filtering through the open balcony doors of her Santorini resort room, Wanda Maximoff stood before a full-length mirror, the anticipation of the night ahead evident in her eyes. The gentle breeze from the Aegean Sea carried the scent of salt and distant jasmine, adding to the serene ambiance of the room. She stepped into the gown, the rich, deep crimson fabric caressing her skin as she pulled it up over her shoulders. The bodice fit like a second skin, the intricate beadwork and embroidery catching the light with every movement, making her seem as though she were adorned in stardust. Wanda adjusted the off-the-shoulder neckline, her fingers lightly tracing the delicate embroidery that danced along the edges. Turning slightly, she admired the way the gown flowed down into a full, A-line skirt, the layers of tulle and chiffon creating a soft, ethereal silhouette that moved like the waves of the Aegean Sea. The thigh-high slit offered a glimpse of her long, graceful leg, adding a hint of sensuality to the elegant ensemble. Wanda reached for the final touch---a gossamer sash that she carefully wrapped around the back of her neck, letting it cascade down her forearms. The sash, nearly weightless, added an additional layer of sophistication to her look, the sheer fabric shimmering as it caught the light, creating an almost magical aura around her. With a final glance in the mirror, Wanda smiled at her reflection. The gown, with its subtle Grecian motifs and delicate gold-threaded embroidery, perfectly captured the essence of the evening ahead---a blend of elegance, mystique, and the enchanting beauty of a Grecian night. She gathered her clutch and slipped into a pair of gold heels that complemented the gown, her steps light and confident as she made her way towards the door. Just before leaving, she paused at the mirror once more, smoothing a strand of her rich auburn hair behind her ear. With a contented sigh, Wanda turned, her gown swirling gently around her, and made her way out of the room, ready for a night of adventure and allure.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' Victor von Doom was not one to spend time debating his attire. When he had decided upon this trip, he packed appropriate clothing, even knowing that he had every intention of spending it alone. Things change. And he was surprised to find that it was for the better. Wanda's company had added to day, not detracted from it. He wore a long sleeved linen button down shirt, in a soft green, the top two buttons left undone, while the sleeves had been rolled up around his elbows. He wore a silver watch around his left wrist, clock facing out, and a decorative chain around his right, also in silver. His trousers were an off white linen, cinched at the waist by a brown belt with a silver buckle. On his feet he had a pair of classy brown suede loafers. He kept a jacket under one arm, as it was known to get chilly late at night, but it wasn't necessary right now. He had agreed to meet Wanda at the restaurant, but instead, he made sure to be outside her room as she was leaving. As he saw her emerge, he took in her outfit and her beauty. "Wanda, you are extraordinary. That dress truly brings out the color of your eyes." Offering his elbow to her, "shall we?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda stepped into the softly lit hallway, the gentle rustling of her gown the only sound as she made her way towards the waiting figure at the end. Her heart quickened slightly as she approached, the anticipation of the evening swirling around her like the warm breeze of the Aegean Sea. As she neared, she took in the sight of Victor von Doom, impeccably dressed for the occasion, Wanda's lips curved into a genuine smile, her eyes reflecting her appreciation for his choice of attire. "Victor," she said softly, her voice warm with admiration, "you look absolutely striking this evening. The suit suits you perfectly." She could see the faintest hint of satisfaction in his eyes, though his expression remained composed as always. Without hesitation, she stepped closer as he offered his elbow, linking her arm with his in a graceful, fluid motion. The warmth of his arm against hers was both grounding and comforting, and she found herself feeling more at ease, the tension of the day melting away as they prepared to step into the night together. With a final, appreciative glance at him, Wanda allowed herself to be led, her heart lighter than it had been in some time, ready to embrace whatever the evening would bring.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' He could have worn his armor, but he did not relish the idea of drinking his dinner through a straw, and as he had already revealed his face to her, a rare gesture indeed, and one that seemed to have been taken for the effort it was, well, in for a penny, in for a pound, as the English said. "Thank you, I do not dress this way often. Latveria's summers simply do not have the weather for it. I had considered bringing the Earth closer to the sun, but that seemed extreme, even for me." He spoke in such a straightforward tone, he must have been joking, but it was hard to tell except by context and common sense. He led her towards the elevator at the end of the hall, only breaking his arm contact with her to press the button. He could have had a Doombot do that, but he wanted as close to a tropical vacation experience as he could get. "I hope you found your suite to be adequate." His was just down the hall from hers.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda walked gracefully beside Victor, her arm comfortably entwined with his, each step in sync as they moved together down the corridor. The soft echo of their footsteps was a gentle accompaniment to the evening air, filled with the scent of the sea and the promise of a memorable night. As they strolled, Victor made a comment, joking about the grand gesture of bringing the Earth closer to the sun. Wanda couldn't help but chuckle, the sound light and melodic. "While it's a rather romantic gesture," she teased with a playful smile, "perhaps you should save that for a 40th anniversary gift." She glanced at him, her eyes twinkling with mischief. "Though, you could use a bit more sun. If you keep staying in that suit, I might start mistaking you for a vampire---if I didn't know better, of course." Wanda's smile widened as she added, "By the way, did you know I've met Count Dracula? Quite the experience, I assure you." Victor's inquiry about her room being to her liking brought a softer, appreciative smile to her lips. "Oh yes, it's lovely," she affirmed. "Everything is just perfect." With that, she allowed herself to relax further into his presence, the warmth of his arm against hers and the shared humor lightening the mood as they continued on their way.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' A romantic gesture he thought to himself, and a fortieth anniversary gift. She was putting curious notions into his head. Doom had his people, his lofty ambitions, but he had never seriously considered such things. He knew that there would be time, and he had other, more pressing matters to attend to. And besides, she was an Avenger. They had tried to impede so much of his good work. She had mentioned that should anything come of this, he would still have his efforts, she hers, and if they clashed, then so be it. They were adult enough not to let it take away from, whatever it was they had. "Oh yes, I am well aware, though I have not had the pleasure, personally. How does he compare to the legends?" Come to think of it, how does Doom? The ride down was quick, and with a woosh, they stepped out, passing the lobby with a vacant bar, save for a Doombot bartender, walked by a stage with seating for perhaps two hundred, but again, only a few Doombots. And then headed to the Japanese restaurant, called Kyoto. A Doombot greeted them, "ah, we have been expecting you, Doctor Doom and Lady Maximoff." As they approached their table, the real Victor would pull out a chair for her, "allow me."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda continued her elegant trek alongside Victor, their pace unhurried as they enjoyed the evening. The gentle breeze carried the scent of the sea and the distant hum of nightfall in Santorini, adding to the atmosphere of their stroll. As he questioned about Dracula's mettle, Wanda tilted her head slightly, a thoughtful expression crossing her features. "Surprisingly, he is quite troubled," she replied, her voice tinged with a mix of curiosity and amusement. "He confided in me about wanting to rid himself of his condition and trusted me to help him do it." She waved a dismissive hand, her eyes sparkling with humor. "Of course, I'm certain it was just a ploy to take me as a new bride. Had he tried, I would have hexed his teeth into very interesting twin body organs that would likely make walking very, very discomforting." Her tone was light, but there was an edge to her words, a glimpse of the Scarlet Witch's possibility for ruthless brutality in avenging. Teleporting one's teeth into the genitals is oft a shuddering image. Upon arrival, as Victor escorted her with the same air of gentlemanly care, guiding her to their table and pulled out her chair, Wanda gave him a warm smile, her gratitude evident. "Thank you, Victor," she said softly, settling into her seat with graceful ease. Her gaze remained on him for a moment longer, a silent appreciation for the evening they were about to share.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' She was so full of surprises. He listened to her describe Dracula's condition, "it could be done," he said bluntly, with no room for wiggling. "But some unfortunate soul would have to take his place, as he once did for Varnae. For Vampires, like humans, there must always be a master." When she talked about teleporting Dracula's teeth into his genitals, Doom laughed, and he laughed heartedly. His whole chest heaved with it. "That would be painful. So, you do not wish to become a bride." He touched his glass of water, "a pity. I imagine you would look stunning in white lace." He smiled, was he hitting, teasing, or something else?

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda sat at the table, the ambient light casting a warm glow over the elegant setting. As Victor explained his thoughts on removing Dracula's condition, she couldn't help but smile, a playful light dancing in her eyes. She lifted her hand, lightly shaking a finger in the air, her gesture both gentle and teasing. "For a moment or two," she began, her tone thoughtful, "I considered the possibility of using the Montesi Formula. It did cross my mind." She paused, her fingers brushing lightly against the edge of her glass as she continued, "But the Darkhold is something I would strive to stay away from. There's no telling what the nature of that book might twist me to do." Also, the genocide of an entire race is a thing too. Even creatures such as vampires. Still, Wanda can be savage. Victor's remark about whether she did not wish to be a bride lingered in the air. Wanda responded with a soft chuckle, her hands gracefully arranging the napkin on her lap. "I do not wish to be a bride of Dracula," she stated, her voice clear and firm. "A life of eternal subservience and a parasitic existence is absolutely not for me." She picked up her glass, taking a delicate sip, her eyes meeting Victor's with a hint of challenge. "However," she added, setting the glass down with a gentle clink, "if a worthy enough man came along, perhaps they might sweep me off my feet." Her smile was soft, almost inviting, as she settled back into her seat, ready for the evening to unfold.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' "You did well to resist it's appeal. Some things come with too high a price. That book, those forces, are not to be trifled with." Which pretty much means that Doctor Doom planned to trifle with them at his convenience. The waiter, yet another Doombot, would ask them what they would like to drink. Doom asked what the chef recommended to pair with the meal. It was somehow fascinating and amusing to see Doom converse with himself. Though once their orders were placed, and the Doombot had departed, he rose, walking around the table, extended his hand, and asked, "may I have this dance?" Intending to dance to the soft background music with her, hand in hand.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda fixed Victor with a pointed look, her eyes peering slightly as if she were reading his thoughts. Of course, she wasn't actually reading his mind, but the way he spoke about the Darkhold told her everything she needed to know. There was an intensity in his words, a subtle hint of curiosity that she recognized all too well. Setting her drink on the table with a soft clink, Wanda spoke with a tone of knowing caution. "I know what you're thinking, Victor," she said, her voice steady and firm. "And I advise against it." Her gaze held his for a moment longer, as if to emphasize the weight of her words. But then, she seemed to digress, her expression softening as the moment passed. When Victor offered his hand for a dance, Wanda's lips curled into a gracious smile. She placed her hand in his, her touch light but confident. "I'd be delighted," she said, her voice warm and inviting as she rose from her seat to join him in the dance.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' He could not be anything but who and what he is. Doom is a good and well meaning man with ambition and an interest in power, no matter it's form. He had a will to dominate and control. But he was not cruel about it. "If you know me so well," he asked, while dancing, he made a follow up question, "then, what are my intentions for this vacation?" It was a challenge. He was enjoying it immensely, but he wanted to see if she might wilt under social pressure such as this. What was her mettle like? Was it as stern as his, or perhaps sterner?

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda placed her hand in Victor's, feeling the firm yet measured grip as he led her toward the dancefloor. Her steps were fluid and graceful, her gown trailing softly behind her as they moved in unison. The atmosphere around them seemed to shift, the soft music and dim lighting creating an intimate space where only they existed for this brief moment. As they reached the center of the floor, Wanda turned to face him, her eyes sparkling with a mix of amusement and insight. She allowed a moment to pass, letting the anticipation build before she finally spoke, her voice soft yet laced with cleverness. "Well," she began, her tone teasing but with an edge of seriousness. "I believe you've come to Santorini with an elaborate plan---perhaps to manipulate the volcanic energy beneath the island, turning it into a devastating weapon to hold the world ransom. Or maybe to harness the ancient magical ley lines that intersect here, amplifying your powers tenfold and bending reality to your will." She paused, watching for his reaction, before continuing with a sly smile. "But I suspect your intentions have altered since then. Now, it seems you have set your sights on something far more unpredictable---courting Chaos." Her smile widened slightly, a knowing look in her eyes as she leaned in just a fraction closer. "That, Victor, can be a dangerous venture, even for the great Doom. I suggest you tread carefully, lest you lose yourself to the very Chaos you seek to court." She let her words hang in the air, the sly smile still on her lips as they began to dance, the music guiding their movements, and the unspoken challenge lingering between them.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' Now that was unexpected. As he listened to her plans, he thought them over, considering them not as a joke, but analyzing them for their potential effectiveness. Shaking his head in the negstive, "Oh no, the tectonic plates are far more pliable in other areas of this world. Though I do appreciate the suggestion." He dipped her in time with the music at one point, eyes lingering on her own, before pulling back, doing a spin. And then he asked, "and what makes you think that I haven't already amplified my powers thusly in an effort to alter reality to create the ideal circumstances for this courtship?" Oh, he was playing with fire.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' As they moved effortlessly across the dancefloor, Wanda couldn't help but chuckle softly at Doom's comment. Her eyes sparkled with mischief as she tilted her head slightly, her gaze fixed on his. "Oh, Victor," she began, her voice laced with playful contradiction, "you underestimate the unique power of Santorini. The volcanic energy here is ancient, raw, and unpredictable---much like Chaos itself. The tectonic plates beneath this island may not seem as pliable as others, but they hold a power that is more potent than you might think. A power that, if harnessed correctly, could reshape more than just the landscape." Wanda leaned in slightly, her voice lowering to a knowing whisper as they continued to move in perfect sync. "Nice try, Victor. But if anyone could tell if reality had been altered, it would be me. I can feel the very fabric of this world, the threads of fate and destiny. And trust me, I would know if they had been tampered with." She let her words linger between them, the subtle challenge in her tone matched by the confident glint in her eyes. "But I appreciate the effort," she added with a soft, almost teasing smile, allowing the dance to carry them further into the night, the unspoken tension between them heightening the allure of their shared moment.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' As they glide across the floor, moving with a fluid grace that matches the rhythm of the dance, his gaze never leaves Wanda's captivating eyes. His voice is a low, teasing murmur, rich with a blend of amusement and admiration. "Your wit rivals your beauty, Wanda. If only your reality-bending skills could help me navigate these treacherous waters of flirtation." His words hang between them, charged with a magnetic intensity, as he draws closer, his hand slipping around her waist with a possessive, yet gentle touch.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' As the music swirled around them and their movements became more fluid, Wanda's expression grew more contemplative. Her gaze was steady as she met Doom's eyes, the playful banter between them giving way to something deeper. "Victor," she began, her voice soft yet firm, "casual flirtations are trivial with someone like me. If your intentions are genuine, if you truly wish to pursue something meaningful, then you would initiate something far more profound---something akin to the dance of Courtly Love." She allowed a brief pause, her words carrying weight as she continued to move with him. "Courtly Love is no mere dalliance. It's a path marked by deep admiration, respect, and the gradual building of a bond that transcends the ordinary. It's about proving one's worth through actions, not just words. It's about a journey of the heart, where both parties engage in a dance of honor, service, and devotion." Wanda's eyes never left his, the intensity in her gaze reflecting the seriousness of her words. "If your intentions are true, Victor, then you would know that this isn't a game. It's a test of character, a challenge to rise above the mundane and engage in something far more meaningful." As the dance carried them across the floor, Wanda's voice softened, but her message remained clear. "So, if you wish to pursue this path with me, know that it requires more than mere flirtation. It demands sincerity, patience, and a willingness to engage in a deeper, more sacred connection. Only then can we see if this dance is truly worth continuing." She let the finality of her words linger as they moved together, the subtle challenge and invitation embedded in her speech, leaving the next move in his hands.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' Victor's steely brown eyes locked onto Wanda's, a glint of challenge, and intrigue, in their depths. "Ah, Wanda," he said, his voice low and resonant, "dancing with you is a pleasure that defies simple words. The allure of your presence is undeniable, and the magnetic pull between us speaks volumes. Yet, even in the midst of such captivating enchantment, I find myself bound by the intricate dance of caution. My world is one of ambition and power, where permanence is a concept often fraught with complexities." He took a step closer, his fingers brushing against hers as they moved in sync. "As tempting as it is to surrender to the seductive rhythm of our connection, I must temper my enthusiasm with the wisdom of experience. The prospect of intertwining our fates is as enthralling as it is daunting. For now, let us revel in the dance and the moment, and allow time to reveal the true potential of what might unfold between us. The future remains a tantalizing mystery, and I am intrigued by the journey we might explore together."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda's gaze remained locked with Victor's, her eyes shimmering with a mix of allure and contemplation. His words, rich with both challenge and intrigue, stirred something deep within her---a recognition of the profound complexities that lay between them. As they moved together, her fingers brushed against his, a subtle but deliberate touch that lingered just a moment longer than necessary. A soft, knowing smile played on her lips, and she allowed herself to lean in slightly closer, their proximity charged with an electric tension. "Victor," she began, her voice a soft murmur, seductive in its tone yet carrying the weight of deep reflection, "the pursuit of romance between us is anything but simple. We are both creatures of ambition, of power, each driven by our own desires and goals. The world you inhabit is one of precision, control, and dominance. Mine... well, mine dances on the edge of chaos, where emotions and magic intertwine in ways that are both beautiful and dangerous." She paused, letting the rhythm of their movements punctuate her words, her gaze never wavering from his. "To intertwine our fates would be to merge two vastly different worlds---each with its own allure, but also with its own set of challenges. There would be a constant push and pull between our natures, a dance of shadows and light, where the lines between love and power could easily blur." Wanda's smile deepened, a mix of playfulness and seriousness. "But isn't that what makes the prospect so intoxicating? The complexity, the potential for both greatness and downfall. The pros and cons are as clear as the daylight and the night. On one hand, we could inspire each other to new heights, a partnership unlike any other, where power and passion blend into something extraordinary." She took a slight step closer, her body brushing against his as she tilted her head, her voice lowering to a near whisper. "On the other hand, the very things that draw us together could also tear us apart. The clash of our wills, the inevitable conflicts---those could be our undoing." With a gentle touch, she let her fingers trace the edge of his hand, her eyes gleaming with both caution and invitation. "So yes, Victor, the difficulty of such a pursuit is undeniable. But that very difficulty is what makes it worth considering, don't you think? The deeper the complexity, the greater the reward---or the fall. It's a gamble, one that neither of us takes lightly." She offered him a sultry smile, a promise of both challenge and allure. "But for now, let's continue this dance, see where it leads us, and allow the night to unfold its secrets. The journey, after all, is as important as the destination. And I am very intrigued by the journey we might explore together."
}}

16462/Scarlet Getaway of Doom

2024-08-08T16:47:53Z

Kstar:

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2024/08/06
|Location=Santorini Greece
|Synopsis=A Doom snatched getaway for Wanda brings the possibility of Doom and future possibilities.
|Cast of Characters=70, 130
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda Maximoff teleported to the stunning island of Santorini, wearing a summer getaway outfit that is the epitome of elegance and comfort, perfectly blending with the stunning backdrop of the Aegean Sea. She wears a flowing maxi dress made of lightweight, breathable fabric in a soft, ethereal white that reflects the island's iconic architecture. The dress features delicate embroidery along the neckline and hem in vibrant shades of cobalt blue, reminiscent of the sea and sky. The neckline is a tasteful off-the-shoulder style, allowing the gentle breeze to caress her skin and adding a touch of romantic allure. The dress cinches at the waist with a braided belt made of natural fibers, adorned with small seashells and beads, highlighting her figure while maintaining a relaxed fit. The skirt of the dress billows gracefully as she moves, offering both freedom and a sense of whimsy. Wanda accessorizes with a wide-brimmed straw hat, providing shade from the sun while exuding timeless glamour. Her footwear consists of elegant yet comfortable espadrille sandals in a matching shade of white, with ties that wrap around her ankles. She completes the look with a pair of oversized sunglasses with delicate gold accents and a simple gold anklet that catches the sunlight with every step. For her jewelry, she opts for a pair of statement earrings featuring intricate designs of gold and blue gemstones, evoking the colors of Santorini. Her makeup is minimal, with a touch of bronzer, a hint of blush, and a swipe of coral lip balm, enhancing her natural beauty and ensuring she looks effortlessly radiant. This breathtaking outfit allows Wanda to fully embrace the relaxed yet chic ambiance of Santorini, making her summer getaway both stylish and memorable. She approached the front desk with an air of confidence, her oversized sunglasses perched atop her head. "Good afternoon," she greeted the clerk with a warm smile. "I have a reservation under Maximoff." The clerk's face fell slightly as he checked the reservation list. "I'm terribly sorry, Ms. Maximoff, but it seems that the entire resort has been rented out by another party." Wanda's expression shifted to one of frustration, her lips pressing into a thin line. "Is there really nothing that can be done?" she asked, her voice carrying a hint of desperation. "I've traveled quite a distance for this getaway." The clerk offered a sympathetic look but shook his head. "Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do. The entire resort is booked." Wanda sighed, her shoulders dropping slightly as she considered her options. "Thank you," she said graciously, though her disappointment was evident. She turned away from the desk, taking a moment to compose herself, the gentle breeze from the open windows rustling the delicate fabric of her dress. As she stepped outside, she cast one last hopeful glance back at the resort before starting to consider alternative options, determined to make the best of her Santorini getaway despite the setback.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' "Name one thing in this world that is not negotiable," words that may have been spoken by a character on television, but they were no less apt. When Doctor Doom decided to take a vacation to the nearby Greek island of Santorini, he booked an entire hotel on reasonably short notice. Emails were sent out, other resorts were offered, though not everyone read theirs, and of course, sometimes spam filters were frustrating. It was worth the hassle of all those angry customers for the amount of money that Doctor Doom had offered them. And so, the resort was on minimal staff. Most got the week off with pay, including typical gratuities, with no one permitted beyond certain points, or during certain hours. Doctor Doom did not take his mask off in public, and staff were instructed to keep their distance. Doombots would fill in for any situations that required it. It just so happened that one of them was in the vicinity. This one looked like Doctor Doom, full suit, even in this heat, except instead of the green cloak, he wore the uniform of the staff. Hearing her plight, a signal was sent, and another Doombot, one closer to the real Doctor Doom, explained the situation. It had recognized the Scarlet Witch. She was an Avenger after all. And as she was heading out, it approached her. "Excuse me miss Maximoff, but perhaps something can be arranged. If you would be so kind," and the metal hand gestured for her to follow him. "Your bags will be safe in the meantime." The human at the desk, seeing this, would move to take them and place them behind the desk for now.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda was lost in her thoughts, the serene beauty of Santorini providing a perfect backdrop for her musings. The sudden approach of a figure in a staff uniform startled her, making her take a half-step back. Her eyes quickly assessed the situation, recognizing the metallic sheen and the distinctive design--- a Doombot. A flicker of wariness crossed her face, but she was not one to jump to conclusions or act on impulse, especially not in a place like this. With a measured breath, she calmed herself, allowing her initial startle to fade. She nodded, her expression neutral but polite. "Very well, lead the way." she replied, her voice calm. She cast a brief glance at her bags being taken behind the desk before following the Doombot's lead, her senses attuned to any further surprises that might come her way.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' The resort was as to be expected. Immaculate, gorgeous, warm, welcoming, with soft music playing inside, the favorable weather, except that there guests were nowhere to be seen. Not one. The staff was also largely absent, and as they drew ever nearer to the pool, the staff, such as it was, were entirely comprised of doombots, each suit of metal armor capable of taking on an Avenger by itself. Although it didn't look it, this resort had never been so well armed. At the end of the journey, Wanda was brought to the pool, where a loan individual now stood. He was dressed in, well, okay. This was a first. Black sandals, with a velcro strap over the top rather than a wire between his toes, pale skin, the smell of sunblock, black swimming trunks, neither too tight, nor too loose, bare chest, and a metal mask. It wa Doctor Doom, or some incredible Life Model Decoy wearing his mask. Most likely, she had simply arrived while he was sunbathing by the pool. There was a drink on a side table, a book with a bookmark, a bottle of suntan lotion, and a towel with the Latverian flag on it. Placing his hands behind his back, the tall man stood at around 6 foot 2 inches, with an impressive musculature. He weighed aboutb 225 lbs, and couldn't have more than 8 percent body fat. On anyone else, he would look comical fight now. But aomehow, even in shorts and a mask, he managed to cut an authoritative figure. "Miss Maximoff," okay, that was always creepy. She had just heard the Doombot speak, and now she heard the exact same voice from the original model. "I understand that I have, what is it your American friends say, put you put, by reserving this locale. That was not my intention." Which was about as close as she would get to an apology. "I have decided that I will afford you a vacation here, in the respect to what you have done for the world, and the current good relations between Latveria and Transia. All that I require is that you observe a healthy distance when I am... dressed down."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda recognized Doctor Doom instantly, though she hadn't expected to see him in this state of dress. Her reception of him was calm and composed, with no hint of fear or defensiveness. She approached him with a kind smile, stepping over to the pool and removing her hat. "Victor Von Doom," she greeted him warmly, her tone friendly and relaxed. "I must say that this is a surprise. If I were to name one of the last people I expected to see on my impromptu getaway, you would be at the top of that list. Just above Mephesto if I am to be honest." with a twinkle in her eyes, she takes a gregarious glance around their surroundings. Furthermore, as she brings her gaze back to him, it travels down and then back up again to his masked face, "I'll assume that your allowance would mean that I have discovered the individual that pulled the rug out from under my initial reservation." she muses, "I'm surprised you take such retreats to places as beautiful as this. Your fortress is... for lack of a a better word... dark." As she steps closer, the wind catches her garment and hair, blowing the delicate blended scent of her perfume and hair conditioner upon the gentle breeze. She brushes her fingers back through her locks behind her ear, "Forgive me, Victor, I mean no disrespect, I am merely surprised, if not rather amused."

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' Doom took a few deliberate steps as she walked towards the pool and removed her hat, ensuring that he continued to face her. Were she a telepath, she might have picked up on the unease of being in this position. Still, he was not the monster that some made him out to be. "Is that so? I would expect a father would want to surprise his daughter from time to time, though, with Genosha's tropical climate, I would expect he only vacations when he wishes to ski." Moving to stand shoulder to shoulder with her, though with an appropriate distance, he retained his rigid posture, hands clasped behind his back, as a Doombot approached her on the other side, glass on a tray, "Welcome to Grave Hotel Santorini, Miss Maximoff. Your room is ready at your convenience." As she spoke of how dark Doomsdadt was, he sounded, almost pained. The real Doom that is. "Perhaps the next time you and your Avengers grace my halls, you do it during the summer. It really is quite lovely, when you are not trying to impede my efforts to bring prosperity to this world."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda thanked the Doombot for its service with a polite nod, her movements assured and graceful. An aura of power and confidence surrounded her as she stepped past Doctor Doom, her demeanor conveying a deliberate lack of fear to set a tone of ease in his presence. With a deliberate and elegant motion, she removed one of her sandals and dipped her toe into the water of the pool, swirling it around thoughtfully. "I'm certain Latveria has its charms," she remarked, glancing back at Doom with a subtle smile, "Perhaps a reflection of its leader. The great economy and the happiness of its people are certainly a testament to your governing power and passion." Her tone was bemused, carrying a hint of admiration mixed with underlying awareness. Turning her gaze back to the water, Wanda continued, "As for bringing prosperity to the world, perhaps you would not find the Avengers impeding you if your efforts were not so... extremist. Sometimes, a gentle hand can make the most waves." She spoke with a gentle yet firm tone, emphasizing her point with a calm confidence.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' The water was warm and inviting, especially in this heat. It was why pools were so popular at resorts such as this. People could lounge on the beds, reading, socializing, eating, drinking, and otherwise relaxing, and when the desire to cool off became too much to pass up, they could continue in the water, without the issue of sand. "Perhaps you shall see it as an honored guest, Miss Maximoff." He was expressionless through the mask, but she might have heard his amusement at the compliment. Flattery would not work on him, though he did enjoy it all the same. "Extreme situations sometimes call for extreme solutions, however, there is value in your words."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda lifted her eyes to meet his, a small, delightful smile playing on her lips. "Perhaps I shall," she remarked, her voice soft yet confident, acknowledging his comment about being an honored guest. Lifting her foot from the water, she allowed a few drops to fall back into the pool before turning to face him fully. "I'm always looking for exotic places to escape from time to time," she added, her tone carrying a hint of wistfulness. With the grace of a feline and the poise of a lady, Wanda moved towards a nearby lounging chair. Each step was deliberate, her presence commanding yet serene. She lowered herself onto the chair, settling back into it with a relaxed elegance, her movements fluid and unhurried. She regarded Doom thoughtfully, her eyes reflecting both curiosity and a hint of challenge. "Tell me, Victor," she began, her voice carrying a gentle, probing quality, "can you be a gentle man?" Her gaze remained steady, studying him intently. "Your visage is nothing if not powerful and terrifying, commanding great respect. But is there a soft side to you at all?" She paused, letting her words sink in, the air around them seeming to hold its breath. "Vulnerability can be just as attractive as power," she added, her tone softening, yet still holding a firm undertone of conviction. The pool's water rippled gently in the background, the scene around them a picture of tranquility, contrasting with the weight of the conversation. Wanda's presence was a blend of strength and grace, her words and demeanor inviting a deeper, more personal reflection from the enigmatic figure before her.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' "Exotic?" He intoned singularly. As a woman he knew to have spent her formative years in neighboring Transia, which was separated from Latveria by Symkaria alone, the terrain and culture was not starkly different. By a curious happenstance of history, Latveria had been a largely German exclave, never being part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austria, or Germany, but with cultural and linguistic ties. "I suppose everywhere we travel is exotic to our own sensibilities". Having only earlier given the one condition that she give him a wide berth when dressed as such, her now sitting down at an adjacent lounge chair, it most certainly was a challenge. He considered trying to end her existence for it, but he would have to clean up the mess, deal with the hotel, and most of all, he was not exactly dressed for battle. Moreover, she was a being of immense power. And so, he forgave the slight and sat back down on his lounger, still wearing the mask in this sweltering heat. "I can do anything." It was simple. It was short. And incredibly, it was said in a tone that was not arrogant, but simply factual. He knew that he could do anything he chose to do. He considered her insult, even if it was not intended that way, and her words. After a long period of silence, he said, "ask any Latverian," except for Dreadknight and any others that had broken his laws, "and they will tell you all you need to know about that." And he was right. Doom was beloved by his people, in and out of Latveria.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda's demeanor remained relaxed, almost whimsical, as if she didn't take his demands very seriously. Her actions danced around Doom's authority and arrogance, displaying an understanding of his type while simultaneously showing no intention of "kissing his feet" simply because of who he was. A soft laugh escaped her lips, and she quickly apologized, her eyes twinkling with amusement. "You remind me so much of my twin brother, Pietro," she explained, her voice light. "He loves to show his Romany mentality and look down upon others because of their cultural lifestyles. Yet, I hardly pay him any attention, especially when he directs it towards me." As she spoke, Wanda waved a hand dismissively, as if Pietro were physically present and she was shooing him away. This gesture, combined with her words, underscored her assured and independent nature. She was not challenging Doom; rather, she was displaying the confidence and poise of a woman who knew her own power and worth. Wanda's very aura was one of a distinguished noble in her own right, contrasting sharply with her true upbringing. In the face of Doom's aristocratic air, she behaved like a princess of power, her confidence and assurance shining through.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' She did seem to have his number. Victor von Doom was many things to many people. But no one, and it really was no one, spoke to him as an equal. There were the obstinate types, like her brother, who would disagree with everything on principal. There were those who treated him with the respect he deserved, even when opposing him, like Reed Richards. But no one had spoken to him like Wanda since he had become Doctor Doom. It was curiously appealing. Perhaps that was the real reason she yet still drew breath. "You are a rare woman indeed, Miss Maximoff."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda crossed her legs elegantly, her demeanor exuding calm confidence. "Of course, I am rare," she began, her voice carrying a hint of wry amusement. "I have either the fortune or misfortune of being a Nexus being. An agent of the Queen of Nevers, the embodiment of possibility. Individual entities with the ability to affect probability and the future, altering the flow of the Universal Time Stream." She took a sip of her drink and winced slightly, her expression showing a hint of displeasure. With a casual flick of her fingers and a pulse of hex power, the very fabric of the drink was rewoven into a glass of iced tea, which she happily sipped. "Acting as the keystones of the Multiverse, we are crucial to its ultimate coherence and stability. We are vigilantly watched over by cosmic forces such as the Time Variance Authority and the Time-Keepers to be aware of any temporal changes that the nexi may cause to the Time Stream and act accordingly." Wanda paused, swirling the ice in her glass, the sound of clinking ice cubes adding a gentle rhythm to her words. "It is said that we have the potential to produce unbelievably powerful offspring. That any born of me would be powerful enough to stand among the Great Forces of their Universe and rock the cosmos itself." She looked up at Doom, her eyes meeting his with a hint of sarcasm. "Sounds like a great thing to live up to, doesn't it?" she commented dryly. "To me, it just sounds like too much stress and pressure added onto my already troubled upbringing and past." Canting her head to one side, allowing locks of her hair to roll down the front of her shoulder, she regarded Doom with curiosity. "I can barely deal with the constant monsters, demons, and mystical evils that constantly show up for no reason to eat me," she added with a bemused smile, her tone light but her words carrying the weight of her experiences.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' Victor von Doom's eyes went towards her on the lounger as she crossed her legs so elegantly. It was for comfort, but it was also activity that drew the eye, even though a man wearing a mask with a visor. He couldn't help but be amused as she proudly embraced her rarity. So many of his expression, well, all of them, were hidden by that stoic metallic mask. He listened to her explanation, of her importance, which he had already known, or at least suspected. It was nice to have it confirmed, however. Her magic was powerful, and she used it for parlor tricks of turning water into wine, or at least something similar in spirit. There was so much more she could do with that power. It was perhaps a waste, he thought as he sat there, laying back on his own lounger, the closest he had looked to relaxed since she had arrived. "Ah yes, them." He said. He had, had his own run ins with the TVA and Time-Keepers. "They are quite the nuisance." Yeah, how many people would describe them as such? The list starts and ends with Doctor Doom. This woman was something else, he thought. Between her crossing of her legs, referencing her magical abilities, and now, describing that she may produce unbelievably powerful offspring, was she flirting with him, tempting him with the potential she possessed? It was not something that Doom experienced very often. With the power he already possessed, should there be a union that bore fruit, that being would challenge the very fabric of the universe, if it so desired. Though her sarcasm did illicit a response, "that they are healthy and happy are the first priorities. Ruling the universe can come in time." His response was as dry as the best martini. When she talked about her past and present difficulties, "and yet, you do it with grace and poise, my dear."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda's eyes narrowed slightly as she gave Doom a pointed look, her gaze sharp and unyielding. "I know what you're thinking, Victor," she began, her voice a blend of firmness and calm. "While your face is hidden behind that mask, your body and aura speak volumes." Her eyes traced the outline of his form, noting every subtle movement. "I don't need my Witch's Sight to discern that you believe the frivolous use of my powers is a waste. It's written all over you...the tension in your muscles, the way you subtly shift your weight. Each movement is a tell." With a small, knowing smile, Wanda leaned back in her chair, her demeanor relaxed but her words cutting. "However, I'm presenting you with a challenge. Just like any muscle or skill, if you don't practice even the smallest of exercises, who is to say it won't affect your ability for larger feats? If you have it, use it." She shrugged her shoulders with a casual grace, the movement light and effortless. Her expression was one of confident nonchalance. "So, are you going to relax or just stand there like a stoic statue? Or do you need me to leave for you to feel at ease?" With a graceful fluidity, she began to rise from her chair, each movement deliberate and poised, ready to depart if that was indeed his wish. Her actions and words wove together a tapestry of strength and independence, challenging Doom not just with her powers but with her very presence.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' Despite her somewhat stern tone, Wanda Maximoff actually managed to get a rise out of Victor von Doom. His chest began to shake and rattle as the voice of laughter escaped up through his throat, and out the lips, and mask. He was quite amused by her tone. "So it is, my dear, so it is." And with him, in not but a pair of swim shorts and the iconic mask, left little to hide those tells. Normally, he was fully hidden behind his armor. But he was on vacation and trying to relax. He had a lot of stress, ruling a country, living up to his genius, and having to deal with adversaries who misunderstood his desires, or worse, had come to opposing conclusions. She clearly found it easier to relax than he did. And once again, she gave good advice. He was starting to note that. Here, in private, he was finding her to be a surprisingly welcome guest. And then, the final affront. She threatened to leave, and he found, for whatever reason, that he did not wish it. "Your company has proven to be insightful and welcome. You no longer need respect the earlier boundaries I had imposed upon your stay here." "Though, in this heat, perhaps it is time for a walk through the pool." And he stood up, meeting her graceful form, and began to step towards the entrance. As he approached the stairs, he set one foot down into the water, feeling the difference in temperature and texture, then another, and he slowly descended into the pool, where he stood, the water at that point only going somewhere around his mid section. Turning around to gaze upon the figure of the woman, his eyes focusing on her own, he held out a proverbial hand, and asked "would you care to join me, Miss Maximoff?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' With an amused smile and a playful yet sarcastic tone, Wanda commented, "Thank you for your permission, oh generous Lord Doom." While her tone carried a hint of sarcasm, there was a genuine note of gratitude for his invitation to stay beyond the initial boundaries he had set. "And please, call me Wanda," she added, signaling her acceptance of his invitation to join him. As she spoke, Wanda lifted herself gracefully from her seat, her movements fluid and elegant. She stepped towards the pool, and as she did, whirls of chaos magic began to spin around her. The shimmering energy enveloped her, transforming her attire into a stunning two-piece ensemble that perfectly marries the elements of her Avengers costume with the serene beauty of Santorini and the vibrant flair of Romany dancer attire. The top, resembling her iconic corset, boasts a structured yet elegant silhouette in her signature red, adorned with intricate embroidery inspired by Greek patterns in cobalt blue and white. These subtle magical motifs add a mystical touch that reflects Wanda's powerful nature. The high-waisted bottom continues the theme with a design that is both stylish and comfortable. Predominantly red with silver accents, it features delicate Greek pattern embroidery that ties in seamlessly with the top. This high-waisted style also pays homage to traditional Romany dancer attire, adding a timeless and graceful appeal. Complementing the two-piece suit is a sheer, flowing sarong that mirrors Wanda's iconic cape. This ethereal wrap-around piece, which can be tied at the side, adds movement and grace reminiscent of a dancer's skirt. The sarong incorporates shades of red, silver, cobalt blue, and white, blending the themes of her costume and the picturesque essence of Santorini effortlessly. Overall, this bathing suit is a perfect fusion of Wanda's powerful and mystical persona with the serene, picturesque beauty of Santorini, while also capturing the elegant movement and allure of Romany dancer attire. Joining Doom in the pool, Wanda's presence exuded confidence and grace, her playful demeanor underscored by the powerful aura that surrounded her.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' He knew there to be sarcasm in that tone, but the words pleased him, and the voice did have a somewhat sincere gratitude to it. He had treated her formally, even in this oh so informal of venues, but when she asked to be addressed by her given name, he simply said, "as you wish, Wanda." It was something to behold, watching her shimmer and transform, from that flowing maxi dress, into a stunning two piece ensemble. He knew magic too. He had been in contention for Sorcerer Supreme on occasion, but he was more reserved with it. Magic was a tool to him. He had a decidedly mechanical view of it. It wasn't free flowing water down a stream, but something to be taken apart, analyzed, and perfected. It was building material. And yet, in her hands, it was art. How could anyone argue with such delightful results? Victor admired her, watched her enter the pool, and when she was near him, he began to lead her towards the walk up bar area, mostly because he wanted to get into the shade. The man was pale. Anyone who spend as much time as he did in a metal suit was going to be. And this sun was unforgiving. He moved to a tile chair built into the floor, and took a seat. "It is strange, to share time like this. I do not do it lightly. Have I affected your vacation plans much?" Wow, close to an apology again, even sympathetic. Perhaps he was unwell.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda waded casually around the pool, her movements graceful and fluid. She responded to Doom's inquiry with a light-hearted tone, "Well, ultimately, after putting a crimp in my plans of enjoying a luxurious vacation away from the pressures at home, you've so far made amends by welcoming me into the space that you have rented from under me." She hesitated momentarily, then continued with a sly grin, "So I'd say yes... Positively." With that, she dipped beneath the water, allowing the cool embrace to envelop her before resurfacing with her hair and face wet. Wiping her face with her hands, she looked at Doom with a newfound ease. "I have to admit, I did not think that spending time away from struggling to stop you from your next plot for world conquest would be so pleasing. I could get used to this," she remarked, her tone both playful and sincere.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' Although Doom's mask was waterproof, when part of the entire suit, he could exist in space and the depths of the ocean, with equal ease. Still, it did not seem right to lower it into the water as Wanda had done with her fiery red hair. A doombot would soon appear behind the bar, wearing a crisp white shirt with cyan around the collar and sleeves. He was dressed as the staff would. "Can I get you anything?" It asked in Doom's own words. The real Victor turned and said, "yes, I will have a Tiki Torch," and turning back to Wanda, "what would you like, Wanda?" This was curious as it was the first time he had turned his back to her, a small mark of trust.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' As Doom turned his back, Wanda allowed herself a moment to admire the shape of his shoulders and the strength conveyed by his back. Despite the often off-putting stony expression of his mask, she regarded him without fear or repulsion, as a woman might have during the days when his face was as handsome as the rest of him. With a confident tone, Wanda responded to the request for her drink order. "Yes, I'll have: 1 oz. white rum, 1 oz. dark rum, 1 oz. coconut cream, 2 oz. pineapple juice, 1 oz. orange juice, 1/2 oz. lime juice, 1/2 oz. Falernum, 1/4 oz. grenadine, a dash of angostura bitters, crushed ice, a pineapple slice and cherry, and a fresh mint sprig." She watched the Doombot attentively, waiting for it to prepare the complex tropical drink she described, embodying the relaxation and luxury of their surroundings and a woman that knows exactly what she wants.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' Victor von Doom was the epitome of a perfectionist. Although rarely seen, his body was a temple. The strength he carried in those shoulders was evident under these oh so rare of conditions. He was not Captain America. He had not undergone advanced drug therapy. No, he was natural. And for a human without the aid of chemicals, he was in amazing condition. The Doombot didn't flinch at her order, taking it all in, and would quickly produce her drink, exactly as ordered. Doom's was somewhat less difficult, but really, all cocktails were more or less the same steps. Add ingredients, sometimes in a specific order, and serve. Both drinks would appear at the bar. Doom moved to it, collecting them in each hand, again showing his back to her, before returning to her side with his drink, which of course included a straw, while stretching out his other hand to present her choice. When she accepted it, he offered a toast, "to the start of a most unexpected, and yet ambitious, vacation, Wanda."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda accepted both the drink and the toast with a gracious smile. "To further getting to know the individuals behind both of our masks," she added, clinking her glass gently against his. Taking a sip of her drink, she regarded him thoughtfully and giving a sigh, before setting her glass down. "Speaking of which..." she began, her voice soft yet probing, "I pray that you'll forgive me. I feel as if I can be completely open with you for some reason, and I find myself questioning the man that you are. Considering the complex relationship between not just the Avengers and yourself, but the rest of the world, I asked myself why, being as powerful as you are, you do not simply correct the accident made to your face." Her eyes searched his, and she reached out with her hand, pausing to seek his permission with a look before gently touching his mask. "The answer that I have theorized," she continued, "is that the mask and scars serve as fuel for your drive for power and domination. You see your mask as a symbol of your resolve and determination through the adversity you have experienced. Fixing your face would mean confronting and possibly alleviating a significant source of your motivation and identity, which a man as complete as yourself is unwilling to do." She paused, her gaze unwavering. "Overall, your choice to remain disfigured highlights your complex psychology. Not that I'm some kind of psychologist, and I do not presume to know the great Doom, it's just... what I see, I suppose. Again, I absolutely mean no disrespect." Her actions and words conveyed a deep curiosity and understanding, showing that she was not bothered by his appearance, but rather intrigued by the man behind the mask. Yet, the woman treads upon dangerous territory, but probably the most intriguing thing is, she does so without fear.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' It was a good thing that she could not see his face right now, as he sported a curious expression. Wearing a mask such as his, had its advantages, and disadvantages. And sometimes it was both at the same time. Her mask, such as it is, revealed her face, though that wasn't her meaning, and he understood that. "Quite." Is all he said after her remark. Were she able to see it, under that mask, Victor von Doom had a tiny little scar, but due to his overwhelming vanity, and sense of perfectionism, it proved too much for him to contend with. His refusal to remove the mask in public was a matter of principal. The mask is his true face as far as he is concerned. He thought about it, taking a sip of his drink through the straw. She had been so kind, so warm, and so accepting. It was exactly the kind of approach one would need to get to this stage with a man such a he. "You are, quite surprisingly, insightful, Wanda. Healing, what happened to me would be tantamount to turning back on my ambitions. They are an integral part of whom and what I am. I can no easier turn my back on my past, than I can my present, or future. My people depend on it. This world will depend upon it. There are too many lives at stake for such a... selfish, use of my abilities." She was right of course. She saw right through him, and that unnerved him to a degree. But it also emboldened him. He remained silent for several moments. The sound of the birds chirping as they circles the skies. There was the water flowing, gently crashing upon the sides of the pool. The sun shone, reflecting on the ripples in the water. And there was the faint and distant sound of relaxing music. And then, the incredible happened. Doctor Doom reached up, human hands, and touched the back and sides of his mask. There was the sound of pressure escaping as he touched some unseen button and seal. Air escaped with a whoosh. And the mask came apart in two sides. One around the back, and the other covering his face. He removed the mask, revealing his pale but incredibly handsome face. He was largely symmetrical, strong jaw line, with brown eyes, eyebrows, and hair. He set it down upon the counter at the bar. And oh yes, there was the famous scar of which he had made a mountain. It was on his cheek, faint, barely perceptible, but it was there. He was blemished. He was defied perfection. And it haunted him.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda watched intently as Victor von Doom went through the motions of removing his mask. Her expression remained unchanged, a calm curiosity marking her features, until she saw his eyes. At that moment, admiration filled her face as she took in the depth and beauty of his natural visage. "Your eyes... Victor," she began, her voice soft and filled with wonder. "Without your mask, they are deep and soulful, like rich, fertile earth that nurtures life with a quiet, enduring strength. They hold within them a depth that speaks of ancient forests and hidden streams, where the secrets of the world lie softly whispered by the rustling leaves. The warm hues range from the darkest mahogany to the lightest honey, each shade capturing the glow of a setting sun over an autumn landscape. When the light catches them just right, flecks of gold shimmer like tiny embers, adding a touch of warmth and mystery. They possess a quiet beauty that draws you in, offering a sense of comfort and steadfastness, like a timeless, well-worn path that has witnessed countless journeys and still invites more to come." Her poetic description, filled with the lyrical quality only a Mistress of mystical incantations could muster, focused solely on his eyes. They overshadowed any other feature his face might possess. "Unveiled from the prison of your metallic face so stony and stern, they are perfection." Wanda offered him a kind smile, her eyes twinkling with genuine warmth. She returned to her drink, taking a longer sip, and peered at him cheerfully over the rim of her glass. "Tell me, Victor," she said, her curiosity piqued. "What kind of boy were you? I want to know about your childhood." She leaned in slightly, her focus entirely on him, eager to hear the story behind the man who had become Doctor Doom. Her genuine interest and the soft, inviting tone of her voice created an atmosphere of trust and openness, a rare moment of vulnerability shared between two powerful individuals.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' Victor von Doom's eyes had always been visible. It was the one part of his visage that was on display. However, most didn't look that deeply. They saw the whole, the metal, the mask, the way he chose to present himself and interact with the outside world. That mask was now on the counter, face up, but the nearby Doombot bore the exact same look to contrast and compare with. He had done something that he had rarely done before. Few people got to witness this, but in this moment, in this place, she had been kind, caring, supportive, without pushing, and most of all, intriguing. He found that he liked conversing with her. She was pleasant company. And, he was in this heat, and it just felt awkward to wear it in this context. So, when she had engaged him sufficiently that he would even consider it, he did so. How she handled herself afterwards, impressed him yet again. "How very poetic of you," he said. Somehow, it didn't feel as though she was goading him, playing to his ego, or anything of that nature. She seemed sincere to him. He began to speak, unrehearsed, but he had a powerful voice, one no longer modified by his mask. He sounded different out of it. But in a good way. "The world outside my camp was often hostile and unforgiving, but inside the walls of our modest home, I found refuge in books and knowledge. My father was a scholar, a man of great intellect who sought to teach me the ways of the world. Despite the harshness of our surroundings, he always encouraged my curiosity, pushing me to excel in every subject. It was in those early years that I learned the value of knowledge and the power it could wield." "I was not like other children. While they played and laughed, I spent hours immersed in ancient texts, absorbing every piece of information I could find. My mother," there was an emotional pause, some hidden pain, "though gone too soon, left me with a legacy of resilience and determination. I remember her comforting words and the way she believed in my potential, even when my father was stern and demanding. Their influence made me determined to rise above the constraints of our environment and prove myself worthy of their expectations." "These experiences shaped me into the man I am today. The rigorous demands of my childhood, combined with the loss of my parents, forged a resolve within me like no other. I learned early on that power and control were essential for survival and that the world often rewards those who seize their destinies. My ambition to transform Latveria and protect its people is a reflection of the values instilled in me as a boy. I am driven not just by the desire for greatness, but by the need to honor the legacy of those who came before me."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' "The troubled life of a young Prince," Wanda mused, smiling, "I remember imagining what it must have been like to live in a castle, with notions of princes slaying dragons and rescuing princesses. Dazzling balls and fancy dresses, dancing for endless hours into the night. This, much like everything else I came to find, is a mirage to what the world was really like." Wanda settled back against the side of the pool, her eyes softening as she prepared to share the story of her childhood. The atmosphere around them seemed to shift, becoming more intimate and reflective. "I grew up in a small Romani village in Transia," she began, her voice tinged with a mix of nostalgia and sorrow. "My twin brother, Pietro, and I were raised by our adoptive parents, Django and Marya Maximoff. Life was simple, but we were happy. We didn't have much, but we had each other and that was enough." A wistful smile crossed her face as she recalled those early years. "I remember the nights we would sit around the fire, listening to the elders tell stories. Their tales were filled with magic and wonder, and I would dream of wielding such power. Little did I know, those dreams would one day become reality." Her expression darkened slightly as she continued. "But our happiness was short-lived. Our village was attacked, and our parents were killed. Pietro and I were left alone, forced to fend for ourselves. We were just children, scared and lost. We had no one to turn to, and we were constantly on the run." She paused, taking a deep breath to steady herself. "We eventually came to the attention of Magneto, though we didn't know he was our father at the time. He took us in, trained us, and gave us a purpose. But his methods were harsh, and his goals were... extreme. We became part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, fighting for a cause we didn't fully understand." Wanda's eyes glistened with unshed tears as she relived those painful memories. "I struggled with my powers, not fully understanding their potential or their dangers. I made mistakes, terrible mistakes that hurt people. I felt like a monster, and it took me a long time to come to terms with who I am and what I can do." She looked at Doom, her gaze steady and unwavering. "But through it all, I had Pietro. He was my rock, my protector. We faced everything together, and that bond kept me going. Eventually, we found our way to the Avengers, and for the first time in a long while, I felt like I had a place where I belonged." Her voice softened, a hint of hope threading through her words. "It's been a long and difficult journey, but I've learned to embrace my powers and my heritage. I've made peace with my past, and I've found a new family among the Avengers. But those early years, the pain and the loss, they shaped me into who I am today."

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' Victor von Doom knew some of it, perhaps a lot of it. He may well have researched her through his mask as they sat there before he removed it. Technology was such a wonderful thing. But he knew words. She conveyed emotion. She filled in the gaps. He moved to sit with his back to the pool, beside her, but not too close. He did like his space, even if she had proven herself to be troublingly effective at navigating the barriers he put up. "We have more in common than I would have expected." With the mask off, there were now emotions to perceive and analyze. He looked thoughtful as she shared, he showed empathy, sorrow, and happiness, at each respective point. "It pleases me that you are here." Though that last part was almost as much for him as it was for her.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda deflates for a moment, her eyes turn away and drop away as he mentions how he enjoys her presence. Her gaze, returning to him, turned introspective as she considered the implications of future possibilities. She took a deep breath, her eyes reflecting a mixture of longing and resignation. "Victor," she began, her voice soft and wistful, "I will always be candid with you, and right now, I need to express what it might mean for us to pursue anything beyond this moment, be it friendship or something more. Our lives are so different, our views and methods so opposed. I can see the struggles that would inevitably arise, the clashes when our paths cross on the battlefield." She paused, her fingers gently tracing the rim of her glass. "Your goals, your methods... they are driven by a relentless pursuit of power and control. You believe in using any means necessary to achieve what you see as a greater good. And while I understand your perspective, I can't condone the extremity of your actions. My morals, the principles I've chosen to uphold, demand that I stand against such measures." Wanda's eyes met his, a profound sadness within them. "I know that nothing, not even your feelings, would ever stop you from pursuing your goals. And the same goes for me. If your actions threaten the values I hold dear, I will oppose you as fully as you would me. We will find ourselves on opposite sides, struggling like enemies despite whatever feelings we might share when we are alone." A wistful smile played on her lips as she continued, "But I believe in the strength of emotional intelligence. I believe that we can be solid enough to separate our personal feelings from our duties. I am certain that, no matter what happens, I can find a way to keep any feelings for you distinct from my responsibilities. I can respect the true man without compromising the person I strive to be." Wanda sighed, her expression a blend of hope and melancholy. "It's a difficult path we tread, Victor. But I think, if we both respect and understand each other, we can navigate turbulent waters. It's not about changing who we are, but about accepting the person beneath the mask, even if that means facing off against each other when duty calls." She reached out, her hand gently resting on his arm, offering a small but sincere smile. "So, whatever comes our way, let's make a pact. To be honest with each other, to cherish the moments we might share, and to face whatever challenges arise with the strength and resolve that defines us both." Wisdom within her words that ring with the truth and resolve of a woman recognizing a connection. "I guess, what I'm saying is... I would like to see you again."

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:''' Her words were nor without merit. She made good points, articulated them well, and he could see no flaw in her reasoning or rationale. He agreed with virtually everything she had said, save for describing his methods as extreme, but that was mere semantics. Of course, neither of them were speaking their native tongues either. While he could speak Transian, she had begun with English in the lobby, and he maintained that. The impermanence of her reaching for his arm and gently touching it could have easily resulted in an immediate and often lethal reprisal. But there was something to be said for her approach, measured, confident, and deft. She read him well. "Forgive me for monopolizing your time. You must be tired from your journey and eager to settle in. However, I would appreciate your company for dinner in the Japanese restaurant, shall we say seven o'clock?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda looked at Doom, her eyes soft with understanding. "Victor, there's no need to apologize for taking up my time. I've truly enjoyed our conversation," she said, her voice gentle and sincere. "However, I do need to get to my room, unpack, and take a shower." She gave him a warm smile. "7 PM, hmmm..." she added, starting to rise from the water with a fluid grace. With a delicate twirl and a flourish of spiraling hex magic, a warm breeze picked up, caressing her skin and drying the pool's water from her body. The shimmering magic danced around her, creating an almost ethereal glow. As she reached the edge of the pool, Wanda paused and glanced back over her shoulder, her eyes sparkling with mischief lightly teasing as she leaves him waiting for her answer. "It's a date," she said, her tone playful, "but only if you take me dancing." She punctuated her words with a wink, her smile full of promise. She continued her exit with light, confident steps, her presence leaving an air of anticipation behind her. As she walked away, her graceful movements and the lingering warmth of her smile stayed with Doom, setting the stage for their evening rendezvous.
}}

16462/Scarlet Getaway of Doom

2024-08-08T16:37:49Z

Kstar:

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2024/08/06
|Location=Santorini Greece
|Synopsis=A Doom snatched getaway for Wanda brings the possibility of Doom and future possibilities.
|Cast of Characters=70, 130
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda Maximoff teleported to the stunning island of Santorini, wearing a summer getaway outfit that is the epitome of elegance and comfort, perfectly blending with the stunning backdrop of the Aegean Sea. She wears a flowing maxi dress made of lightweight, breathable fabric in a soft, ethereal white that reflects the island's iconic architecture. The dress features delicate embroidery along the neckline and hem in vibrant shades of cobalt blue, reminiscent of the sea and sky. The neckline is a tasteful off-the-shoulder style, allowing the gentle breeze to caress her skin and adding a touch of romantic allure. The dress cinches at the waist with a braided belt made of natural fibers, adorned with small seashells and beads, highlighting her figure while maintaining a relaxed fit. The skirt of the dress billows gracefully as she moves, offering both freedom and a sense of whimsy. Wanda accessorizes with a wide-brimmed straw hat, providing shade from the sun while exuding timeless glamour. Her footwear consists of elegant yet comfortable espadrille sandals in a matching shade of white, with ties that wrap around her ankles. She completes the look with a pair of oversized sunglasses with delicate gold accents and a simple gold anklet that catches the sunlight with every step. For her jewelry, she opts for a pair of statement earrings featuring intricate designs of gold and blue gemstones, evoking the colors of Santorini. Her makeup is minimal, with a touch of bronzer, a hint of blush, and a swipe of coral lip balm, enhancing her natural beauty and ensuring she looks effortlessly radiant. This breathtaking outfit allows Wanda to fully embrace the relaxed yet chic ambiance of Santorini, making her summer getaway both stylish and memorable. She approached the front desk with an air of confidence, her oversized sunglasses perched atop her head. "Good afternoon," she greeted the clerk with a warm smile. "I have a reservation under Maximoff." The clerk's face fell slightly as he checked the reservation list. "I'm terribly sorry, Ms. Maximoff, but it seems that the entire resort has been rented out by another party." Wanda's expression shifted to one of frustration, her lips pressing into a thin line. "Is there really nothing that can be done?" she asked, her voice carrying a hint of desperation. "I've traveled quite a distance for this getaway." The clerk offered a sympathetic look but shook his head. "Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do. The entire resort is booked." Wanda sighed, her shoulders dropping slightly as she considered her options. "Thank you," she said graciously, though her disappointment was evident. She turned away from the desk, taking a moment to compose herself, the gentle breeze from the open windows rustling the delicate fabric of her dress. As she stepped outside, she cast one last hopeful glance back at the resort before starting to consider alternative options, determined to make the best of her Santorini getaway despite the setback.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"Name one thing in this world that is not negotiable," words that may have been spoken by a character on television, but they were no less apt. When Doctor Doom decided to take a vacation to the nearby Greek island of Santorini, he booked an entire hotel on reasonably short notice. Emails were sent out, other resorts were offered, though not everyone read theirs, and of course, sometimes spam filters were frustrating. It was worth the hassle of all those angry customers for the amount of money that Doctor Doom had offered them. And so, the resort was on minimal staff. Most got the week off with pay, including typical gratuities, with no one permitted beyond certain points, or during certain hours. Doctor Doom did not take his mask off in public, and staff were instructed to keep their distance. Doombots would fill in for any situations that required it. It just so happened that one of them was in the vicinity. This one looked like Doctor Doom, full suit, even in this heat, except instead of the green cloak, he wore the uniform of the staff. Hearing her plight, a signal was sent, and another Doombot, one closer to the real Doctor Doom, explained the situation. It had recognized the Scarlet Witch. She was an Avenger after all. And as she was heading out, it approached her. "Excuse me miss Maximoff, but perhaps something can be arranged. If you would be so kind," and the metal hand gestured for her to follow him. "Your bags will be safe in the meantime." The human at the desk, seeing this, would move to take them and place them behind the desk for now.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda was lost in her thoughts, the serene beauty of Santorini providing a perfect backdrop for her musings. The sudden approach of a figure in a staff uniform startled her, making her take a half-step back. Her eyes quickly assessed the situation, recognizing the metallic sheen and the distinctive design--- a Doombot. A flicker of wariness crossed her face, but she was not one to jump to conclusions or act on impulse, especially not in a place like this. With a measured breath, she calmed herself, allowing her initial startle to fade. She nodded, her expression neutral but polite. "Very well, lead the way." she replied, her voice calm. She cast a brief glance at her bags being taken behind the desk before following the Doombot's lead, her senses attuned to any further surprises that might come her way.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>The resort was as to be expected. Immaculate, gorgeous, warm, welcoming, with soft music playing inside, the favorable weather, except that there guests were nowhere to be seen. Not one. The staff was also largely absent, and as they drew ever nearer to the pool, the staff, such as it was, were entirely comprised of doombots, each suit of metal armor capable of taking on an Avenger by itself. Although it didn't look it, this resort had never been so well armed. At the end of the journey, Wanda was brought to the pool, where a loan individual now stood. He was dressed in, well, okay. This was a first. Black sandals, with a velcro strap over the top rather than a wire between his toes, pale skin, the smell of sunblock, black swimming trunks, neither too tight, nor too loose, bare chest, and a metal mask. It wa Doctor Doom, or some incredible Life Model Decoy wearing his mask. Most likely, she had simply arrived while he was sunbathing by the pool. There was a drink on a side table, a book with a bookmark, a bottle of suntan lotion, and a towel with the Latverian flag on it. Placing his hands behind his back, the tall man stood at around 6 foot 2 inches, with an impressive musculature. He weighed aboutb 225 lbs, and couldn't have more than 8 percent body fat. On anyone else, he would look comical fight now. But aomehow, even in shorts and a mask, he managed to cut an authoritative figure. "Miss Maximoff," okay, that was always creepy. She had just heard the Doombot speak, and now she heard the exact same voice from the original model. "I understand that I have, what is it your American friends say, put you put, by reserving this locale. That was not my intention." Which was about as close as she would get to an apology. "I have decided that I will afford you a vacation here, in the respect to what you have done for the world, and the current good relations between Latveria and Transia. All that I require is that you observe a healthy distance when I am... dressed down."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda recognized Doctor Doom instantly, though she hadn't expected to see him in this state of dress. Her reception of him was calm and composed, with no hint of fear or defensiveness. She approached him with a kind smile, stepping over to the pool and removing her hat. "Victor Von Doom," she greeted him warmly, her tone friendly and relaxed. "I must say that this is a surprise. If I were to name one of the last people I expected to see on my impromptu getaway, you would be at the top of that list. Just above Mephesto if I am to be honest." with a twinkle in her eyes, she takes a gregarious glance around their surroundings. Furthermore, as she brings her gaze back to him, it travels down and then back up again to his masked face, "I'll assume that your allowance would mean that I have discovered the individual that pulled the rug out from under my initial reservation." she muses, "I'm surprised you take such retreats to places as beautiful as this. Your fortress is... for lack of a a better word... dark." As she steps closer, the wind catches her garment and hair, blowing the delicate blended scent of her perfume and hair conditioner upon the gentle breeze. She brushes her fingers back through her locks behind her ear, "Forgive me, Victor, I mean no disrespect, I am merely surprised, if not rather amused."

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Doom took a few deliberate steps as she walked towards the pool and removed her hat, ensuring that he continued to face her. Were she a telepath, she might have picked up on the unease of being in this position. Still, he was not the monster that some made him out to be. "Is that so? I would expect a father would want to surprise his daughter from time to time, though, with Genosha's tropical climate, I would expect he only vacations when he wishes to ski." Moving to stand shoulder to shoulder with her, though with an appropriate distance, he retained his rigid posture, hands clasped behind his back, as a Doombot approached her on the other side, glass on a tray, "Welcome to Grave Hotel Santorini, Miss Maximoff. Your room is ready at your convenience." As she spoke of how dark Doomsdadt was, he sounded, almost pained. The real Doom that is. "Perhaps the next time you and your Avengers grace my halls, you do it during the summer. It really is quite lovely, when you are not trying to impede my efforts to bring prosperity to this world."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda thanked the Doombot for its service with a polite nod, her movements assured and graceful. An aura of power and confidence surrounded her as she stepped past Doctor Doom, her demeanor conveying a deliberate lack of fear to set a tone of ease in his presence. With a deliberate and elegant motion, she removed one of her sandals and dipped her toe into the water of the pool, swirling it around thoughtfully. "I'm certain Latveria has its charms," she remarked, glancing back at Doom with a subtle smile, "Perhaps a reflection of its leader. The great economy and the happiness of its people are certainly a testament to your governing power and passion." Her tone was bemused, carrying a hint of admiration mixed with underlying awareness. Turning her gaze back to the water, Wanda continued, "As for bringing prosperity to the world, perhaps you would not find the Avengers impeding you if your efforts were not so... extremist. Sometimes, a gentle hand can make the most waves." She spoke with a gentle yet firm tone, emphasizing her point with a calm confidence.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>The water was warm and inviting, especially in this heat. It was why pools were so popular at resorts such as this. People could lounge on the beds, reading, socializing, eating, drinking, and otherwise relaxing, and when the desire to cool off became too much to pass up, they could continue in the water, without the issue of sand. "Perhaps you shall see it as an honored guest, Miss Maximoff." He was expressionless through the mask, but she might have heard his amusement at the compliment. Flattery would not work on him, though he did enjoy it all the same. "Extreme situations sometimes call for extreme solutions, however, there is value in your words."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda lifted her eyes to meet his, a small, delightful smile playing on her lips. "Perhaps I shall," she remarked, her voice soft yet confident, acknowledging his comment about being an honored guest. Lifting her foot from the water, she allowed a few drops to fall back into the pool before turning to face him fully. "I'm always looking for exotic places to escape from time to time," she added, her tone carrying a hint of wistfulness. With the grace of a feline and the poise of a lady, Wanda moved towards a nearby lounging chair. Each step was deliberate, her presence commanding yet serene. She lowered herself onto the chair, settling back into it with a relaxed elegance, her movements fluid and unhurried. She regarded Doom thoughtfully, her eyes reflecting both curiosity and a hint of challenge. "Tell me, Victor," she began, her voice carrying a gentle, probing quality, "can you be a gentle man?" Her gaze remained steady, studying him intently. "Your visage is nothing if not powerful and terrifying, commanding great respect. But is there a soft side to you at all?" She paused, letting her words sink in, the air around them seeming to hold its breath. "Vulnerability can be just as attractive as power," she added, her tone softening, yet still holding a firm undertone of conviction. The pool's water rippled gently in the background, the scene around them a picture of tranquility, contrasting with the weight of the conversation. Wanda's presence was a blend of strength and grace, her words and demeanor inviting a deeper, more personal reflection from the enigmatic figure before her.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"Exotic?" He intoned singularly. As a woman he knew to have spent her formative years in neighboring Transia, which was separated from Latveria by Symkaria alone, the terrain and culture was not starkly different. By a curious happenstance of history, Latveria had been a largely German exclave, never being part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austria, or Germany, but with cultural and linguistic ties. "I suppose everywhere we travel is exotic to our own sensibilities". Having only earlier given the one condition that she give him a wide berth when dressed as such, her now sitting down at an adjacent lounge chair, it most certainly was a challenge. He considered trying to end her existence for it, but he would have to clean up the mess, deal with the hotel, and most of all, he was not exactly dressed for battle. Moreover, she was a being of immense power. And so, he forgave the slight and sat back down on his lounger, still wearing the mask in this sweltering heat. "I can do anything." It was simple. It was short. And incredibly, it was said in a tone that was not arrogant, but simply factual. He knew that he could do anything he chose to do. He considered her insult, even if it was not intended that way, and her words. After a long period of silence, he said, "ask any Latverian," except for Dreadknight and any others that had broken his laws, "and they will tell you all you need to know about that." And he was right. Doom was beloved by his people, in and out of Latveria.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda's demeanor remained relaxed, almost whimsical, as if she didn't take his demands very seriously. Her actions danced around Doom's authority and arrogance, displaying an understanding of his type while simultaneously showing no intention of "kissing his feet" simply because of who he was. A soft laugh escaped her lips, and she quickly apologized, her eyes twinkling with amusement. "You remind me so much of my twin brother, Pietro," she explained, her voice light. "He loves to show his Romany mentality and look down upon others because of their cultural lifestyles. Yet, I hardly pay him any attention, especially when he directs it towards me." As she spoke, Wanda waved a hand dismissively, as if Pietro were physically present and she was shooing him away. This gesture, combined with her words, underscored her assured and independent nature. She was not challenging Doom; rather, she was displaying the confidence and poise of a woman who knew her own power and worth. Wanda's very aura was one of a distinguished noble in her own right, contrasting sharply with her true upbringing. In the face of Doom's aristocratic air, she behaved like a princess of power, her confidence and assurance shining through.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>She did seem to have his number. Victor von Doom was many things to many people. But no one, and it really was no one, spoke to him as an equal. There were the obstinate types, like her brother, who would disagree with everything on principal. There were those who treated him with the respect he deserved, even when opposing him, like Reed Richards. But no one had spoken to him like Wanda since he had become Doctor Doom. It was curiously appealing. Perhaps that was the real reason she yet still drew breath. "You are a rare woman indeed, Miss Maximoff."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda crossed her legs elegantly, her demeanor exuding calm confidence. "Of course, I am rare," she began, her voice carrying a hint of wry amusement. "I have either the fortune or misfortune of being a Nexus being. An agent of the Queen of Nevers, the embodiment of possibility. Individual entities with the ability to affect probability and the future, altering the flow of the Universal Time Stream." She took a sip of her drink and winced slightly, her expression showing a hint of displeasure. With a casual flick of her fingers and a pulse of hex power, the very fabric of the drink was rewoven into a glass of iced tea, which she happily sipped. "Acting as the keystones of the Multiverse, we are crucial to its ultimate coherence and stability. We are vigilantly watched over by cosmic forces such as the Time Variance Authority and the Time-Keepers to be aware of any temporal changes that the nexi may cause to the Time Stream and act accordingly." Wanda paused, swirling the ice in her glass, the sound of clinking ice cubes adding a gentle rhythm to her words. "It is said that we have the potential to produce unbelievably powerful offspring. That any born of me would be powerful enough to stand among the Great Forces of their Universe and rock the cosmos itself." She looked up at Doom, her eyes meeting his with a hint of sarcasm. "Sounds like a great thing to live up to, doesn't it?" she commented dryly. "To me, it just sounds like too much stress and pressure added onto my already troubled upbringing and past." Canting her head to one side, allowing locks of her hair to roll down the front of her shoulder, she regarded Doom with curiosity. "I can barely deal with the constant monsters, demons, and mystical evils that constantly show up for no reason to eat me," she added with a bemused smile, her tone light but her words carrying the weight of her experiences.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Victor von Doom's eyes went towards her on the lounger as she crossed her legs so elegantly. It was for comfort, but it was also activity that drew the eye, even though a man wearing a mask with a visor. He couldn't help but be amused as she proudly embraced her rarity. So many of his expression, well, all of them, were hidden by that stoic metallic mask. He listened to her explanation, of her importance, which he had already known, or at least suspected. It was nice to have it confirmed, however. Her magic was powerful, and she used it for parlor tricks of turning water into wine, or at least something similar in spirit. There was so much more she could do with that power. It was perhaps a waste, he thought as he sat there, laying back on his own lounger, the closest he had looked to relaxed since she had arrived. "Ah yes, them." He said. He had, had his own run ins with the TVA and Time-Keepers. "They are quite the nuisance." Yeah, how many people would describe them as such? The list starts and ends with Doctor Doom. This woman was something else, he thought. Between her crossing of her legs, referencing her magical abilities, and now, describing that she may produce unbelievably powerful offspring, was she flirting with him, tempting him with the potential she possessed? It was not something that Doom experienced very often. With the power he already possessed, should there be a union that bore fruit, that being would challenge the very fabric of the universe, if it so desired. Though her sarcasm did illicit a response, "that they are healthy and happy are the first priorities. Ruling the universe can come in time." His response was as dry as the best martini. When she talked about her past and present difficulties, "and yet, you do it with grace and poise, my dear."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda's eyes narrowed slightly as she gave Doom a pointed look, her gaze sharp and unyielding. "I know what you're thinking, Victor," she began, her voice a blend of firmness and calm. "While your face is hidden behind that mask, your body and aura speak volumes." Her eyes traced the outline of his form, noting every subtle movement. "I don't need my Witch's Sight to discern that you believe the frivolous use of my powers is a waste. It's written all over you...the tension in your muscles, the way you subtly shift your weight. Each movement is a tell." With a small, knowing smile, Wanda leaned back in her chair, her demeanor relaxed but her words cutting. "However, I'm presenting you with a challenge. Just like any muscle or skill, if you don't practice even the smallest of exercises, who is to say it won't affect your ability for larger feats? If you have it, use it." She shrugged her shoulders with a casual grace, the movement light and effortless. Her expression was one of confident nonchalance. "So, are you going to relax or just stand there like a stoic statue? Or do you need me to leave for you to feel at ease?" With a graceful fluidity, she began to rise from her chair, each movement deliberate and poised, ready to depart if that was indeed his wish. Her actions and words wove together a tapestry of strength and independence, challenging Doom not just with her powers but with her very presence.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Despite her somewhat stern tone, Wanda Maximoff actually managed to get a rise out of Victor von Doom. His chest began to shake and rattle as the voice of laughter escaped up through his throat, and out the lips, and mask. He was quite amused by her tone. "So it is, my dear, so it is." And with him, in not but a pair of swim shorts and the iconic mask, left little to hide those tells. Normally, he was fully hidden behind his armor. But he was on vacation and trying to relax. He had a lot of stress, ruling a country, living up to his genius, and having to deal with adversaries who misunderstood his desires, or worse, had come to opposing conclusions. She clearly found it easier to relax than he did. And once again, she gave good advice. He was starting to note that. Here, in private, he was finding her to be a surprisingly welcome guest. And then, the final affront. She threatened to leave, and he found, for whatever reason, that he did not wish it. "Your company has proven to be insightful and welcome. You no longer need respect the earlier boundaries I had imposed upon your stay here." "Though, in this heat, perhaps it is time for a walk through the pool." And he stood up, meeting her graceful form, and began to step towards the entrance. As he approached the stairs, he set one foot down into the water, feeling the difference in temperature and texture, then another, and he slowly descended into the pool, where he stood, the water at that point only going somewhere around his mid section. Turning around to gaze upon the figure of the woman, his eyes focusing on her own, he held out a proverbial hand, and asked "would you care to join me, Miss Maximoff?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>With an amused smile and a playful yet sarcastic tone, Wanda commented, "Thank you for your permission, oh generous Lord Doom." While her tone carried a hint of sarcasm, there was a genuine note of gratitude for his invitation to stay beyond the initial boundaries he had set. "And please, call me Wanda," she added, signaling her acceptance of his invitation to join him. As she spoke, Wanda lifted herself gracefully from her seat, her movements fluid and elegant. She stepped towards the pool, and as she did, whirls of chaos magic began to spin around her. The shimmering energy enveloped her, transforming her attire into a stunning two-piece ensemble that perfectly marries the elements of her Avengers costume with the serene beauty of Santorini and the vibrant flair of Romany dancer attire. The top, resembling her iconic corset, boasts a structured yet elegant silhouette in her signature red, adorned with intricate embroidery inspired by Greek patterns in cobalt blue and white. These subtle magical motifs add a mystical touch that reflects Wanda's powerful nature. The high-waisted bottom continues the theme with a design that is both stylish and comfortable. Predominantly red with silver accents, it features delicate Greek pattern embroidery that ties in seamlessly with the top. This high-waisted style also pays homage to traditional Romany dancer attire, adding a timeless and graceful appeal. Complementing the two-piece suit is a sheer, flowing sarong that mirrors Wanda's iconic cape. This ethereal wrap-around piece, which can be tied at the side, adds movement and grace reminiscent of a dancer's skirt. The sarong incorporates shades of red, silver, cobalt blue, and white, blending the themes of her costume and the picturesque essence of Santorini effortlessly. Overall, this bathing suit is a perfect fusion of Wanda's powerful and mystical persona with the serene, picturesque beauty of Santorini, while also capturing the elegant movement and allure of Romany dancer attire. Joining Doom in the pool, Wanda's presence exuded confidence and grace, her playful demeanor underscored by the powerful aura that surrounded her.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>He knew there to be sarcasm in that tone, but the words pleased him, and the voice did have a somewhat sincere gratitude to it. He had treated her formally, even in this oh so informal of venues, but when she asked to be addressed by her given name, he simply said, "as you wish, Wanda." It was something to behold, watching her shimmer and transform, from that flowing maxi dress, into a stunning two piece ensemble. He knew magic too. He had been in contention for Sorcerer Supreme on occasion, but he was more reserved with it. Magic was a tool to him. He had a decidedly mechanical view of it. It wasn't free flowing water down a stream, but something to be taken apart, analyzed, and perfected. It was building material. And yet, in her hands, it was art. How could anyone argue with such delightful results? Victor admired her, watched her enter the pool, and when she was near him, he began to lead her towards the walk up bar area, mostly because he wanted to get into the shade. The man was pale. Anyone who spend as much time as he did in a metal suit was going to be. And this sun was unforgiving. He moved to a tile chair built into the floor, and took a seat. "It is strange, to share time like this. I do not do it lightly. Have I affected your vacation plans much?" Wow, close to an apology again, even sympathetic. Perhaps he was unwell.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda waded casually around the pool, her movements graceful and fluid. She responded to Doom's inquiry with a light-hearted tone, "Well, ultimately, after putting a crimp in my plans of enjoying a luxurious vacation away from the pressures at home, you've so far made amends by welcoming me into the space that you have rented from under me." She hesitated momentarily, then continued with a sly grin, "So I'd say yes... Positively." With that, she dipped beneath the water, allowing the cool embrace to envelop her before resurfacing with her hair and face wet. Wiping her face with her hands, she looked at Doom with a newfound ease. "I have to admit, I did not think that spending time away from struggling to stop you from your next plot for world conquest would be so pleasing. I could get used to this," she remarked, her tone both playful and sincere.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Although Doom's mask was waterproof, when part of the entire suit, he could exist in space and the depths of the ocean, with equal ease. Still, it did not seem right to lower it into the water as Wanda had done with her fiery red hair. A doombot would soon appear behind the bar, wearing a crisp white shirt with cyan around the collar and sleeves. He was dressed as the staff would. "Can I get you anything?" It asked in Doom's own words. The real Victor turned and said, "yes, I will have a Tiki Torch," and turning back to Wanda, "what would you like, Wanda?" This was curious as it was the first time he had turned his back to her, a small mark of trust.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>As Doom turned his back, Wanda allowed herself a moment to admire the shape of his shoulders and the strength conveyed by his back. Despite the often off-putting stony expression of his mask, she regarded him without fear or repulsion, as a woman might have during the days when his face was as handsome as the rest of him. With a confident tone, Wanda responded to the request for her drink order. "Yes, I'll have: 1 oz. white rum, 1 oz. dark rum, 1 oz. coconut cream, 2 oz. pineapple juice, 1 oz. orange juice, 1/2 oz. lime juice, 1/2 oz. Falernum, 1/4 oz. grenadine, a dash of angostura bitters, crushed ice, a pineapple slice and cherry, and a fresh mint sprig." She watched the Doombot attentively, waiting for it to prepare the complex tropical drink she described, embodying the relaxation and luxury of their surroundings and a woman that knows exactly what she wants.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Victor von Doom was the epitome of a perfectionist. Although rarely seen, his body was a temple. The strength he carried in those shoulders was evident under these oh so rare of conditions. He was not Captain America. He had not undergone advanced drug therapy. No, he was natural. And for a human without the aid of chemicals, he was in amazing condition. The Doombot didn't flinch at her order, taking it all in, and would quickly produce her drink, exactly as ordered. Doom's was somewhat less difficult, but really, all cocktails were more or less the same steps. Add ingredients, sometimes in a specific order, and serve. Both drinks would appear at the bar. Doom moved to it, collecting them in each hand, again showing his back to her, before returning to her side with his drink, which of course included a straw, while stretching out his other hand to present her choice. When she accepted it, he offered a toast, "to the start of a most unexpected, and yet ambitious, vacation, Wanda."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda accepted both the drink and the toast with a gracious smile. "To further getting to know the individuals behind both of our masks," she added, clinking her glass gently against his. Taking a sip of her drink, she regarded him thoughtfully and giving a sigh, before setting her glass down. "Speaking of which..." she began, her voice soft yet probing, "I pray that you'll forgive me. I feel as if I can be completely open with you for some reason, and I find myself questioning the man that you are. Considering the complex relationship between not just the Avengers and yourself, but the rest of the world, I asked myself why, being as powerful as you are, you do not simply correct the accident made to your face." Her eyes searched his, and she reached out with her hand, pausing to seek his permission with a look before gently touching his mask. "The answer that I have theorized," she continued, "is that the mask and scars serve as fuel for your drive for power and domination. You see your mask as a symbol of your resolve and determination through the adversity you have experienced. Fixing your face would mean confronting and possibly alleviating a significant source of your motivation and identity, which a man as complete as yourself is unwilling to do." She paused, her gaze unwavering. "Overall, your choice to remain disfigured highlights your complex psychology. Not that I'm some kind of psychologist, and I do not presume to know the great Doom, it's just... what I see, I suppose. Again, I absolutely mean no disrespect." Her actions and words conveyed a deep curiosity and understanding, showing that she was not bothered by his appearance, but rather intrigued by the man behind the mask. Yet, the woman treads upon dangerous territory, but probably the most intriguing thing is, she does so without fear.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>It was a good thing that she could not see his face right now, as he sported a curious expression. Wearing a mask such as his, had its advantages, and disadvantages. And sometimes it was both at the same time. Her mask, such as it is, revealed her face, though that wasn't her meaning, and he understood that. "Quite." Is all he said after her remark. Were she able to see it, under that mask, Victor von Doom had a tiny little scar, but due to his overwhelming vanity, and sense of perfectionism, it proved too much for him to contend with. His refusal to remove the mask in public was a matter of principal. The mask is his true face as far as he is concerned. He thought about it, taking a sip of his drink through the straw. She had been so kind, so warm, and so accepting. It was exactly the kind of approach one would need to get to this stage with a man such a he. "You are, quite surprisingly, insightful, Wanda. Healing, what happened to me would be tantamount to turning back on my ambitions. They are an integral part of whom and what I am. I can no easier turn my back on my past, than I can my present, or future. My people depend on it. This world will depend upon it. There are too many lives at stake for such a... selfish, use of my abilities." She was right of course. She saw right through him, and that unnerved him to a degree. But it also emboldened him. He remained silent for several moments. The sound of the birds chirping as they circles the skies. There was the water flowing, gently crashing upon the sides of the pool. The sun shone, reflecting on the ripples in the water. And there was the faint and distant sound of relaxing music. And then, the incredible happened. Doctor Doom reached up, human hands, and touched the back and sides of his mask. There was the sound of pressure escaping as he touched some unseen button and seal. Air escaped with a whoosh. And the mask came apart in two sides. One around the back, and the other covering his face. He removed the mask, revealing his pale but incredibly handsome face. He was largely symmetrical, strong jaw line, with brown eyes, eyebrows, and hair. He set it down upon the counter at the bar. And oh yes, there was the famous scar of which he had made a mountain. It was on his cheek, faint, barely perceptible, but it was there. He was blemished. He was defied perfection. And it haunted him.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda watched intently as Victor von Doom went through the motions of removing his mask. Her expression remained unchanged, a calm curiosity marking her features, until she saw his eyes. At that moment, admiration filled her face as she took in the depth and beauty of his natural visage. "Your eyes... Victor," she began, her voice soft and filled with wonder. "Without your mask, they are deep and soulful, like rich, fertile earth that nurtures life with a quiet, enduring strength. They hold within them a depth that speaks of ancient forests and hidden streams, where the secrets of the world lie softly whispered by the rustling leaves. The warm hues range from the darkest mahogany to the lightest honey, each shade capturing the glow of a setting sun over an autumn landscape. When the light catches them just right, flecks of gold shimmer like tiny embers, adding a touch of warmth and mystery. They possess a quiet beauty that draws you in, offering a sense of comfort and steadfastness, like a timeless, well-worn path that has witnessed countless journeys and still invites more to come." Her poetic description, filled with the lyrical quality only a Mistress of mystical incantations could muster, focused solely on his eyes. They overshadowed any other feature his face might possess. "Unveiled from the prison of your metallic face so stony and stern, they are perfection." Wanda offered him a kind smile, her eyes twinkling with genuine warmth. She returned to her drink, taking a longer sip, and peered at him cheerfully over the rim of her glass. "Tell me, Victor," she said, her curiosity piqued. "What kind of boy were you? I want to know about your childhood." She leaned in slightly, her focus entirely on him, eager to hear the story behind the man who had become Doctor Doom. Her genuine interest and the soft, inviting tone of her voice created an atmosphere of trust and openness, a rare moment of vulnerability shared between two powerful individuals.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Victor von Doom's eyes had always been visible. It was the one part of his visage that was on display. However, most didn't look that deeply. They saw the whole, the metal, the mask, the way he chose to present himself and interact with the outside world. That mask was now on the counter, face up, but the nearby Doombot bore the exact same look to contrast and compare with. He had done something that he had rarely done before. Few people got to witness this, but in this moment, in this place, she had been kind, caring, supportive, without pushing, and most of all, intriguing. He found that he liked conversing with her. She was pleasant company. And, he was in this heat, and it just felt awkward to wear it in this context. So, when she had engaged him sufficiently that he would even consider it, he did so. How she handled herself afterwards, impressed him yet again. "How very poetic of you," he said. Somehow, it didn't feel as though she was goading him, playing to his ego, or anything of that nature. She seemed sincere to him. He began to speak, unrehearsed, but he had a powerful voice, one no longer modified by his mask. He sounded different out of it. But in a good way. "The world outside my camp was often hostile and unforgiving, but inside the walls of our modest home, I found refuge in books and knowledge. My father was a scholar, a man of great intellect who sought to teach me the ways of the world. Despite the harshness of our surroundings, he always encouraged my curiosity, pushing me to excel in every subject. It was in those early years that I learned the value of knowledge and the power it could wield." "I was not like other children. While they played and laughed, I spent hours immersed in ancient texts, absorbing every piece of information I could find. My mother," there was an emotional pause, some hidden pain, "though gone too soon, left me with a legacy of resilience and determination. I remember her comforting words and the way she believed in my potential, even when my father was stern and demanding. Their influence made me determined to rise above the constraints of our environment and prove myself worthy of their expectations." "These experiences shaped me into the man I am today. The rigorous demands of my childhood, combined with the loss of my parents, forged a resolve within me like no other. I learned early on that power and control were essential for survival and that the world often rewards those who seize their destinies. My ambition to transform Latveria and protect its people is a reflection of the values instilled in me as a boy. I am driven not just by the desire for greatness, but by the need to honor the legacy of those who came before me."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"The troubled life of a young Prince," Wanda mused, smiling, "I remember imagining what it must have been like to live in a castle, with notions of princes slaying dragons and rescuing princesses. Dazzling balls and fancy dresses, dancing for endless hours into the night. This, much like everything else I came to find, is a mirage to what the world was really like." Wanda settled back against the side of the pool, her eyes softening as she prepared to share the story of her childhood. The atmosphere around them seemed to shift, becoming more intimate and reflective. "I grew up in a small Romani village in Transia," she began, her voice tinged with a mix of nostalgia and sorrow. "My twin brother, Pietro, and I were raised by our adoptive parents, Django and Marya Maximoff. Life was simple, but we were happy. We didn't have much, but we had each other and that was enough." A wistful smile crossed her face as she recalled those early years. "I remember the nights we would sit around the fire, listening to the elders tell stories. Their tales were filled with magic and wonder, and I would dream of wielding such power. Little did I know, those dreams would one day become reality." Her expression darkened slightly as she continued. "But our happiness was short-lived. Our village was attacked, and our parents were killed. Pietro and I were left alone, forced to fend for ourselves. We were just children, scared and lost. We had no one to turn to, and we were constantly on the run." She paused, taking a deep breath to steady herself. "We eventually came to the attention of Magneto, though we didn't know he was our father at the time. He took us in, trained us, and gave us a purpose. But his methods were harsh, and his goals were... extreme. We became part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, fighting for a cause we didn't fully understand." Wanda's eyes glistened with unshed tears as she relived those painful memories. "I struggled with my powers, not fully understanding their potential or their dangers. I made mistakes, terrible mistakes that hurt people. I felt like a monster, and it took me a long time to come to terms with who I am and what I can do." She looked at Doom, her gaze steady and unwavering. "But through it all, I had Pietro. He was my rock, my protector. We faced everything together, and that bond kept me going. Eventually, we found our way to the Avengers, and for the first time in a long while, I felt like I had a place where I belonged." Her voice softened, a hint of hope threading through her words. "It's been a long and difficult journey, but I've learned to embrace my powers and my heritage. I've made peace with my past, and I've found a new family among the Avengers. But those early years, the pain and the loss, they shaped me into who I am today."

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Victor von Doom knew some of it, perhaps a lot of it. He may well have researched her through his mask as they sat there before he removed it. Technology was such a wonderful thing. But he knew words. She conveyed emotion. She filled in the gaps. He moved to sit with his back to the pool, beside her, but not too close. He did like his space, even if she had proven herself to be troublingly effective at navigating the barriers he put up. "We have more in common than I would have expected." With the mask off, there were now emotions to perceive and analyze. He looked thoughtful as she shared, he showed empathy, sorrow, and happiness, at each respective point. "It pleases me that you are here." Though that last part was almost as much for him as it was for her.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda deflates for a moment, her eyes turn away and drop away as he mentions how he enjoys her presence. Her gaze, returning to him, turned introspective as she considered the implications of future possibilities. She took a deep breath, her eyes reflecting a mixture of longing and resignation. "Victor," she began, her voice soft and wistful, "I will always be candid with you, and right now, I need to express what it might mean for us to pursue anything beyond this moment, be it friendship or something more. Our lives are so different, our views and methods so opposed. I can see the struggles that would inevitably arise, the clashes when our paths cross on the battlefield." She paused, her fingers gently tracing the rim of her glass. "Your goals, your methods... they are driven by a relentless pursuit of power and control. You believe in using any means necessary to achieve what you see as a greater good. And while I understand your perspective, I can't condone the extremity of your actions. My morals, the principles I've chosen to uphold, demand that I stand against such measures." Wanda's eyes met his, a profound sadness within them. "I know that nothing, not even your feelings, would ever stop you from pursuing your goals. And the same goes for me. If your actions threaten the values I hold dear, I will oppose you as fully as you would me. We will find ourselves on opposite sides, struggling like enemies despite whatever feelings we might share when we are alone." A wistful smile played on her lips as she continued, "But I believe in the strength of emotional intelligence. I believe that we can be solid enough to separate our personal feelings from our duties. I am certain that, no matter what happens, I can find a way to keep any feelings for you distinct from my responsibilities. I can respect the true man without compromising the person I strive to be." Wanda sighed, her expression a blend of hope and melancholy. "It's a difficult path we tread, Victor. But I think, if we both respect and understand each other, we can navigate turbulent waters. It's not about changing who we are, but about accepting the person beneath the mask, even if that means facing off against each other when duty calls." She reached out, her hand gently resting on his arm, offering a small but sincere smile. "So, whatever comes our way, let's make a pact. To be honest with each other, to cherish the moments we might share, and to face whatever challenges arise with the strength and resolve that defines us both." Wisdom within her words that ring with the truth and resolve of a woman recognizing a connection. "I guess, what I'm saying is... I would like to see you again."

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Her words were nor without merit. She made good points, articulated them well, and he could see no flaw in her reasoning or rationale. He agreed with virtually everything she had said, save for describing his methods as extreme, but that was mere semantics. Of course, neither of them were speaking their native tongues either. While he could speak Transian, she had begun with English in the lobby, and he maintained that. The impermanence of her reaching for his arm and gently touching it could have easily resulted in an immediate and often lethal reprisal. But there was something to be said for her approach, measured, confident, and deft. She read him well. "Forgive me for monopolizing your time. You must be tired from your journey and eager to settle in. However, I would appreciate your company for dinner in the Japanese restaurant, shall we say seven o'clock?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda looked at Doom, her eyes soft with understanding. "Victor, there's no need to apologize for taking up my time. I've truly enjoyed our conversation," she said, her voice gentle and sincere. "However, I do need to get to my room, unpack, and take a shower." She gave him a warm smile. "7 PM, hmmm..." she added, starting to rise from the water with a fluid grace. With a delicate twirl and a flourish of spiraling hex magic, a warm breeze picked up, caressing her skin and drying the pool's water from her body. The shimmering magic danced around her, creating an almost ethereal glow. As she reached the edge of the pool, Wanda paused and glanced back over her shoulder, her eyes sparkling with mischief lightly teasing as she leaves him waiting for her answer. "It's a date," she said, her tone playful, "but only if you take me dancing." She punctuated her words with a wink, her smile full of promise. She continued her exit with light, confident steps, her presence leaving an air of anticipation behind her. As she walked away, her graceful movements and the lingering warmth of her smile stayed with Doom, setting the stage for their evening rendezvous.
}}

16462/Scarlet Getaway of Doom

2024-08-08T16:33:38Z

Kstar: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2024/08/06 |Location=Santorini Greece |Synopsis=A Doom snatched getaway for Wanda brings the possibility of Doom and future possibilities. |Cast of Characters=70, 130 |pretty=yes }} {{Poses |Poses=:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda Maximoff teleported to the stunning island of Santorini, wearing a summer getaway outfit that is the epitome of elegance and comfort, perfectly blending with the stunning backdrop of..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2024/08/06
|Location=Santorini Greece
|Synopsis=A Doom snatched getaway for Wanda brings the possibility of Doom and future possibilities.
|Cast of Characters=70, 130
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda Maximoff teleported to the stunning island of Santorini, wearing a summer getaway outfit that is the epitome of elegance and comfort, perfectly blending with the stunning backdrop of the Aegean Sea. She wears a flowing maxi dress made of lightweight, breathable fabric in a soft, ethereal white that reflects the island's iconic architecture. The dress features delicate embroidery along the neckline and hem in vibrant shades of cobalt blue, reminiscent of the sea and sky. The neckline is a tasteful off-the-shoulder style, allowing the gentle breeze to caress her skin and adding a touch of romantic allure. The dress cinches at the waist with a braided belt made of natural fibers, adorned with small seashells and beads, highlighting her figure while maintaining a relaxed fit. The skirt of the dress billows gracefully as she moves, offering both freedom and a sense of whimsy. Wanda accessorizes with a wide-brimmed straw hat, providing shade from the sun while exuding timeless glamour. Her footwear consists of elegant yet comfortable espadrille sandals in a matching shade of white, with ties that wrap around her ankles. She completes the look with a pair of oversized sunglasses with delicate gold accents and a simple gold anklet that catches the sunlight with every step. For her jewelry, she opts for a pair of statement earrings featuring intricate designs of gold and blue gemstones, evoking the colors of Santorini. Her makeup is minimal, with a touch of bronzer, a hint of blush, and a swipe of coral lip balm, enhancing her natural beauty and ensuring she looks effortlessly radiant. This breathtaking outfit allows Wanda to fully embrace the relaxed yet chic ambiance of Santorini, making her summer getaway both stylish and memorable. She approached the front desk with an air of confidence, her oversized sunglasses perched atop her head. "Good afternoon," she greeted the clerk with a warm smile. "I have a reservation under Maximoff." The clerk's face fell slightly as he checked the reservation list. "I'm terribly sorry, Ms. Maximoff, but it seems that the entire resort has been rented out by another party." Wanda's expression shifted to one of frustration, her lips pressing into a thin line. "Is there really nothing that can be done?" she asked, her voice carrying a hint of desperation. "I've traveled quite a distance for this getaway." The clerk offered a sympathetic look but shook his head. "Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do. The entire resort is booked." Wanda sighed, her shoulders dropping slightly as she considered her options. "Thank you," she said graciously, though her disappointment was evident. She turned away from the desk, taking a moment to compose herself, the gentle breeze from the open windows rustling the delicate fabric of her dress. As she stepped outside, she cast one last hopeful glance back at the resort before starting to consider alternative options, determined to make the best of her Santorini getaway despite the setback.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"Name one thing in this world that is not negotiable," words that may have been spoken by a character on television, but they were no less apt.\<br\>\<br\>When Doctor Doom decided to take a vacation to the nearby Greek island of Santorini, he booked an entire hotel on reasonably short notice. Emails were sent out, other resorts were offered, though not everyone read theirs, and of course, sometimes spam filters were frustrating.\<br\>\<br\>It was worth the hassle of all those angry customers for the amount of money that Doctor Doom had offered them.\<br\>\<br\>And so, the resort was on minimal staff. Most got the week off with pay, including typical gratuities, with no one permitted beyond certain points, or during certain hours.\<br\>\<br\>Doctor Doom did not take his mask off in public, and staff were instructed to keep their distance. Doombots would fill in for any situations that required it.\<br\>\<br\>It just so happened that one of them was in the vicinity. This one looked like Doctor Doom, full suit, even in this heat, except instead of the green cloak, he wore the uniform of the staff.\<br\>\<br\>Hearing her plight, a signal was sent, and another Doombot, one closer to the real Doctor Doom, explained the situation.\<br\>\<br\>It had recognized the Scarlet Witch. She was an Avenger after all. And as she was heading out, it approached her.\<br\>\<br\>"Excuse me miss Maximoff, but perhaps something can be arranged. If you would be so kind," and the metal hand gestured for her to follow him. "Your bags will be safe in the meantime."\<br\>\<br\>The human at the desk, seeing this, would move to take them and place them behind the desk for now.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda was lost in her thoughts, the serene beauty of Santorini providing a perfect backdrop for her musings. The sudden approach of a figure in a staff uniform startled her, making her take a half-step back. Her eyes quickly assessed the situation, recognizing the metallic sheen and the distinctive design--- a Doombot. A flicker of wariness crossed her face, but she was not one to jump to conclusions or act on impulse, especially not in a place like this. With a measured breath, she calmed herself, allowing her initial startle to fade. She nodded, her expression neutral but polite. "Very well, lead the way." she replied, her voice calm. She cast a brief glance at her bags being taken behind the desk before following the Doombot's lead, her senses attuned to any further surprises that might come her way.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>The resort was as to be expected. Immaculate, gorgeous, warm, welcoming, with soft music playing inside, the favorable weather, except that there guests were nowhere to be seen. Not one.\<br\>\<br\>The staff was also largely absent, and as they drew ever nearer to the pool, the staff, such as it was, were entirely comprised of doombots, each suit of metal armor capable of taking on an Avenger by itself. Although it didn't look it, this resort had never been so well armed.\<br\>\<br\>At the end of the journey, Wanda was brought to the pool, where a loan individual now stood. He was dressed in, well, okay. This was a first.\<br\>\<br\>Black sandals, with a velcro strap over the top rather than a wire between his toes, pale skin, the smell of sunblock, black swimming trunks, neither too tight, nor too loose, bare chest, and a metal mask. It wa Doctor Doom, or some incredible Life Model Decoy wearing his mask.\<br\>\<br\>Most likely, she had simply arrived while he was sunbathing by the pool. There was a drink on a side table, a book with a bookmark, a bottle of suntan lotion, and a towel with the Latverian flag on it.\<br\>\<br\>Placing his hands behind his back, the tall man stood at around 6 foot 2 inches, with an impressive musculature. He weighed aboutb 225 lbs, and couldn't have more than 8 percent body fat. On anyone else, he would look comical fight now. But aomehow, even in shorts and a mask, he managed to cut an authoritative figure.\<br\>\<br\>"Miss Maximoff," okay, that was always creepy. She had just heard the Doombot speak, and now she heard the exact same voice from the original model. "I understand that I have, what is it your American friends say, put you put, by reserving this locale. That was not my intention." Which was about as close as she would get to an apology. "I have decided that I will afford you a vacation here, in the respect to what you have done for the world, and the current good relations between Latveria and Transia. All that I require is that you observe a healthy distance when I am... dressed down."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda recognized Doctor Doom instantly, though she hadn't expected to see him in this state of dress. Her reception of him was calm and composed, with no hint of fear or defensiveness. She approached him with a kind smile, stepping over to the pool and removing her hat. "Victor Von Doom," she greeted him warmly, her tone friendly and relaxed. "I must say that this is a surprise. If I were to name one of the last people I expected to see on my impromptu getaway, you would be at the top of that list. Just above Mephesto if I am to be honest." with a twinkle in her eyes, she takes a gregarious glance around their surroundings. Furthermore, as she brings her gaze back to him, it travels down and then back up again to his masked face, "I'll assume that your allowance would mean that I have discovered the individual that pulled the rug out from under my initial reservation." she muses, "I'm surprised you take such retreats to places as beautiful as this. Your fortress is... for lack of a a better word... dark." As she steps closer, the wind catches her garment and hair, blowing the delicate blended scent of her perfume and hair conditioner upon the gentle breeze. She brushes her fingers back through her locks behind her ear, "Forgive me, Victor, I mean no disrespect, I am merely surprised, if not rather amused."

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Doom took a few deliberate steps as she walked towards the pool and removed her hat, ensuring that he continued to face her. Were she a telepath, she might have picked up on the unease of being in this position. Still, he was not the monster that some made him out to be.\<br\>\<br\>"Is that so? I would expect a father would want to surprise his daughter from time to time, though, with Genosha's tropical climate, I would expect he only vacations when he wishes to ski."\<br\>\<br\>Moving to stand shoulder to shoulder with her, though with an appropriate distance, he retained his rigid posture, hands clasped behind his back, as a Doombot approached her on the other side, glass on a tray, "Welcome to Grave Hotel Santorini, Miss Maximoff. Your room is ready at your convenience."\<br\>\<br\>As she spoke of how dark Doomsdadt was, he sounded, almost pained. The real Doom that is. "Perhaps the next time you and your Avengers grace my halls, you do it during the summer. It really is quite lovely, when you are not trying to impede my efforts to bring prosperity to this world."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda thanked the Doombot for its service with a polite nod, her movements assured and graceful. An aura of power and confidence surrounded her as she stepped past Doctor Doom, her demeanor conveying a deliberate lack of fear to set a tone of ease in his presence. With a deliberate and elegant motion, she removed one of her sandals and dipped her toe into the water of the pool, swirling it around thoughtfully. "I'm certain Latveria has its charms," she remarked, glancing back at Doom with a subtle smile, "Perhaps a reflection of its leader. The great economy and the happiness of its people are certainly a testament to your governing power and passion." Her tone was bemused, carrying a hint of admiration mixed with underlying awareness. Turning her gaze back to the water, Wanda continued, "As for bringing prosperity to the world, perhaps you would not find the Avengers impeding you if your efforts were not so... extremist. Sometimes, a gentle hand can make the most waves." She spoke with a gentle yet firm tone, emphasizing her point with a calm confidence.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>The water was warm and inviting, especially in this heat. It was why pools were so popular at resorts such as this. People could lounge on the beds, reading, socializing, eating, drinking, and otherwise relaxing, and when the desire to cool off became too much to pass up, they could continue in the water, without the issue of sand.\<br\>\<br\>"Perhaps you shall see it as an honored guest, Miss Maximoff." He was expressionless through the mask, but she might have heard his amusement at the compliment. Flattery would not work on him, though he did enjoy it all the same.\<br\>\<br\>"Extreme situations sometimes call for extreme solutions, however, there is value in your words."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda lifted her eyes to meet his, a small, delightful smile playing on her lips. "Perhaps I shall," she remarked, her voice soft yet confident, acknowledging his comment about being an honored guest. Lifting her foot from the water, she allowed a few drops to fall back into the pool before turning to face him fully. "I'm always looking for exotic places to escape from time to time," she added, her tone carrying a hint of wistfulness. With the grace of a feline and the poise of a lady, Wanda moved towards a nearby lounging chair. Each step was deliberate, her presence commanding yet serene. She lowered herself onto the chair, settling back into it with a relaxed elegance, her movements fluid and unhurried. She regarded Doom thoughtfully, her eyes reflecting both curiosity and a hint of challenge. "Tell me, Victor," she began, her voice carrying a gentle, probing quality, "can you be a gentle man?" Her gaze remained steady, studying him intently. "Your visage is nothing if not powerful and terrifying, commanding great respect. But is there a soft side to you at all?" She paused, letting her words sink in, the air around them seeming to hold its breath. "Vulnerability can be just as attractive as power," she added, her tone softening, yet still holding a firm undertone of conviction. The pool's water rippled gently in the background, the scene around them a picture of tranquility, contrasting with the weight of the conversation. Wanda's presence was a blend of strength and grace, her words and demeanor inviting a deeper, more personal reflection from the enigmatic figure before her.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"Exotic?" He intoned singularly. As a woman he knew to have spent her formative years in neighboring Transia, which was separated from Latveria by Symkaria alone, the terrain and culture was not starkly different. By a curious happenstance of history, Latveria had been a largely German exclave, never being part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austria, or Germany, but with cultural and linguistic ties. "I suppose everywhere we travel is exotic to our own sensibilities".\<br\>\<br\>Having only earlier given the one condition that she give him a wide berth when dressed as such, her now sitting down at an adjacent lounge chair, it most certainly was a challenge. He considered trying to end her existence for it, but he would have to clean up the mess, deal with the hotel, and most of all, he was not exactly dressed for battle. Moreover, she was a being of immense power. And so, he forgave the slight and sat back down on his lounger, still wearing the mask in this sweltering heat.\<br\>\<br\>"I can do anything." It was simple. It was short. And incredibly, it was said in a tone that was not arrogant, but simply factual. He knew that he could do anything he chose to do.\<br\>\<br\>He considered her insult, even if it was not intended that way, and her words. After a long period of silence, he said, "ask any Latverian," except for Dreadknight and any others that had broken his laws, "and they will tell you all you need to know about that." And he was right. Doom was beloved by his people, in and out of Latveria.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda's demeanor remained relaxed, almost whimsical, as if she didn't take his demands very seriously. Her actions danced around Doom's authority and arrogance, displaying an understanding of his type while simultaneously showing no intention of "kissing his feet" simply because of who he was. A soft laugh escaped her lips, and she quickly apologized, her eyes twinkling with amusement. "You remind me so much of my twin brother, Pietro," she explained, her voice light. "He loves to show his Romany mentality and look down upon others because of their cultural lifestyles. Yet, I hardly pay him any attention, especially when he directs it towards me." As she spoke, Wanda waved a hand dismissively, as if Pietro were physically present and she was shooing him away. This gesture, combined with her words, underscored her assured and independent nature. She was not challenging Doom; rather, she was displaying the confidence and poise of a woman who knew her own power and worth. Wanda's very aura was one of a distinguished noble in her own right, contrasting sharply with her true upbringing. In the face of Doom's aristocratic air, she behaved like a princess of power, her confidence and assurance shining through.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>She did seem to have his number. Victor von Doom was many things to many people. But no one, and it really was no one, spoke to him as an equal. There were the obstinate types, like her brother, who would disagree with everything on principal. There were those who treated him with the respect he deserved, even when opposing him, like Reed Richards. But no one had spoken to him like Wanda since he had become Doctor Doom. It was curiously appealing. Perhaps that was the real reason she yet still drew breath.\<br\>\<br\>"You are a rare woman indeed, Miss Maximoff."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda crossed her legs elegantly, her demeanor exuding calm confidence. "Of course, I am rare," she began, her voice carrying a hint of wry amusement. "I have either the fortune or misfortune of being a Nexus being. An agent of the Queen of Nevers, the embodiment of possibility. Individual entities with the ability to affect probability and the future, altering the flow of the Universal Time Stream." She took a sip of her drink and winced slightly, her expression showing a hint of displeasure. With a casual flick of her fingers and a pulse of hex power, the very fabric of the drink was rewoven into a glass of iced tea, which she happily sipped. "Acting as the keystones of the Multiverse, we are crucial to its ultimate coherence and stability. We are vigilantly watched over by cosmic forces such as the Time Variance Authority and the Time-Keepers to be aware of any temporal changes that the nexi may cause to the Time Stream and act accordingly." Wanda paused, swirling the ice in her glass, the sound of clinking ice cubes adding a gentle rhythm to her words. "It is said that we have the potential to produce unbelievably powerful offspring. That any born of me would be powerful enough to stand among the Great Forces of their Universe and rock the cosmos itself." She looked up at Doom, her eyes meeting his with a hint of sarcasm. "Sounds like a great thing to live up to, doesn't it?" she commented dryly. "To me, it just sounds like too much stress and pressure added onto my already troubled upbringing and past." Canting her head to one side, allowing locks of her hair to roll down the front of her shoulder, she regarded Doom with curiosity. "I can barely deal with the constant monsters, demons, and mystical evils that constantly show up for no reason to eat me," she added with a bemused smile, her tone light but her words carrying the weight of her experiences.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Victor von Doom's eyes went towards her on the lounger as she crossed her legs so elegantly. It was for comfort, but it was also activity that drew the eye, even though a man wearing a mask with a visor. He couldn't help but be amused as she proudly embraced her rarity. So many of his expression, well, all of them, were hidden by that stoic metallic mask. He listened to her explanation, of her importance, which he had already known, or at least suspected. It was nice to have it confirmed, however.\<br\>\<br\>Her magic was powerful, and she used it for parlor tricks of turning water into wine, or at least something similar in spirit. There was so much more she could do with that power. It was perhaps a waste, he thought as he sat there, laying back on his own lounger, the closest he had looked to relaxed since she had arrived.\<br\>\<br\>"Ah yes, them." He said. He had, had his own run ins with the TVA and Time-Keepers. "They are quite the nuisance." Yeah, how many people would describe them as such? The list starts and ends with Doctor Doom.\<br\>\<br\>This woman was something else, he thought. Between her crossing of her legs, referencing her magical abilities, and now, describing that she may produce unbelievably powerful offspring, was she flirting with him, tempting him with the potential she possessed? It was not something that Doom experienced very often.\<br\>\<br\>With the power he already possessed, should there be a union that bore fruit, that being would challenge the very fabric of the universe, if it so desired. Though her sarcasm did illicit a response, "that they are healthy and happy are the first priorities. Ruling the universe can come in time." His response was as dry as the best martini.\<br\>\<br\>When she talked about her past and present difficulties, "and yet, you do it with grace and poise, my dear."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda's eyes narrowed slightly as she gave Doom a pointed look, her gaze sharp and unyielding. "I know what you're thinking, Victor," she began, her voice a blend of firmness and calm. "While your face is hidden behind that mask, your body and aura speak volumes." Her eyes traced the outline of his form, noting every subtle movement. "I don't need my Witch's Sight to discern that you believe the frivolous use of my powers is a waste. It's written all over you...the tension in your muscles, the way you subtly shift your weight. Each movement is a tell." With a small, knowing smile, Wanda leaned back in her chair, her demeanor relaxed but her words cutting. "However, I'm presenting you with a challenge. Just like any muscle or skill, if you don't practice even the smallest of exercises, who is to say it won't affect your ability for larger feats? If you have it, use it." She shrugged her shoulders with a casual grace, the movement light and effortless. Her expression was one of confident nonchalance. "So, are you going to relax or just stand there like a stoic statue? Or do you need me to leave for you to feel at ease?" With a graceful fluidity, she began to rise from her chair, each movement deliberate and poised, ready to depart if that was indeed his wish. Her actions and words wove together a tapestry of strength and independence, challenging Doom not just with her powers but with her very presence.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Despite her somewhat stern tone, Wanda Maximoff actually managed to get a rise out of Victor von Doom. His chest began to shake and rattle as the voice of laughter escaped up through his throat, and out the lips, and mask. He was quite amused by her tone. "So it is, my dear, so it is."\<br\>\<br\>And with him, in not but a pair of swim shorts and the iconic mask, left little to hide those tells. Normally, he was fully hidden behind his armor. But he was on vacation and trying to relax. He had a lot of stress, ruling a country, living up to his genius, and having to deal with adversaries who misunderstood his desires, or worse, had come to opposing conclusions.\<br\>\<br\>She clearly found it easier to relax than he did. And once again, she gave good advice. He was starting to note that. Here, in private, he was finding her to be a surprisingly welcome guest.\<br\>\<br\>And then, the final affront. She threatened to leave, and he found, for whatever reason, that he did not wish it. "Your company has proven to be insightful and welcome. You no longer need respect the earlier boundaries I had imposed upon your stay here."\<br\>\<br\>"Though, in this heat, perhaps it is time for a walk through the pool." And he stood up, meeting her graceful form, and began to step towards the entrance. As he approached the stairs, he set one foot down into the water, feeling the difference in temperature and texture, then another, and he slowly descended into the pool, where he stood, the water at that point only going somewhere around his mid section.\<br\>\<br\>Turning around to gaze upon the figure of the woman, his eyes focusing on her own, he held out a proverbial hand, and asked "would you care to join me, Miss Maximoff?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>With an amused smile and a playful yet sarcastic tone, Wanda commented, "Thank you for your permission, oh generous Lord Doom." While her tone carried a hint of sarcasm, there was a genuine note of gratitude for his invitation to stay beyond the initial boundaries he had set. "And please, call me Wanda," she added, signaling her acceptance of his invitation to join him. As she spoke, Wanda lifted herself gracefully from her seat, her movements fluid and elegant. She stepped towards the pool, and as she did, whirls of chaos magic began to spin around her. The shimmering energy enveloped her, transforming her attire into a stunning two-piece ensemble that perfectly marries the elements of her Avengers costume with the serene beauty of Santorini and the vibrant flair of Romany dancer attire. The top, resembling her iconic corset, boasts a structured yet elegant silhouette in her signature red, adorned with intricate embroidery inspired by Greek patterns in cobalt blue and white. These subtle magical motifs add a mystical touch that reflects Wanda's powerful nature. The high-waisted bottom continues the theme with a design that is both stylish and comfortable. Predominantly red with silver accents, it features delicate Greek pattern embroidery that ties in seamlessly with the top. This high-waisted style also pays homage to traditional Romany dancer attire, adding a timeless and graceful appeal. Complementing the two-piece suit is a sheer, flowing sarong that mirrors Wanda's iconic cape. This ethereal wrap-around piece, which can be tied at the side, adds movement and grace reminiscent of a dancer's skirt. The sarong incorporates shades of red, silver, cobalt blue, and white, blending the themes of her costume and the picturesque essence of Santorini effortlessly. Overall, this bathing suit is a perfect fusion of Wanda's powerful and mystical persona with the serene, picturesque beauty of Santorini, while also capturing the elegant movement and allure of Romany dancer attire. Joining Doom in the pool, Wanda's presence exuded confidence and grace, her playful demeanor underscored by the powerful aura that surrounded her.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>He knew there to be sarcasm in that tone, but the words pleased him, and the voice did have a somewhat sincere gratitude to it. He had treated her formally, even in this oh so informal of venues, but when she asked to be addressed by her given name, he simply said, "as you wish, Wanda."\<br\>\<br\>It was something to behold, watching her shimmer and transform, from that flowing maxi dress, into a stunning two piece ensemble. He knew magic too. He had been in contention for Sorcerer Supreme on occasion, but he was more reserved with it. Magic was a tool to him. He had a decidedly mechanical view of it. It wasn't free flowing water down a stream, but something to be taken apart, analyzed, and perfected. It was building material. And yet, in her hands, it was art. How could anyone argue with such delightful results?\<br\>\<br\>Victor admired her, watched her enter the pool, and when she was near him, he began to lead her towards the walk up bar area, mostly because he wanted to get into the shade. The man was pale. Anyone who spend as much time as he did in a metal suit was going to be. And this sun was unforgiving. He moved to a tile chair built into the floor, and took a seat. "It is strange, to share time like this. I do not do it lightly. Have I affected your vacation plans much?" Wow, close to an apology again, even sympathetic. Perhaps he was unwell.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda waded casually around the pool, her movements graceful and fluid. She responded to Doom's inquiry with a light-hearted tone, "Well, ultimately, after putting a crimp in my plans of enjoying a luxurious vacation away from the pressures at home, you've so far made amends by welcoming me into the space that you have rented from under me." She hesitated momentarily, then continued with a sly grin, "So I'd say yes... Positively." With that, she dipped beneath the water, allowing the cool embrace to envelop her before resurfacing with her hair and face wet. Wiping her face with her hands, she looked at Doom with a newfound ease. "I have to admit, I did not think that spending time away from struggling to stop you from your next plot for world conquest would be so pleasing. I could get used to this," she remarked, her tone both playful and sincere.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Although Doom's mask was waterproof, when part of the entire suit, he could exist in space and the depths of the ocean, with equal ease. Still, it did not seem right to lower it into the water as Wanda had done with her fiery red hair.\<br\>\<br\>A doombot would soon appear behind the bar, wearing a crisp white shirt with cyan around the collar and sleeves. He was dressed as the staff would. "Can I get you anything?" It asked in Doom's own words.\<br\>\<br\>The real Victor turned and said, "yes, I will have a Tiki Torch," and turning back to Wanda, "what would you like, Wanda?"\<br\>\<br\>This was curious as it was the first time he had turned his back to her, a small mark of trust.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>As Doom turned his back, Wanda allowed herself a moment to admire the shape of his shoulders and the strength conveyed by his back. Despite the often off-putting stony expression of his mask, she regarded him without fear or repulsion, as a woman might have during the days when his face was as handsome as the rest of him. With a confident tone, Wanda responded to the request for her drink order. "Yes, I'll have: 1 oz. white rum, 1 oz. dark rum, 1 oz. coconut cream, 2 oz. pineapple juice, 1 oz. orange juice, 1/2 oz. lime juice, 1/2 oz. Falernum, 1/4 oz. grenadine, a dash of angostura bitters, crushed ice, a pineapple slice and cherry, and a fresh mint sprig." She watched the Doombot attentively, waiting for it to prepare the complex tropical drink she described, embodying the relaxation and luxury of their surroundings and a woman that knows exactly what she wants.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Victor von Doom was the epitome of a perfectionist. Although rarely seen, his body was a temple. The strength he carried in those shoulders was evident under these oh so rare of conditions. He was not Captain America. He had not undergone advanced drug therapy. No, he was natural. And for a human without the aid of chemicals, he was in amazing condition.\<br\>\<br\>The Doombot didn't flinch at her order, taking it all in, and would quickly produce her drink, exactly as ordered. Doom's was somewhat less difficult, but really, all cocktails were more or less the same steps. Add ingredients, sometimes in a specific order, and serve. Both drinks would appear at the bar. Doom moved to it, collecting them in each hand, again showing his back to her, before returning to her side with his drink, which of course included a straw, while stretching out his other hand to present her choice.\<br\>\<br\>When she accepted it, he offered a toast, "to the start of a most unexpected, and yet ambitious, vacation, Wanda."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda accepted both the drink and the toast with a gracious smile. "To further getting to know the individuals behind both of our masks," she added, clinking her glass gently against his. Taking a sip of her drink, she regarded him thoughtfully and giving a sigh, before setting her glass down. "Speaking of which..." she began, her voice soft yet probing, "I pray that you'll forgive me. I feel as if I can be completely open with you for some reason, and I find myself questioning the man that you are. Considering the complex relationship between not just the Avengers and yourself, but the rest of the world, I asked myself why, being as powerful as you are, you do not simply correct the accident made to your face." Her eyes searched his, and she reached out with her hand, pausing to seek his permission with a look before gently touching his mask. "The answer that I have theorized," she continued, "is that the mask and scars serve as fuel for your drive for power and domination. You see your mask as a symbol of your resolve and determination through the adversity you have experienced. Fixing your face would mean confronting and possibly alleviating a significant source of your motivation and identity, which a man as complete as yourself is unwilling to do." She paused, her gaze unwavering. "Overall, your choice to remain disfigured highlights your complex psychology. Not that I'm some kind of psychologist, and I do not presume to know the great Doom, it's just... what I see, I suppose. Again, I absolutely mean no disrespect." Her actions and words conveyed a deep curiosity and understanding, showing that she was not bothered by his appearance, but rather intrigued by the man behind the mask. Yet, the woman treads upon dangerous territory, but probably the most intriguing thing is, she does so without fear.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>It was a good thing that she could not see his face right now, as he sported a curious expression. Wearing a mask such as his, had its advantages, and disadvantages. And sometimes it was both at the same time. Her mask, such as it is, revealed her face, though that wasn't her meaning, and he understood that. "Quite." Is all he said after her remark.\<br\>\<br\>Were she able to see it, under that mask, Victor von Doom had a tiny little scar, but due to his overwhelming vanity, and sense of perfectionism, it proved too much for him to contend with. His refusal to remove the mask in public was a matter of principal. The mask is his true face as far as he is concerned.\<br\>\<br\>He thought about it, taking a sip of his drink through the straw. She had been so kind, so warm, and so accepting. It was exactly the kind of approach one would need to get to this stage with a man such a he. "You are, quite surprisingly, insightful, Wanda. Healing, what happened to me would be tantamount to turning back on my ambitions. They are an integral part of whom and what I am. I can no easier turn my back on my past, than I can my present, or future. My people depend on it. This world will depend upon it. There are too many lives at stake for such a... selfish, use of my abilities."\<br\>\<br\>She was right of course. She saw right through him, and that unnerved him to a degree. But it also emboldened him. He remained silent for several moments. The sound of the birds chirping as they circles the skies. There was the water flowing, gently crashing upon the sides of the pool. The sun shone, reflecting on the ripples in the water. And there was the faint and distant sound of relaxing music.\<br\>\<br\>And then, the incredible happened. Doctor Doom reached up, human hands, and touched the back and sides of his mask. There was the sound of pressure escaping as he touched some unseen button and seal. Air escaped with a whoosh. And the mask came apart in two sides. One around the back, and the other covering his face.\<br\>\<br\>He removed the mask, revealing his pale but incredibly handsome face. He was largely symmetrical, strong jaw line, with brown eyes, eyebrows, and hair. He set it down upon the counter at the bar. And oh yes, there was the famous scar of which he had made a mountain. It was on his cheek, faint, barely perceptible, but it was there. He was blemished. He was defied perfection. And it haunted him.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda watched intently as Victor von Doom went through the motions of removing his mask. Her expression remained unchanged, a calm curiosity marking her features, until she saw his eyes. At that moment, admiration filled her face as she took in the depth and beauty of his natural visage. "Your eyes... Victor," she began, her voice soft and filled with wonder. "Without your mask, they are deep and soulful, like rich, fertile earth that nurtures life with a quiet, enduring strength. They hold within them a depth that speaks of ancient forests and hidden streams, where the secrets of the world lie softly whispered by the rustling leaves. The warm hues range from the darkest mahogany to the lightest honey, each shade capturing the glow of a setting sun over an autumn landscape. When the light catches them just right, flecks of gold shimmer like tiny embers, adding a touch of warmth and mystery. They possess a quiet beauty that draws you in, offering a sense of comfort and steadfastness, like a timeless, well-worn path that has witnessed countless journeys and still invites more to come." Her poetic description, filled with the lyrical quality only a Mistress of mystical incantations could muster, focused solely on his eyes. They overshadowed any other feature his face might possess. "Unveiled from the prison of your metallic face so stony and stern, they are perfection." Wanda offered him a kind smile, her eyes twinkling with genuine warmth. She returned to her drink, taking a longer sip, and peered at him cheerfully over the rim of her glass. "Tell me, Victor," she said, her curiosity piqued. "What kind of boy were you? I want to know about your childhood." She leaned in slightly, her focus entirely on him, eager to hear the story behind the man who had become Doctor Doom. Her genuine interest and the soft, inviting tone of her voice created an atmosphere of trust and openness, a rare moment of vulnerability shared between two powerful individuals.

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Victor von Doom's eyes had always been visible. It was the one part of his visage that was on display. However, most didn't look that deeply. They saw the whole, the metal, the mask, the way he chose to present himself and interact with the outside world. That mask was now on the counter, face up, but the nearby Doombot bore the exact same look to contrast and compare with.\<br\>\<br\>He had done something that he had rarely done before. Few people got to witness this, but in this moment, in this place, she had been kind, caring, supportive, without pushing, and most of all, intriguing. He found that he liked conversing with her. She was pleasant company. And, he was in this heat, and it just felt awkward to wear it in this context. So, when she had engaged him sufficiently that he would even consider it, he did so. How she handled herself afterwards, impressed him yet again.\<br\>\<br\>"How very poetic of you," he said. Somehow, it didn't feel as though she was goading him, playing to his ego, or anything of that nature. She seemed sincere to him. \<br\>\<br\>He began to speak, unrehearsed, but he had a powerful voice, one no longer modified by his mask. He sounded different out of it. But in a good way. "The world outside my camp was often hostile and unforgiving, but inside the walls of our modest home, I found refuge in books and knowledge. My father was a scholar, a man of great intellect who sought to teach me the ways of the world. Despite the harshness of our surroundings, he always encouraged my curiosity, pushing me to excel in every subject. It was in those early years that I learned the value of knowledge and the power it could wield."\<br\>\<br\>"I was not like other children. While they played and laughed, I spent hours immersed in ancient texts, absorbing every piece of information I could find. My mother," there was an emotional pause, some hidden pain, "though gone too soon, left me with a legacy of resilience and determination. I remember her comforting words and the way she believed in my potential, even when my father was stern and demanding. Their influence made me determined to rise above the constraints of our environment and prove myself worthy of their expectations."\<br\>\<br\>"These experiences shaped me into the man I am today. The rigorous demands of my childhood, combined with the loss of my parents, forged a resolve within me like no other. I learned early on that power and control were essential for survival and that the world often rewards those who seize their destinies. My ambition to transform Latveria and protect its people is a reflection of the values instilled in me as a boy. I am driven not just by the desire for greatness, but by the need to honor the legacy of those who came before me."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"The troubled life of a young Prince," Wanda mused, smiling, "I remember imagining what it must have been like to live in a castle, with notions of princes slaying dragons and rescuing princesses. Dazzling balls and fancy dresses, dancing for endless hours into the night. This, much like everything else I came to find, is a mirage to what the world was really like." Wanda settled back against the side of the pool, her eyes softening as she prepared to share the story of her childhood. The atmosphere around them seemed to shift, becoming more intimate and reflective. "I grew up in a small Romani village in Transia," she began, her voice tinged with a mix of nostalgia and sorrow. "My twin brother, Pietro, and I were raised by our adoptive parents, Django and Marya Maximoff. Life was simple, but we were happy. We didn't have much, but we had each other and that was enough." A wistful smile crossed her face as she recalled those early years. "I remember the nights we would sit around the fire, listening to the elders tell stories. Their tales were filled with magic and wonder, and I would dream of wielding such power. Little did I know, those dreams would one day become reality." Her expression darkened slightly as she continued. "But our happiness was short-lived. Our village was attacked, and our parents were killed. Pietro and I were left alone, forced to fend for ourselves. We were just children, scared and lost. We had no one to turn to, and we were constantly on the run." She paused, taking a deep breath to steady herself. "We eventually came to the attention of Magneto, though we didn't know he was our father at the time. He took us in, trained us, and gave us a purpose. But his methods were harsh, and his goals were... extreme. We became part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, fighting for a cause we didn't fully understand." Wanda's eyes glistened with unshed tears as she relived those painful memories. "I struggled with my powers, not fully understanding their potential or their dangers. I made mistakes, terrible mistakes that hurt people. I felt like a monster, and it took me a long time to come to terms with who I am and what I can do." She looked at Doom, her gaze steady and unwavering. "But through it all, I had Pietro. He was my rock, my protector. We faced everything together, and that bond kept me going. Eventually, we found our way to the Avengers, and for the first time in a long while, I felt like I had a place where I belonged." Her voice softened, a hint of hope threading through her words. "It's been a long and difficult journey, but I've learned to embrace my powers and my heritage. I've made peace with my past, and I've found a new family among the Avengers. But those early years, the pain and the loss, they shaped me into who I am today."

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Victor von Doom knew some of it, perhaps a lot of it. He may well have researched her through his mask as they sat there before he removed it. Technology was such a wonderful thing. But he knew words. She conveyed emotion. She filled in the gaps.\<br\>\<br\>He moved to sit with his back to the pool, beside her, but not too close. He did like his space, even if she had proven herself to be troublingly effective at navigating the barriers he put up.\<br\>\<br\>"We have more in common than I would have expected." With the mask off, there were now emotions to perceive and analyze. He looked thoughtful as she shared, he showed empathy, sorrow, and happiness, at each respective point. "It pleases me that you are here." Though that last part was almost as much for him as it was for her.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda deflates for a moment, her eyes turn away and drop away as he mentions how he enjoys her presence. Her gaze, returning to him, turned introspective as she considered the implications of future possibilities. She took a deep breath, her eyes reflecting a mixture of longing and resignation. "Victor," she began, her voice soft and wistful, "I will always be candid with you, and right now, I need to express what it might mean for us to pursue anything beyond this moment, be it friendship or something more. Our lives are so different, our views and methods so opposed. I can see the struggles that would inevitably arise, the clashes when our paths cross on the battlefield." She paused, her fingers gently tracing the rim of her glass. "Your goals, your methods... they are driven by a relentless pursuit of power and control. You believe in using any means necessary to achieve what you see as a greater good. And while I understand your perspective, I can't condone the extremity of your actions. My morals, the principles I've chosen to uphold, demand that I stand against such measures." Wanda's eyes met his, a profound sadness within them. "I know that nothing, not even your feelings, would ever stop you from pursuing your goals. And the same goes for me. If your actions threaten the values I hold dear, I will oppose you as fully as you would me. We will find ourselves on opposite sides, struggling like enemies despite whatever feelings we might share when we are alone." A wistful smile played on her lips as she continued, "But I believe in the strength of emotional intelligence. I believe that we can be solid enough to separate our personal feelings from our duties. I am certain that, no matter what happens, I can find a way to keep any feelings for you distinct from my responsibilities. I can respect the true man without compromising the person I strive to be." Wanda sighed, her expression a blend of hope and melancholy. "It's a difficult path we tread, Victor. But I think, if we both respect and understand each other, we can navigate turbulent waters. It's not about changing who we are, but about accepting the person beneath the mask, even if that means facing off against each other when duty calls." She reached out, her hand gently resting on his arm, offering a small but sincere smile. "So, whatever comes our way, let's make a pact. To be honest with each other, to cherish the moments we might share, and to face whatever challenges arise with the strength and resolve that defines us both." Wisdom within her words that ring with the truth and resolve of a woman recognizing a connection. "I guess, what I'm saying is... I would like to see you again."

:'''{{#var:130|Doctor Doom (130)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Her words were nor without merit. She made good points, articulated them well, and he could see no flaw in her reasoning or rationale. He agreed with virtually everything she had said, save for describing his methods as extreme, but that was mere semantics. Of course, neither of them were speaking their native tongues either. While he could speak Transian, she had begun with English in the lobby, and he maintained that.\<br\>\<br\>The impermanence of her reaching for his arm and gently touching it could have easily resulted in an immediate and often lethal reprisal. But there was something to be said for her approach, measured, confident, and deft. She read him well.\<br\>\<br\>"Forgive me for monopolizing your time. You must be tired from your journey and eager to settle in. However, I would appreciate your company for dinner in the Japanese restaurant, shall we say seven o'clock?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda looked at Doom, her eyes soft with understanding. "Victor, there's no need to apologize for taking up my time. I've truly enjoyed our conversation," she said, her voice gentle and sincere. "However, I do need to get to my room, unpack, and take a shower." She gave him a warm smile. "7 PM, hmmm..." she added, starting to rise from the water with a fluid grace. With a delicate twirl and a flourish of spiraling hex magic, a warm breeze picked up, caressing her skin and drying the pool's water from her body. The shimmering magic danced around her, creating an almost ethereal glow. As she reached the edge of the pool, Wanda paused and glanced back over her shoulder, her eyes sparkling with mischief lightly teasing as she leaves him waiting for her answer. "It's a date," she said, her tone playful, "but only if you take me dancing." She punctuated her words with a wink, her smile full of promise. She continued her exit with light, confident steps, her presence leaving an air of anticipation behind her. As she walked away, her graceful movements and the lingering warmth of her smile stayed with Doom, setting the stage for their evening rendezvous.
}}

Scarlet Witch

2024-08-03T17:20:00Z

Kstar:

{{CharacterNew
|NameOnMUSH=Wanda Maximoff
|Color=#333
|TextColor=#c1c1c1
|Char_id=70
|Img=https://www.unitedheroesmush.com/images/7/74/WandaMaximoff.jpg
|FullName=Wanda Maximoff
|Gender=Female
|Species=Mutant
|Theme=Marvel
|Chartype=DFC
|Active=Approved
|Occupation=Witch
|Citizenship=Transia, Genosha, United States
|Residence=New York
|Education=History (MA)
|Groups=[[Mystic Arts-OOC]], [[Avengers]], [[JL Dark]], [[Mutant-OOC]],
|Quote="You break the rules and become a hero. I do it and I become the enemy. That doesn't seem fair."
|PAge=33
|AAge=33
|DOB=31 October 1997
|Height=170 cm (5'7")
|Weight=63 kg (139 lb)
|Hair=Brown
|Eyes=Green
|Actor=Elizabeth Olsen
|Song=
|Profile=Scarlet Witch is a figure of contradictions. Earning a degree of infamy as an early ally of the mutant Brotherhood leader Magneto, a villainous figure to many, she and her brother turned from his service and joined the Avengers in some of their transitional years. As a member of the team, she has proven herself as a powerful hero, wielding her own brand of 'Chaos Magic' along with more traditional mystical talents to varied, and spectacular effect. Still, people are slow to trust- and especially, to trust a Witch.
===Current Player Approved: April 29, 2024===
|Description=
'''Description:'''
 
This woman is a classic Eastern European beauty, dark-haired, lightly olive-skinned, a mix of the familiar and the exotic with an inexplicable touch of mystery. Relatively tall without being towering, her figure is all elegant feminine curves, neither too subtle nor overly exaggerated. Her face is a long tapered oval, with high cheekbones but otherwise soft features. Her eyes are deep jade green, vivid and dark, and just somewhat conspicuously large in her face. Their presence is made more striking by long lashes and the slightest smudge of smokey eyeshadow. Crimson-painted lips are a final accent of color, standing against the rich auburn of her hair, an enviably glossy mane that falls around her neck and shoulders in rippling waves. It is only tamed, drawn back from her face and behind ears, by her most noticeable fashion accessory: a jeweled tiara or headdress of sorts, comprised of a latticework of small scarlet stones. The piece runs around her forehead, where a larger jewel stands at its center, with two vaguely horn- or ear-like peaks above her temples, and tassels dangling before her ears. Black and red, contrasting dark and fiery light characterize her outfit, which seems a mixture of styles and sensibilities: modern and vintage, simple and avant-garde, conservative and provocative. The innermost layer is black and form-fitting, tight pants and a low-cut, off-shoulder bodysuit top. A front-laced outerwear corset is worn atop this, the bright crimson garment a touch from another time with its intricate detailing. Detached statin sleeves of rich vermillion worn over the darker ones of her top, leading to to fingerless black gloves. Calf-high black leather boots boast substansial heels, giving her just enough extra height to stand near eye-to-eye with men of more average stature. To complete the archaic, exotic flair of it all, she wears a voluminous scarlet cape, the mantle resting on her shoulders and secured over the notch of her throat by a strange winged brooch.
|History=
'''History:'''
 
The early life of Wanda Maximoff is surrounded in mystery, a mass of interconnecting tales both complementary and contradictory. Yet this mystery, this confusion is every bit as defining as a more certain background would be. The woman's life is defined by the unknown, by contradiction, uncertainty, and most of all, by chaos itself. There is certainty that Wanda and her twin brother Pietro are of Eastern European descent, born around the border of Serbia and Transia, and raised among the Roma people who reside there. It is from the couple that raised them that they take their name, the only parents they knew as children. And it was in their care that they first experienced hatred as suspicion turned against their camp. Accusations of theft, true or not. Superstitious whispers over the talents the young mutants displayed. Simple prejudice. No matter the real cause, they fled their old life in flames. Hardship followed hardship in those early days. The twins wandered, rarely welcome, distrusted for any number of reasons. Pietro was the only constant Wanda had in those early days. They learned to survive in places besieged by war and unrest, hunted by Chthon's cult, and Wanda struggled with the spectre of her powers. In one incident, she reflexively defended herself against an assault. Subjected to mob justice by an armed village, the twins nearly lost lives if not for the man who came to their aid. Erik Lensherr, better known as Magneto. It was the first of many shocking revelations, when Magneto told them what they were, taking them underwing. He guided them in their powers, Wanda's 'hexes,' her brother's speed. His formidable reputation provided protection from enemies known and not, and badly desired stability. But The twins fell in with him for a time, for Magneto revealed he was their father, their mother dying in childbirth in perilous conditions. Yet this could not undo the doubts the siblings harbored. Finally they fled, going to America. There, amidst doubts about mutantkind, there were also people with powers who were celebrated. The Avengers opened themselves in an unprecedented 'audition' for new members. The twins soon joined. The years that followed have been a time of growth and change, of heroic deeds and failures, and for Wanda, a time of questions and seeking. Out from under her father's controlling hand, Wanda met her tutor, companion, and friend: the archsorceress Agatha Harkness, who felt in her a great capacity for the mystic arts, and took her on as a protege. Under her guidance, Wanda learned about her natural abilities and refined her grasp on the Mystic Arts. In this quest she found other truths, if not ones she had ever imagined or sought out: she discovered the dark influences on her soul, the touch of the Elder God Chthon. She discovered her unique place in the universe as a 'Nexus being' for their reality, a trait that seemed to draw danger to her as much as it might empower her. More recently, she reconciled with her father as he began to moderate his own ways of promoting mutant kind. She stepped into an important role in the mystic community as the pursuit for knowledge and experience brought her in contact with ever more practitioners. She rejects the darkness of her birth and genetic tampering, determined to make her own path, a good path. Despite her fated responsibility to the universe, she somehow still feels so alone in it. Such has prompted many mystic seekings, yet none could prepare her for the answer they finally revealed, the final of many revelations of her heritage: a brief glimpse of the spirit of her own mother, a woman who herself bore the mantle of the Scarlet Witch and claimed a long-standing mystic tradition. How such a history may fit with her father's tale she is unsure - yet it is a question she now must face.
|Personality=
'''Personality:'''
 
Wanda is a person of internal contradiction. She is a daughter of chaos in every sense of the word, but also the binding nexus for the world. She was born to evil, and aspires to live up to most benevolent prototypes of her craft, to be, in essence 'the Good Witch' personified. A passionate and loving woman with a strong moral compass and an openness toward others, she is strong... yet she is also fragile. Wanda is a classic INFJ personality, the "Advocate" of the MBTI, with a few twists. Behind her gentle manner, she holds a sharp intellectual streak that weaves around the idealistic notions that fuel her endless drive to better the world. Her deep-rooted beliefs and opinions give her an enormous wellspring of willpower to fall back upon when the going gets tough, and her difficult upbringing tempered her weaknesses. Wanda seeks balance in the world through creative and imaginative means, reading the scales of karma through her mutant gifts and magic, and she commits herself with absolute conviction to improving matters. She cares deeply for others' wellbeing, especially their feelings, and pays close attention to those relationships she chooses to cultivate. The passion of her convictions sometimes overwhelms her capacity to function on a day-to-day level, consuming her attention, and she relies on her close ties to help balance her. Her talent for connecting with others through compassion and the warm fire of charisma rather than overbearing zeal is a touchstone of her outgoing nature, but the damage done to her in the past makes it hard for Wanda to trust outsiders. She builds those bridges superficially and takes a much longer time to accept someone in her inner circle. Insight to others assists her with getting to the heart of a matter, aided in no small part by her ability to read connections between events, people, and places. Wanda has a strong streak of noblesse oblige manifested in doing the proper thing, and acting on her insights to the way things should be. Her decisiveness and inspiration can carry her far, and others with her. Her passion for a cause is inseperable as part of whom she is, and that sensitivity is probably her greatest downfall. She possesses a strong streak of protectiveness that comes in part with her position, one formed over the years. Wanda guards those around her with a shield stronger than adamantine, and no where is this more apparent than in her personal relationships. Those people she lets in hold her absolute love and loyalty. She'll move heaven and earth to allow them to thrive. Anything getting in her way will find her unyielding in her commitment to them.
|Abilities=
'''Chaos Magic:'''
 
Wanda's main power is the innate ability to manipulate and warp reality via altering underlying probabilities, a power rooted in her genetic makeup and enhanced by the influence of the demon Chthon, as well as her nature as the Nexus Being. At a basic level, she can manipulate these probabilities to create good or bad 'luck.' Without particular desire or mental guidance, these shifts manifest unpredictably. Yet by imagining particular outcomes, Wanda can bring specific unlikely scenarios into being with almost unlimited scope and variety. Indeed, by suitably focusing her will (with the degree and length of concentration required varying according to the task), she may make not only the unlikely, but the impossible occur, potentially on a massive scale and only truly limited by her own creativity (and her mental state). Cataloguing the breadth of this ability is difficult, although examples include: * physical destruction or repair, device disruption, etc. * molecular matter control, ie state changes and transmutation * energy control, disruption, amplification, transmutation or even creation * inertia control, ie telekinesis * power negation * cellular modification and natural healing * teleportation * potentially, even resurrection 
'''Divine Heritage:'''
 
Wanda's connection to Chthon, great a curse as it may be, also provides one to the more benevolent Elder Gods: to Oshtur and Gaea as her spiritual 'aunts,' to their own 'parent' the Demiurge (to whom she is something of a conduit), and to Oshtur's son Agamotto, and thus the Vishanti. These beings influence her study and practice of Mystic Arts. Wanda worships Oshtur and Gaea directly to counteract Chthon's influence. With this heritage, she can attempt invoke divine aid through incantations and rituals specifically meant to beseech the gods. With beseeching, the divinity determines the effect and scale based on their power. Wanda is merely the vessel and channel. (TP or staff approved power only.) 
'''Hex:'''
 
The 'Hex' is the most basic form of Wanda's innate Chaos Magic, and it was the primary form of her abilities when they first manifested. While only a narrow subset of her abilities, the Hex is important because of its ease and instinctive nature. While large-scale manipulation of reality requires concentration, will, and can vary in efficacy based upon her mental state, and traditional magic requires knowledge, concentration, and various incantation, Wanda's Hexes are almost second nature. Indeed, in her youth, she often activated them purely by accident, and while she has since learned far greater control, the ease of use remains. These basic Hexes are created with a gesture and within her range of sight, and can either be unseen or visible, depending on purpose and power. They take a limited number of typical forms: * Instant bad luck, altering probabilities to leverage instantaneous misfortune upon a target. Trips and falls, weapon jams and power failures, or spontaneous environmental hazards are common. Against inanimate targets, immediate failure is typical. Usually this ability leaves no visible sign. * Hex-bolts and blasts, invoking chaotic energy to effectively unravel her targets in a more direct form of attack. These readily destroy inanimate targets and can have devastating effect upon the living, though she is hesitant to use this lethal application except upon suitable (and powerful) foes. These are visible as bolts of scarlet energy. * Reflexive shields and wards, deflecting attacks or otherwise turning away danger from herself or her allies. These can be visible fields or manifest only in whatever effect, ie the turning away of a bullet mid-air. 
'''Iron Will:'''
 
No matter how great the potential, no mystic develops their full power without also building up their internal discipline and self-control. Wanda's magic proved inhibited until she learned to master herself sufficiently to gain control, applying those lessons with increasing complexity to balance her natural impulses and emotions. As driven and sensitive as she is, the Scarlet Witch must maintain a strong moral center for her own health. Strategic lessons, meditation, and exposure to a wide array of dangers on cosmic and astral battlefields have given her considerably more mental fortitude than the average caster. Her conviction are rooted firmly in her ideals, and in defense of those ideals, her heels dig in and she can be very difficult to assault mentally or physically. Her power responds to any emotional volatility, and at its peak, can have violent outcomes on the people and environment surrounding her. Her mental endurance is not endless, but she can endure a hell of a lot more than the average person while holding up a spell. 
'''Magic:'''
 
Though born to innate, some would call 'mutant' powers that grant her a potent influence upon reality as a whole, the Scarlet Witch is also heir to a lineage of more traditional magic through her Eastern European and Romani roots. The daughter of a line of witches of similar title, she has great innate talent in the mystic arts, a talent that has been nurtured into maturity under the tutelage of Agatha Harkness. In her career, she has studied and mastered a diverse variety of cultural styles and traditions hailing from every corner of the world, from ancient greece to celtic ireland, from the middle east to east asia. Yet she is strongest in those traditions that reflect the very word and title that define her, in those forms of Witchcraft that invoke the primal feminine energies of reality and a host of female Goddesses. These beings are her guides, and her bulwark against the influence of Chthon. In terms of ability, she is capable of casting almost any sort of spell that would be typical among other Mystic practitioners, and her repertoire includes a wide array of such incantations and invocations suitable to most situations she might encounter. Others she is more than capable of learning and casting with appropriate tomes or teachers. While her Witchcraft reflects the leanings of various cultural styles, across her whole suite of knowledge she may achieve almost any result (and in many case may overlap with her more innate ability). Thus her magic's most important applications are those more geared toward the realms mystic themselves, and toward their inhabitants: summoning, exorcism and banishment, astral projection and dimensional travel, divination, mental communication and illusion, and the raw manipulation of magical forces at a more meta level, such as counterspells and dispelling. 
'''Nexus Being:'''
 
The Scarlet Witch is the reality nexus being of this universe. All magical energies and presences meet in her, and she can tap a voluminous mystical wellspring of power to accomplish feats that no mere mortal or immortal ought to be able to do. She can vastly expand the range of a spell or perform seemingly impossible feats through concentrated will and tapping into a boundless ocean of energies. Fate and time shift a little around her with every action she takes, and she can have a profound impact on the world. Alternate realities can have other nexus beings, but they can never interact with one another. This status makes her an essential measure of how reality is doing. She embodies reality in a fundamental way, so her mental well-being becoming very unstable or chaotic is a sign that things are (or will soon be) going horrifically. Powerful beings watch over her as a matter of circumstance. 
'''Occultism:'''
 
Wanda is an expert on occult topics pertaining to magical lore, mystical entities, grimoires, magical traditions, and dimensions. She recognizes various arcane manifestations and can correctly identify mystical effects or items based on her experience. With time and the assistance of her library, few answers on major matters are likely to elude her for long. Her expertise is strongest in European traditions, extraplanar entities, summoning and banishment. 
'''Witch's Sight:'''
 
The Witch's Sight allows Wanda to see the unseen, perceiving the mystical and supernatural energies that underpin mundane reality. She can see invisible or otherwise concealed foes, detect mystic presences in her vicinity, pierce illusions, view the true form of shapeshifters, witness active magic in use and read auras. Many such observations are instinctive, visible to her with no greater difficulty than the normal visual spectrum. However, with concentration, she can draw on far greater levels of detail, deciphering such characteristics of another spell as to identify its nature, purpose and caster, or reading disruptions or snarls in the flow of magic to identify their source. Though her senses are not infallible and efforts can be taken to ward against them, her power, experience, and most of all her innate connection to reality itself makes it difficult if not impossible to foil her permanently.
|Skills=
'''Combat:'''
 
Due to training regimens undertaken with the Avengers, Wanda maintains herself in good physical condition. She has advanced training in defensive acrobatic techniques and free-running to keep up with her speedster brother. As an extension of certain mystic practices, she also studies some forms of martial arts, with a focus on evasive or blocking techniques, and bladed melee weapons with moderate skill. Particularly in concert with her probability-altering powers, she is capable of holding her own against physically superior opponents. She practices a regular yoga regimen to maintain the overall mental, physical, and spiritual wellness necessary to control her powers. 
'''Combined Casting:'''
 
The art of witchcraft often uses tandem or group casting to achieve lasting rituals among a coven of skilled practitioners. Wanda is an expert at casting in conjunction with another spellcaster, an effect that often bolsters the effect, broadening the power, or simply providing her own energy as a stabilizing force. 
'''Education:'''
 
Wanda received an uneven education from her mentors and personal pursuits in libraries, lectures, and seminars to make up for the deficiencies of her childhood. She possesses a postdoctoral expertise in statistics and probability modeling due to her innate need to calculate outcomes through her mutation. When it comes to history, she is exceptionally well-versed in ancient history through the present day, due in no small part to a mentor old even in the days of Atlantis. Wanda specializes in occult issues and European social history.Since joining the Avengers, she acquired a Masters degree in History from Columbia University. 
'''Languages:'''
 
There are fewer languages Wanda cannot speak or read than she can, thanks to an inherent enchantment. She knows a broad range of ancient languages, including Tibetan, Sanskrit, ancient Greek, demotic and hieratic Egyptian, Latin, and Romany. She's conversant in many central and eastern European languages, including German, Russian, Serbian, Croatian, Transian, and their sisters. Her Mandarin, Italian and French are enough to get by, and her English and Hindi are both almost passable as native. 
'''Meditation:'''
 
Meditation is to Wanda as baking is to the English. She finds it therapeutic and healing, a cathartic experience built into the necessity of her daily life. Mindfulness is essential for her mental wellbeing. Regular practice combined with yoga and breathing techniques allow her a clarity of mind and emotions on most days. 
'''Occultism:'''
 
Wanda is an expert on occult topics pertaining to magical lore, mystical entities, grimoires, magical traditions, and dimensions. She has a particular focus on extraplanar travel and entities, summoning and banishment, and related topics. She recognizes various arcane manifestations and can correctly identify mystical effects or items based on her experience. With time and the assistance of her library, few answers on major matters are likely to elude her for long. Mirroring the strength of her magical styles, her knowledge is greatest in regard to those magical traditions that fit the cultural pattern of 'Witchcraft,' in the sense of those that are female- or goddess- centric, rather than their more patriarchal counterparts. 
'''Survival:'''
 
Living on the run for long left her with a talent for surviving in rather harsh urban and natural environments. Wanda can read the weather, find shelter, and provide adequate food and water in any season in most mundane environments. She is difficult to track and competent at hiding herself from dogged pursuit. In some cases, she can use environmental advantages to help her defeat enemies with substantially stronger physical abilities.
|Resources=
'''Agatha:'''
 
Wanda's primary mentor in the Mystic Arts is Agatha Harkness, an ancient Sorceress of immense power. Recently the leader of a coven of Witches in New Salem, her true history dates to at least before the destruction of Atlantis some twelve thousand years ago. Although an enigmatic figure, to Wanda she is not only a teacher, but surrogate (grand)mother figure as well, acting as a guide and confidant throughout the younger witch's mystical journeys. The connection between the two is unique in its depth and strength. 
'''Avenger:'''
 
'Avengers Assemble' - they're words known throughout the world, and to many call to mind a team that represents the gold standard in heroism, matched only by the Justice League for its fame, list of heroic accomplishments, and the pedigree of its roster. While it would be an understatement to say that Pietro and Wanda don't *quite* enjoy the reputation of the team's founders, membership still has its benefits. Aside from powerful teammates to call on, the Avengers have many resources to offer in terms of bases, equipment, training facilities, and so on. They're also known for their ties to S.H.I.E.L.D., and thus a degree of official legitimacy that many heroes - particularly their mutant cousins - lack. 
'''Energy Wellspring:'''
 
As the Nexus Being, Wanda can potentially tap into vast pools of mystic energy flowing around the planet. In times of desperation, she has instinctively channeled this raw mana into her magic to produce expanded effects at the cost of increased volatility. With greater tutelage, she now knows how to control the flow and incorporate the energy into her spellcasting. This benefit prevents her from drawing on her own energy reserves or depleting them too quickly. The drawbacks to using the world's mystic energy lie primarily on other spellcasters manipulating the source (and hence her spell) and the energy's resistance to being used for corruptive, entropic or otherwise negative effects when it is naturally an expression of Gaia's creative, restorative impulses. 
'''Mystic Community:'''
 
Wanda Maximoff is a member in respected standing of the larger Mystic community. This network, both formal and informal, of Mages, Sorcerers, Witches and Warlocks, of spellcasters every stripe, provides access to a variety of resources. The most important of these may simply be information, for the practice of the Mystic Arts relies on knowledge above all else. While not all of the members of this group are purely allies, there is a mutual respect among their number and a shared understanding that cooperation may be necessary in the face of greater esoteric threats. 
'''Occult Trove:'''
 
Wanda is a mystic collector and connoisseur of arcane antiquities, grimoires, and artifacts. Her respectable, growing collection specialises in witchcraft and traditions of the Mystic Arts, focused on esoteric components needed for ritual spells and spellbooks. She's dedicated herself to recovering objects to keep them safe or out of the wrong hands. She maintains this trove in a few sealed and scattered locations to avoid its easy plundering. 
'''Witch Road:'''
 
Wanda can access a dimension called the "Witch Road," which is better thought of as a connective plane between multiple other areas, particularly the realms of various magical entities connected to different mystic traditions. It is generally accessible only to those of great mystical talent, and the character of the road itself warps to reflect both the powers being sought out and those who walk upon it. A dangerous place, it is filled with unique beings and guardians, although a skillful traveler (as Wanda is at least learning to become) can use it to reach conceptual destinations inaccessible to other methods, such at the abodes of the most powerful magical deities. Perceptions of time and space function differently on the road, which can have both helpful and troubling implications for those who tread upon it.
|Weaknesses=
'''Child of Chthon:'''
 
Chthon is one of the four Elder Gods, a degenerate infernalentity of chaos, darkness, and evil. Though banned from direct influence on Earth, it was able to taint the Maximoff twins with some portion of its essence. Wanda is its living vessel for the majority of this. Although potentially a source of great power, particularly in the Dark Arts and magic of chaos and darkness, Chthon's grip on Wanda poses an ever-present danger. A jealous parent-slash-master, its influence can potentially intercede to protect her, particularly from other forms of possession. It could also serve to empower her, although she would never dare draw upon such forces, or risk possession. Still, no matter what she does, Chthon's influence is with her, inescapable. 
'''Children:'''
 
Both the horrific conditions of her upbringing and a strong ethical stance prevent her from deliberately doing harm to children, typically those under 14. Wanda will put herself in harm's way or take a different tactic rather than inflict physical trauma on a child. The only time her moral code allows her to act differently would be a substantial threat with no other alternative or it's not actually a child (for example, a demon masquerading as a teenaged boy). 
'''Family:'''
 
Where it comes to Wanda's family, the easiest answer is... it's complicated. Originally raised among the Romani alongside her twin brother Pietro, she has subsequently had many of revelations about her heritage, some seemingly in conflict. Rescued and recruited by the mutant leader Magneto, he eventually revealed himself as their true father. Later, she was told that the High Evolutionary had kidnapped the twins at birth, experimenting upon them in and ultimately enhancing her abilities. And subsequently to these already major revelations, Wanda's mystic wanderings have uncovered that her mother was herself a former 'Scarlet Witch', an inherited, if discriminated against, tradition among their people. The truth of all these varied, and in some cases conflicting stories may lay somewhere inbetween it all. Her desire to know and understand herself is motivating force for Wanda, but also one of inner doubt and uncertainty. In any case, Wanda's heritage and family are greatly important matters to her. She cares deeply for her brother, even if their relationship has at times been uneven. Magneto, likewise, occupies a large place in her life. Not just a father figure, he stands as a leader, teacher, a symbol of strength, but also a representation of the dark side of her own conscience. And then there are her adopted families, the Avengers, her mentor Agatha and other mystic tutors, all of whom live large in her heart. These people are all sources of strength for her, but occasionally, they are sources of pain and worry as well. 
'''Stability:'''
 
Equilibrium of spirit and mind lie at the heart of Wanda's abilities. Without a stable foundation, her supernatural abilities suffer. Her mutation to harness potentials relies on clear focus to avoid volatile, sometimes destructive outcomes. When she is emotionally distressed or destabilized, her powers can badly fluctuate. Catastrophic outcomes follow her lashing out blindly, and no one wants that. No one. Similarly, as the reality nexus, Wanda is an excellent barometer for the state of the world. When things aren't going so good for reality, subtle signs show in her demeanor, appearance, and behaviour. Conversely when matters are particularly stable, she is equally grounded. 
'''Trouble Magnet:'''
 
Being a probability warping sorceress would be a problem enough in its own right. Now add a few layers -- Avenger, Agatha Harkness' pupil, priestess of the Earth, nexus, Doctor Strange's ally, daughter to a warlord -- and Wanda is inescapably caught in a web of intrigues. The spiders on that web are no means small or toothless. She attracts attention from demons and aliens right down to humans who would rather burn witches. Trouble travels in her wake and she is drawn to it, in part of her role and position. 
'''Twin:'''
 
While it's already been touched upon that Wanda has a weakness when it comes to her family, a special, separate note must be made on behalf of Pietro. Pietro is, for better or worse, her literal other half. They are twins and have been together their entire lives, suffering every trial and torment, every slim glimmer of hope together. For a time, they only had one another to rely on in a world that hated them, and while they've since discovered a larger family and opportunities for belonging, their bond is still the oldest and most important. There is absolutely nothing that could tear them apart, not forever. That said, the two are very much different people, polar opposites, even, in being supplementary halves. On the run, and in their early years with the Brotherhood, Pietro largely led and 'guided' Wanda, although often in a domineering way. For years, she followed him, accepted his treatment of her, and even defended his hot-headed arrogance to others. Suffice it to say, she's starting to outgrow that. While Wanda has matured, learned to stand on her own, his words *do* carry influence with her and clashes with her brother still take their toll. Naturally, any harm done to him is likely to both shake and enrage her, and such emotional catalysts can terribly destabilize Wanda's control over her powers... leading to dangerous results for basically everyone.
}}
<gallery>
Wanda_coat.jpg
Disco wanda.jpg
</gallery>
[[Category:Mutant-OOC]][[Category:Mystic Arts-OOC]][[Category:Avengers]] [[Category:JL Dark]]

File:Disco wanda.jpg

2024-08-03T17:18:44Z

Kstar:

Disco Wanda

16440/The twins get in touch with their cultural heritage.

2024-07-23T18:03:21Z

Kstar:

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2024/07/17
|Location=Wanda's Room, Avengers Mansion
|Synopsis=Wanda's lost a little bit of touch with her Romany roots. Fortunately, her twin is there to ridicule, err, gently remind her of them.
|Cast of Characters=177, 70
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' Wanda's rooms in the Mansion were very ... plain. Utilitarian. This would _never_ do. So Pietro, in true Pietro fashion, took it upon himself to redecorate. Just a little. She needed silks - red, of course, as her chosen color. Maybe some blue-and-silver hidden away in there somewhere - they were twins, after all. Her furniture was almost Soviet, he noted. Stodgy and thick and could probably deflect artillery. He chose to leave it, just because he was feeling a little puck-ish. Her wardrobe was a _disaster_. Not a single suitably Romany dress in her entire closet. Was she ashamed, he wondered. Her shoes were in slightly better shape, but she needed some proper sandals. Heels, at least, she had. Thank goodness. He was a blue blur as he raced around her chamber, delving into every drawer, poking into every closet. At least he was only in the planning stage and didn't have any of the things he wanted to put in her chamber to recall her Romany heritage. Yet.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda sat cross-legged in the middle of her bed, engrossed in an ancient tome. She watched out of the corner of her eye as Pietro zipped around her room, redecorating with his usual enthusiasm. She knew better than to try and stop him; it would be a futile effort. Instead, she focused on her reading, letting him do his Pietro thing. When he started rifling through her wardrobe, she finally spoke up, her tone firm, "Do NOT change my clothes, Pietro." There was a small silence, filled only by the sound of Pietro's rapid movements. Wanda's frown deepened, and she glanced up from her book. "I'm not sure about the traditional meal and entertainment," she confessed, her voice tinged with worry. "What if Stephen doesn't like it? What if I get the meal wrong, or something else goes disastrously wrong? You know as well as I do that disaster seems to follow me around." She sighed, closing her book and looking at Pietro with concern. "Do you really think this is a good idea?"

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' "Yes." Pietro said simply. "Your decor is abysmal and boring and your wardrobe is a disaster. Fortunately for you, these are fixable problems. I have a list." he said. "Your Stephen needs to know what he is in for, courting a Romany woman." he pointed out sharply. "We already know that he knows nothing of our ways, but as you're willing to overlook that, so too shall I." he said as he buzzed about her room more. "Are you trying to tell me you've forgotten our childhood entirely? You used to spend hours with Mama, learning what you needed to know. Is all of that forgotten in your hurry to toady up to ... him?" he said, refusing to actually name Magneto.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda pursed her lips, her eyes narrowing slightly as she watched Pietro buzz around her room. "Of course I haven't forgotten everything I learned from Mama," she said, her voice edged with frustration. She set the ancient tome aside, the heavy book making a soft thud against the bed. She sighed deeply, running a hand through her dark hair, pushing a few errant strands away from her face. "But it has been a long time, Pietro. We've both been through so much," she continued, her tone softening for a moment before the irritation crept back in. "And I'm a bit out of practice." Wanda's eyes glinted with a mix of annoyance and sarcasm as she looked up at him, giving him a tight, challenging smile. "Since you're the aficionado, maybe you can plan it all out," she quipped, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm sure Stephen will be thrilled with your impeccable taste." She tilted her head slightly, raising an eyebrow as she waited for Pietro's response, her body language a blend of defiance and reluctant acceptance.

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' "Conceding the bet already?" he asked, needling her pride just a bit. "You need to plan, prepare, and execute. For someone who can navigate the ever-changing waves of chaos, who can bend the multiverse to her will, you're being a scared little bitch about this whole thing." he pointed out. "You know our people. Our history. Our traditions. You don't need me to come and bail you out from your own consequences." he said, and then muttered something under his breath about oil spills and sand traps. "Put the Scarlet Witch aside for just a moment." he said. "And remember Wanda Maximoff."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda gasped, her eyes widening in shock at Pietro's blunt words. Her expression quickly shifted to one of stern disapproval, her gaze like daggers. Frustration bubbled up within her, and she threw her hands up in exasperation. "Alright, alright, fine!" she shouted, her voice betraying her nervousness. The depth of her feelings for Stephen was apparent in her outburst. She fixed Pietro with a narrow-eyed look, her voice trembling slightly with both frustration and vulnerability. "You have it so easy, Pietro. You have no idea what it's like to be a woman, especially a Romany woman." Her expression shifted to a mischievous grin, chaos magic flickering to life in her hands. "But I could change your perspective through a week of firsthand experience. All it takes is a few flicks of my fingers. Pietro to Petra in under 60 seconds," she teased, though there was a hint of seriousness in her tone.

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' "You're right. I don't." he said plainly, acknowledging her note. "Our people are not perfect. They do, as you may recall, fear mutants." he pointed out. "But all people have their flaws. You _rise above them_." he said, in what could be construed as a gigantic act of hypocrisy. "I spent a lot of time on the outside. Not accepted fully by the men and shunned by the women. I listened, Wanda. I learned. It's not like I didn't have the time." he pointed out sourly. Talking about his feelings and his experiences was always difficult, even if it was just to Wanda. "You are a Romany woman." he told her. "But you're also a modern woman. Capable. Not needin' no man." he said, mocking entire waves of feminism. "Be what you are. In total." he told her.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda's expression softened as she let go of her playful idea of turning Pietro into a girl. She sighed, looking at him with a mixture of nostalgia and sadness. "Pietro, the world we came from was not kind to women. Women were considered 'marime,' and in the home, they weren't even allowed to eat from the same dishes as their husbands or children." Her voice wavered slightly, but she continued, "I'm glad you don't treat me that way, but the world we live in now isn't as severe to women as that." She took a deep breath, steadying herself. "We can't go back to the world we came from, it's gone. We have to learn to live in the world we have come to, like you said." Wanda stood up from her bed and walked over to Pietro, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug. "I haven't felt this way in so long," she confessed, her voice filled with emotion. "Stephen teleported us all the way to Milan, just to dance with me. He treats me like the most beautiful treasure he has ever seen." She pulled back slightly, looking up at her brother with a tender smile. "I want to show him my appreciation in a more modern way. I will honor the bet, but I don't want to live the way a Romany woman would. I want to keep our traditions in memory, but I need to live in the present." She rested her head against his shoulder for a moment, drawing strength from their bond. "Thank you for understanding, Pietro. It means a lot to me."

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' Pietro hugged his sister back, and then heaved out a sigh. "You're still weaselling out of our bet, but seeing as how you're my sister and I feel a certain degree of responsibility for you, I _suppose_ just this once I can let you out." he said. "But I'm surprised by one thing - you do remember the traditions of how unwed women are to treat those they have an interest in, yes? To entice, to show the glimpse of future treasures beyond compare? I would have thought you'd welcome the chance to, as the say, go all out?" he said with a crooked smile and a quirked eyebrow.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda smirked at Pietro, a playful glint in her eyes. "Why do you think I haven't done that already?" she teased. "I told you, I'm a modern woman, but I haven't forgotten the appeal of Romany fashion." With a graceful step back, Wanda raised her hands and twirled, ribbons of chaos magic swirling around her. The shimmering energy enveloped her, transforming her clothing into a vision of elegance and sophistication. The dress that emerged was crafted from the finest scarlet silk, shimmering with every movement. The bodice hugged her figure perfectly, featuring intricate lace detailing and a subtle sweetheart neckline that added a touch of timeless romance. The waistline was cinched gracefully, flowing into a full, floor-length skirt that cascaded like a waterfall of rich crimson hues. Dangling metallic charms and bangles hung at her waist, jingling softly with each motion. It was a perfect replica of her favorite dress of their mother's, one she had often admired in the back of the closet. Their mother had promised to gift it to her when she grew into a woman, and now, here it was, brought to life through Wanda's magic. And she has been the splitting image of their mother before, now she embodied that dazzling and goddess-like woman their mother had been, as if she were standing before him rather than Wanda. She struck a pose, modeling the dress for her brother. "What I wore the night he took me to Milan. Stephen couldn't resist staring at me when I wore this," she said with a knowing smile. "I'm sure he was hooked at that very moment."

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' Wanda's physical charms were lost on Pietro, this not being the Ultimate Universe. Still, she was demonstrating that she knew _exactly_ what she was doing then and that she hadn't forgotten. "Well-done." he finally said after a moment, then averted his eyes a little. "I am not a Stephen, and I am certainly not _your_ Stephen. Feel free to change back any time." he told her.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda rolled her eyes at Pietro, a playful smirk tugging at her lips. "Of course the dress wasn't for YOU, Pietro," she retorted. "I thought you would appreciate that I was finally able to wear the dress that our mother cherished and promised to me." With a snap of her fingers, the elegant dress vanished, replaced by her previous attire. "Father would have appreciated it," she said, her voice softening with a touch of nostalgia. "He would have been proud of what I've grown into." Her expression turned dry as she pursed her lips, "And he would probably intend to stab Stephen for even THINKING about his daughter in that dress. Or make you dispose of him," she added with a wry grin.

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' "Do not mistake me. I am proud of you." he said. "But as you love to remind me, I am not the boss of you. You are a strong independent woman. Etc, etc, etc, words." he said with a small smirk. "I remember Mama wearing it. Once." he said. "Django was so proud. He lorded it over the other men for _months_." he said. "Sexist, I'm aware, but the _pride_ he felt in her. That she'd chosen _him_. It's something I carry with me to this day." he admitted, but then they were fast approaching talking about Feelings, more specifically, His Feelings, and that was just not going to lead anywhere good.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda saw where the conversation was heading and knew it would lead Pietro down an emotional path that could trip him up worse than a physical misstep at superspeed. With a tender, patronizing smile, she leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead, ruffling his hair affectionately. "Never change, Pietro," she murmured, her voice filled with sisterly warmth. Turning away, she added with a playful tone, "If you're done messing with my room, get out. I'm going to take a bath and eat chocolates to relax." She gave him a light push towards the door, her eyes sparkling with amusement and fondness.

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' "Remind someone of her worth and standing and then she's all like "Get out"." he mock-grumbled and then with a sudden whoosh and a blue blur, he was gone. But he did take his redecoration list with him...
}}

16418/Stark Tank!

2024-07-23T17:57:26Z

Kstar:

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2024/07/09
|Location=Penthouse - Stark Tower
|Synopsis=Peter proposes a thing and gets all the things!
|Cast of Characters=4, 118, 83, 22, 70
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:4|Peter Parker (4)}} has posed:''' It's earlier in the morning than Peter usually likes to be up and around. Especially when he had to ... sigh ... dress up. So he's got his best weddings-and-funerals suit on, which mostly fits him, and cheap dress shoes that are an unscuffed as a determined attempted polishing could make them. Paper copies of the proposal, electronic copies of the proposal, and his Dad's old briefcase-satchel-thing in one hand. Gwen's hand in his other. Just stay calm, Parker. That's not your Spider-Sense, that's just nerves. Deep breaths. You got this. It's only the second-biggest thing you've ever done. OK, third. Second is standing next to you, first was becoming Spider-Man in the first place. He needed to pee. He needed more coffee. He _definitely_ didn't need more coffee. He needed for this to go well.

:'''{{#var:118|Gwen Stacy (118)}} has posed:''' Gwen Stacy -- famous for both having her face on the side of one of the midtown busses advertising advertising cosmetics (not hers -- she's just the model) and for being the drummer in the Mary Janes -- has chosen a deep emerald green sheath dress for the occasion, the rich color complementing her blonde hair and bringing out the striking blue of her eyes. Tailored to perfection, the dress manages to exude both chic, professional sophistication and an understated elegance that doesn't overshadow the genius beside her. It's a designer label, but it's not flashy at all. On her feet, she wears classic black pumps, their sleek design adding a few inches to her height and a touch of professionalism to her ensemble. As they step into the sleek, modern lobby, it's apparent why Stark Tower is a symbol of cutting-edge innovation. Today, they're here to (hopefully) secure a bit of that success to launch Parker Industries. She steals a glance at Peter and squeezes his hand reassuringly, offering a warm smile that she hopes will steady him. "You've got this, Peter," she murmurs, her voice confident and soothing. "Just be yourself. They'll see what I see -- a brilliant mind with a vision that can change the world." There's a twinkle of adoration in those blue eyes, a girl who just happens to be absolutely smitten with this talented nerd. "I mean.. Mr. Stark came to your birthday party, we got attacked by dinosaurs, and he's _still_ willing to meet with us. That has to say something." Mirth curls her lips.

:'''{{#var:83|Pepper Potts (83)}} has posed:''' Pepper Potts, administrative assistant to Tony Stark himself, was waiting in the lobby for the duo. She had a tablet in hand that she was working on though her head came up as security pinged her device to let her know the visitor had arrived. Though it seemed it was visitors. Security checks had been completed and they were allowed to continue to where Pepper waited in the main lobby. She was dressed in a charcoal-gray, pinstriped dress suit. The skirt was straight and fell to just below her knees. The jacket was unbuttoned, allowing the cream blouse she was wearing underneath to be visible. Matching charcoal gray shoes pumps with a low heel covered her feet. Her red hair was pulled up at the back of her head in a bun, held in place with two hairsticks in black. She put on her brightest smile as she stepped forward to greet the duo. "Mr. Parker. Ms. Stacy. It's a pleasure to see you. Mr. Stark is waiting though this may be a bit of an uncoventional meeting as he is unable to go to his office currently. Thus, we will be meeting him in one of the private areas. I hope that will be alright?" And with that, she would lead them toward the elevator bank and right past it. A turn down a couple of hallways--and past more security who simply gave them a glance as they passed--then they would see the hall eneded at an elevator. Which was sitting open and awaiting their arrival. She led them in. "I will have to ask that you do not use any recording devices while you are in this meeting, unless Mr. Stark says otherwise." Since he was about as reliable to do what she expected as a goldfish. "And everything you see is proprietary to Stark Industries or Mr. Stark himself." And with that, the quick elevator trip was over. The doors opened into the living area of a penthouse. Her heels tick-ticked as she walked forward as though this was normal, leading them to another door. This led them to the smaller area that led to the bunker itself, where the science happened. And where Tony had been for too many days without coming up for air. "Mr. Stark. Mr. Parker and Ms. Stacy are here for your ten o'clock," she offered to her employer as she motioned the duo forward to greet the man himself. And his guest.

:'''{{#var:22|Tony Stark (22)}} has posed:'''     High above most of the Manhattan skyline and dominating a good part of it, Stark Tower stands sentinel providing a bright greeting to the sun as it rises, the reflection of its light bringing warmth to the city below. And a bit of a headache at times for people in traffic in Midtown and the Financial District. It is such a bright tower, although the majority of people working in its depths greet the morning with a positivity...     There is at least one who does so without such a sunny disposition.     "What? No. No peeking. You'll collapse the wave function and ruin everything." Tony's voice is just a touch grumpy as he gestures toward the floating drone on its miniature vectored-thrust engines, its tiny claw manipulators abruptly dropping the lip of one of a myriad of purple boxes that are settled and scattered _all_ through Tony Stark's bunker of abundance and technology. Hovering over the various work stations, holographic displays provide a steady cascading readout of data as a myriad of floating and stationary sensors take in the observations of the objects.     As several other robotic assistants hover behind him, Tony turns toward an individual that stands out markedly against the tableau of technology. "Wanda!" He steps to the side while pointing at her then snapping his fingers, walking around behind a handful of those boxes who are set up on a workbench, their purple facades seeming oh so terriblly mundane.     "Hit that one with a little more of the Spell Juice." Said Spell Juice being a simple slight empowering of the object granted by her miraculous talents and role as an arbiter of reality. But for now, Spell Juice.     He turns and makes sure to adjust a few of the sensors to get the readings before the needed application in what assuredly is a very formal and regimented experiment.     Tony looked a bit bedraggled, still wearing the Team Banzai shirt he had adorned... Saturday? No Sunday evening. His blue jeans, however, there were no promises as to when they had first found their place on the Billionaire's clothes rotation for the weekend. The white sneakers he wore though were put on and taken off so often that any gauge was a difficult thing to measure for them. Wanda had likely noted that state, though it wasn't anything she hadn't seen before assuredly.     Then the slight trill of announcement as to the elevator was heard, and the approach of voices. "No tours through this area!"     Those harsh words hurled absently as Tony leans over a console, but then he actually turns to look. "Parker!" A glance at Gwen, "Not Parker. Welcome. Enjoy all the things and the sentiment of good things."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' In the bustling ambiance of Tony Stark's tech-laden bunker, Wanda Maximoff sits serenely, her attire a perfect fusion of elegance and casual grace in her signature color. As she sips tea from a cup suspended over a floating scarlet plate crafted from her hex energy, her presence forms a calm oasis amid the technological storm. When Tony offhandedly requests more of her "Spell Juice," a flicker of irritation crosses Wanda's features. She sets her cup down gently on the floating plate, her brow furrowing slightly. "Tony, I'd appreciate it if you referred to it by its proper name---chaos magic. It's not just some 'juice,'" she remarks, her tone both calm and corrective, emphasizing the profound nature of her abilities. As the elevator announces the arrival of new visitors, Wanda's attention shifts to the newcomers. Observing Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy for the first time, her expression is one of polite curiosity, paired with a warm smile. "Hello," she greets simply, offering a nod of acknowledgment to the unfamiliar faces, her demeanor welcoming yet composed. Turning her focus back to the task Tony requested, Wanda extends her hands toward the designated object. "I'll need a moment of concentration, so please, no disturbances," she states, her voice embodying a blend of request and command. Delicate fingers trace the air, summoning scarlet energies that dance and swirl, preparing to channel her chaos magic into the device as requested by Stark. Her serene concentration starkly contrasts with the dynamic energy of Stark's laboratory, showcasing her ability to maintain tranquility and control amidst chaos.

:'''{{#var:4|Peter Parker (4)}} has posed:''' Peter swallowed heavily. Mostly to try to keep his breakfast coffee where breakfast coffee belongs - on the inside. "Umm, Mister Stark?" Peter said, and then mentally winced. Great. Now you sound like you're fifteen and meeting your idol for the first time. Up your game, Parker, it's only the rest of your life on the line here. He looked over to Wanda, noted the floating cup and the red energy cushion it sat on, and mentally shrugged. Augmented of some kind. No, mage. Chaos mage? He used to play as one of those in an old Warhammer RPG. Kinda pretty - no, really kinda striking - but gentlemen preferred blondes. He let go of Gwen's hand, pulled forward by incessant curiosity to go check out one of the purple things scattered all over the place. Even Tony's oft-stated-by-the-Bugle-as-a-womanizer status faded to the back of his head - Gwen had a way of dealing with people that just saw the outside - in favor of SCIENCE!

:'''{{#var:118|Gwen Stacy (118)}} has posed:''' "It's a pleasure to meet you in person, Ms. Potts," Gwen assures with smile so warm it might have raised the temperature in the room by a degree. She's excited, and there's a palpable sense of anticipation, though she manages at least to keep it constrained to her eyes and her lips rather than the bouncing, clapping, and whooping she'd rather be doing. It's not easy for her, but sometimes life is pain. "I _love_ your outfit." Spoken to Pepper in the elevator ride up, because five seconds of silence had fallen and Gwen simply couldn't abide that. Fortunately, before she knows it, they're stepping out into the penthouse... something she takes an eye-full of on the way through, eyebrows raised in the universal symbol for 'Holy crap.' Yeah, she's been in some swanky places for modeling gigs before, but... wow. And it only gets more and more impressive. Her heels and Pepper's seem to make that almost machine-gun rhythm together as their steps fall out of sync and it's a steady 'tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic' all the way to the 'bunker.' And there's Tony! And.. holy crap. The Scarlet Witch is here?! She doesn't even seem to notice Peter's hand slipping away from hers when he steps up to make the greets. Or maybe she expected it. Either way, her hands fold politely in front of her, though the keen of eye might notice the way her weight shifts to the balls of her stiletto-clad feet and she does everything in her power not to bounce on them. "Wanda Maximoff!" it's a hiss of an excited greeting that makes her blush just a little. "Sorry." She clears her throat. "Sorry. Just.. a fan." 'Not Peter,' then, brings her attention back to Tony. "Gwen Stacy," she offers, raising a hand to briefly touch the top of her chest, but she doesn't interrupt beyond that, especially once Wanda's asked for no interruptions.

:'''{{#var:83|Pepper Potts (83)}} has posed:''' There had been a brief murmured Thank You to the compliment from Gwen. Thankfully the elevator trip was brief, since it was the fastest in the building. Only the best for Tony. Nevermind he was tweaking the system at least once a month as well to try to go for even more speed. Pepper had made sure to swallow briefly in order to clear the pop of her ears after that rise in altitude at speed. She stepped to the side and waited near the door, eyes going to the tablet as she began to tap away on it. Pepper never was doing one thing at a time when she was working. Multitasking was her way of life. In a lot of ways, her brain worked just like Tony's. It needed to be focused somewhere, stimulated, or she might just go insane. She didn't have his genius level for tech and creation but she had her own skill sets. Her purpose now was to observe and wait, just in case information might need to be accessed for Tony as the discussion began.

:'''{{#var:22|Tony Stark (22)}} has posed:'''     "Please, Parker. Don't disturb, Wanda." Tony's voice has a hint of feigned admonishment to it as he steps around the edge of the bunker, closing the distance toward the pair of newcomers. Though, of course, his first target is Ms. Potts. He quirks an eyebrow at her, "These them?"     As if they weren't. He looks at Peter, eyebrow still quirked, then at Gwen. "Kiddo. Ms. Stacy. Forgive my earlier gaffe, I offloaded some of my brain onto a Blackberry in the early aughts." A beat, then he adds, "Ms. Potts has the rest."     Turning to the side he starts to gesture in Wanda's direction, about to say something, perhaps introduce her as his lips part, but then he checks himself and confides to the visitors and Pepper, "Not supposed to disturb her. Almost forgot. I'm a chronic disturber."     Then he slaps his hands together with a loud CLAP!     "So."     He spares a second glance over at Wanda. Then back to the two youths. "What's the haps? How are the things? How's May?"     Then, as if to set the tone, "We're a little busy here."     Show time, Parker.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Having meticulously directed her chaos energy into Tony's mysterious device, Wanda Maximoff completes her task with a flourish. The device emits a final, bright flare of energy before the scarlet stream subsides, and Wanda, with a graceful movement, flicks back her hair, a look of satisfaction marking her features. She turns to Tony, her expression turning slightly serious. "Tony, I do wish you'd be more forthcoming about why you need my chaos magic," Wanda begins, her tone a mixture of concern and reprimand. "You do realize the inherently volatile nature of this power, right? It's not just a tool to be wielded lightly. The consequences can be... unpredictable." She pauses, ensuring her point is clear, her eyes locking with Tony's for a moment to emphasize her cautionary words. "I trust your genius, Tony, but I urge you to tread carefully with forces you may not fully understand." knowing Tony's view on magic. After addressing Tony, Wanda offers Pepper a warm smile and a friendly wave, acknowledging her presence with genuine appreciation for the order she brings to Tony's chaotic world. Turning her attention to the newcomers, Peter and Gwen, Wanda crosses her legs elegantly and retrieves her tea, taking a sip before addressing them with a sophisticated and welcoming demeanor. "It seems my introduction might be somewhat superfluous given your reaction, Ms. Stacy," Wanda says with a smile, her voice carrying a hint of amusement. "But nonetheless, I'm Wanda Maximoff. It's a pleasure to meet you both." Her gaze softens as she observes Gwen's excitement and Peter's curiosity, her smile inviting and open, ready to engage further with the young visionaries in Tony's vibrant setting.

:'''{{#var:4|Peter Parker (4)}} has posed:''' That's your cue, Parker! "So, Mister Stark." he started. "I've got a proposal I wanted you to look at. See, I think I've got more to offer the world than, err, what I've been doing." he said with a quick sideline glance at not-in-the-loop Wanda. "And with your backing, I think we..." he said with a quick gesture towards Gwen "... can bring some innovations in the biochem and engineering spaces that are traditionally left to the rust-belt era firms like DuPont or 3M. I'm proposing that, with some financial and equipment backing from Stark Solutions, Parker Industries can move much more quickly and bring a number of potential products to market quickly and profitably." he said, then paused to A) take a breath and B) read the room.

:'''{{#var:118|Gwen Stacy (118)}} has posed:''' It's obvious Gwen wants to talk to Wanda. And to Pepper. And to Tony. And more than obvious that she wants to touch _all_ the things in the lab. Especially the ones she's not allowed to touch. But this is Peter's moment. And though Gwen is still there, hovering a respectable distance behind and to the side, it's also apparent to anyone present who she considers the real star of the show to be. The 'we' does soften her smile a little, however, as her blue eyes cut over towards Peter with a bit of appreciation in them. The less well-known (but certainly easily find-out-able) fact about her is that she's a Molecular Biochemistry PhD candidate that's been working as a research assistant at Alchemax. She's even written a few papers as part of her graduate studies. But of course, if she's ever going to be recognized in public, it's probably for that one poster somebody saw in passing. She doesn't say anything, though, to modify his pitch. She doesn't add ideas or interject about how awesome she thinks he is, even though that's there in her eyes, too. She just waits.

:'''{{#var:83|Pepper Potts (83)}} has posed:''' Ms. Stacy seems to be quite the busy woman. Between her studies and work in molecular biochemistry, she also was part of a band and a popular model. Or so it said on the information Pepper had pulled up on her tablet upon having the surprise second in the meeting. Always good to deep dive about someone in a meeting, one never knew when it might be helpful. As the pitch was given, that drew Pepper's eyes back up. Not to Peter. Directly to Tony, who had turned his head her direction briefly. It was a dance they both knew well. In return, he got a brief raise of her eyebrows and the smallest tilt of her head to the side. He would know that as an indication she would need far more data to be able to advise him a yes or no in response to his unspoken query. She went back to tapping on her tablet while still having her full attention on the meeting.

:'''{{#var:22|Tony Stark (22)}} has posed:'''     "Exactly, we're trying to predict the unpredictable. You're right there with me, Wandas." Tony offers sidelong without quite looking toward her, his attention momentarily pulled in her direction. But then with the weight of several anvils he levels his regard upon Peter and _watches his pitch_.     Tony's gaze casually drifts back and forth between Peter's irises as he stares and listens. Full attention given. For the space of roughly five seconds.     Right as Peter says the word 'profitably', Tony lifts his chin slightly, eyebrows rising as well. That glance given toward Pepper as a silent question is asked between them, then he's looking back toward Peter. A slight flick of a glance to Gwen before he asks, "If this has anything to do with nanites and fossils count me out." A glance back and forth between them. Then a beat and he adds, "Or possibly in."     That said he nods towards Pepper and gestures toward Peter and what he's carrying, though he makes no movement to take it. Instead he clears his throat. "Look, Pete. I'm going to level with you." He lifts a hand slightly, extending it for a brief moment, but then refolds his arms over his chest.     "I back people. Not ideas." Another pause as his eyes distance ever so slightly over Peter's shoulder, as he can likely just imagine Pepper clearing her throat. So he clarifies, "Ok, what I mean is I _usually_..." He turns to give Pepper an admonishing look she doesn't deserve at all. He looks back to Peter, "Back people, not ideas. And you know I have confidence in you, Peter. You're the man. You've been Johnny on the spot..."     He shakes his head, "At least a good half dozen times. You're smart, your clever, and you don't need me hyping you up. You've got your pal here to help you with that."     He turns and starts to walk away, gesturing to the side. "Give what you got to Peps, and if it makes sense we'll figure something out."     Then, for some reason, he flashes a grin at Wanda before he turns his back on the petitioners. "Come on, Wanda, back to work, enough slacking."     Though he does turn, still walking away, albeit backwards. "You guys need some money to start? Something to get groundwork? Pepper?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' While subtly channeling chaos energy into Tony's device, Wanda Maximoff remains fully engaged in the unfolding conversation, demonstrating a deft hand at mystical multitasking. Her face lights up with genuine interest as Peter lays out his proposal, her smile a clear indication of her approval. Turning to Tony with an encouraging look, Wanda leans slightly forward, her voice both playful and persuasive. "Come now Tony, you should absolutely consider what Peter's proposing. I may not have your technical expertise, but I can tell he has that spark of brilliance---something akin to what I see in you." She continues, weaving a tantalizing vision designed to appeal to Tony's ego. "Just imagine the potential of late-night brainstorming sessions with you, Bruce Banner, and Peter Parker. It could be a think tank of the finest minds in science. The world would definitely further exalt the great Tony Stark for assembling such a distinguished group." With a playful wink directed at Gwen and Peter, Wanda adds, "And really, how could you resist supporting such a delightful young couple?" Seizing a natural pause in the conversation, Wanda gestures gracefully with her hand, and two additional cups of tea float over from the nearby counter, mirroring the one she's been enjoying. "Please, have some tea. It's a special blend from Stephen Strange---yes, that Stephen Strange. He's quite the connoisseur," she chuckles softly, adding, "And don't worry, it won't turn you into frogs or anything of the sort... maybe." Her playful jest is delivered with a twinkle in her eye, inviting Gwen and Peter to relax into the conversation, feeling both welcomed and intrigued by the magical yet warm atmosphere Wanda effortlessly creates around her.

:'''{{#var:118|Gwen Stacy (118)}} has posed:''' "That was _one_ time," Gwen can't seem to help protesting at Tony's reference to her botched attempt at Peter's 30th birthday party, though it's so good-natured she has a hard time keeping the laugh out of her voice. Then, just as just a whisper of an utterance, she rolls one delicate shoulder. "I mean, he said he liked dinosaurs..." There's humor still lingering in her eyes.

:'''{{#var:4|Peter Parker (4)}} has posed:''' The absolute last thing Peter wanted to do right then was to relax. Still, the offer was a kindness and Peter took his tea, only to look for someplace to set it down. He settled on the floor, as there was a ton of stuff here, there, and everywhere and some of it might not have reacted well to being used as a coaster. "I've got copies of my more detailed proposal here, which include several candidates for space to work out of and what equipment we have a most criticalk need for..." he said, trying to prop up his Dad's old briefcase on one arm while trying to open it with the other. Luckily for Peter, he was inhumanly agile and had no real trouble in popping the case open. However, Peter was a Parker and his luck held true - as he was reaching for both a paper and an electronic copy of his detailed proposal, the briefcase finally gave up the ghost and the top half split from the bottom half, spilling papers and USB thumb drives all over the ground. One paper copy of his proposal, feeling especially puck-ish, landed in his carefully-discarded tea, sending it splashing into the floor. "I'm so sorry, mister Stark..." Peter babbled as he tried to A) recover the only artifact he had left from his father and B) retrieve his proposal before C) it drowned in Lake Tea.

:'''{{#var:83|Pepper Potts (83)}} has posed:''' As everything came crashing down, Pepper started to take a step forward. Immediately she stopped as she glanced around at the various machines in the room. For in the past, she had indeed rushed in to try to fix things as that was her nature. Only to find herself amidst a sea of drones and robots that had caused her to practically break an ankle. In short--she now knew better. "I will be glad to inquire, Mr. Stark," she offered to the question from her employer before turning her smile back to the visiting couple. "Mr. Parker, if you would like to provide me with a copy of your business proposal, it will be looked over and we can give you an answer within the week. I will be certain you have my information so you may reach me directly as I will be your contact should any questions arise. Or should I need clarification on something you have provided."

:'''{{#var:22|Tony Stark (22)}} has posed:'''     "Good, sounds great, Pepper!" Tony calls out now as he's heading back to the control console, gesturing with one hand over his shoulder in a somewhat nebulous motion though she assuredly knows, and knew ahead of time what it would mean.     And then it's back to work. Though as the others are departing, he calls out. "Food for thought, Pete! Arc Reactor power output diminishes asynchronously with declination of scale at a rate of .11 above expected size differential. Give me your thoughts next week."     Then he's leaning over the console and calls out, "Okay get outta here ya crumb bums."     Though he does shoot a glance at Wanda and whispers, "Did he break any of my stuff?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda watches the chaotic scene unfold with a calm, discerning eye, then gracefully rises from her seat, still holding her tea cup. As Tony returns to his work and Peter scrambles to collect his scattered papers, she offers a wry smile to the young couple. "Well, Peter, Gwen," she says dryly, "Pepper can probably confirm, that's probably all you're going to get from Tony today. But look on the bright side---he didn't say no. In Stark-speak, that's practically a win." With a playful flick of her fingers, Wanda sends a ripple of hex energy toward the disorganized mess on the floor. The scattered papers and USB drives begin to levitate and sort themselves, magically assembling into neat, organized folders that materialize out of thin air. Each document finds its place, forming a tidy stack by Pepper's side. As she completes the task, she glances at Pepper and Tony, then turns back to Peter and Gwen. "Tony once practically put up a force field when I pitched an idea to him, so you're already ahead." Her expression softens into a genuine smile. "It was lovely to meet you both. Best of luck with your proposal. I'm sure you'll do great things." She gives them a reassuring nod before turning her attention back to Tony, ready to resume their work.

:'''{{#var:4|Peter Parker (4)}} has posed:''' Peter just stared as Wanda either rolled back time, which was a frightening thought, or told entropy to hold her tea, which was far, far more terrifying. But everything seemed to be re-assembled and from there it was a simple matter to make sure Pepper got a physical and an electronic copy of the Parker Industries proposal. Looking back at Gwen, who nodded back with her own slightly-glassy-eyed gaze, it was time for the two of them to beat a hasty retreat while the getting was good.
}}

16437/Red vs Blue

2024-07-17T12:34:26Z

Kstar: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2024/07/16 |Location=Backyard, Avengers Mansion |Synopsis=The Maximoff twins square off to spar, seeing how the other has improved. |Cast of Characters=70, 177 |pretty=yes }} {{Poses |Poses=:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda stepped gracefully into the Avengers Mansion, her presence commanding and serene. She took a moment to appreciate the familiar surroundings, the rich history embedded within the walls. The mansi..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2024/07/16
|Location=Backyard, Avengers Mansion
|Synopsis=The Maximoff twins square off to spar, seeing how the other has improved.
|Cast of Characters=70, 177
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda stepped gracefully into the Avengers Mansion, her presence commanding and serene. She took a moment to appreciate the familiar surroundings, the rich history embedded within the walls. The mansion, with its grand hallways and elegantly decorated rooms, always felt like a blend of home and headquarters. The intricate moldings and timeless art pieces lining the walls added a touch of sophistication to the otherwise bustling and dynamic space. As she walked, Wanda gestured for Pietro to follow her. "There have been very few changes since you were last here," she began, her voice soft but clear. "We've had some upgrades to the training room. As people got stronger, the room had to be reinforced to withstand the increased intensity. It's become quite the marvel of engineering and magic working together." They moved through the mansion, passing various rooms that housed state-of-the-art technology and comfortable lounges for the Avengers to unwind. The training room, as mentioned, had undergone significant enhancements, with reinforced walls and floors, advanced simulation equipment, and various training modules designed to challenge even the most powerful heroes. Wanda continued to talk as they walked, her tone lightening as she brought up a recent addition to the team. "You know, I met someone interesting the other day -- Peter Parker. He's almost as smart as Tony and Bruce, and the most adorable young science guy I've ever seen. You'd probably call him a nerd," she added with a chuckle, knowing her brother's likely reaction. "But honestly, I just wanted to put him in my pocket and keep him in a cute little habitat." She paused for a moment, a mischievous glint in her eye. "Which, now that I think about it, is something I could actually do. That's the terrifying thing," she said, her tone both playful and slightly ominous. As they reached the end of the hallway, Wanda turned to Pietro, her expression softening. "It's good to have you back, Pietro. The mansion feels more complete with you here."

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' Pietro was being good, but it strained every nerve he had in his body. He walked along with his sister, listening to her natter on about building improvements and Avengers decorations, and he was listening to what she said, but it was a trial. The world was so _slow_ and he knew that wasn't his sister's fault or anyone save possibly Magneto's fault, really. But having to slow down like this was somewhat agonizing. "I think that putting Mr Parker in a habitat like some sort of pet would be frowned on." he said, at one of the glacial pauses in his sister's stream-of-consciousness narration. "And the Avengers are full of nerds. It's good for them, gives them an outlet for their creativity." Pietro desperately needed an outlet. And there was only so many times one could play ping-pong against one's self. "And thank you. So far, I think this was a good decision." he admitted.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' As they walked through the mansion, Wanda gave a sly and knowing smile to herself, shaking her head with a touch of resignation. "Go ahead, Pietro," she said, her tone light and understanding. "I know you're struggling. You don't have to walk at my pace." She paused for a moment, letting her words sink in. "I've never minded that you rush back and forth while we talk. It's your way of relieving your Pietro Maximoff Syndrome," she teased gently. Wanda's eyes twinkled with mischief as she added, "I do wonder, though, if you've been out of the game for so long that you've gotten rusty. Can you even hit your top speed anymore?" Her words were a playful jab at his pride in his speed, a very sisterly tease that might not be entirely fair, but she wouldn't be a sister if she didn't poke at him from time to time. She looked at him with a mix of affection and challenge, waiting for his response.

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' Pietro frowned at his sister. "I would be delighted to show you but I think you might find the sonic boom disagreeable." he said, but given that she'd given permission, he blurred ahead at what to him was a leisurely pace but to her was a blur of speed. Then he came back to her side, and that's how he amused himself - walk with her for a while, then blur ahead, then return. "And speaking of one's capabilities, have you managed to go a week yet without a dark room and a cool cloth across your eyes? Or is your Stephen enchanting you?" he asked with a sly look. Two could play the sibling game, after all.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda stops in her tracks and turns to face Pietro, folding her arms and giving him a pointed look. Leaning her head to one side, her hair cascading down her shoulder, she comments with a mischievous smile, "Oh, Stephen Strange is enchanting me alright. He's a very enchanting and romantic man. At the rate we're going, there might just be other ways he'll enchant me." She lets her words hang in the air for a moment before continuing, "I've come a long way from needing to tend to a migraine, you know. I've been working on my meditation and relaxation techniques. Plus, there hasn't been any need for a strenuous use of my powers lately, so I have plenty of brain energy left to beat you if I need to." With a confident smirk, Wanda challenges Pietro, "How about a contest? Let's pit our strengths and weaknesses against each other and see who comes out on top. Your speed and reflexes against my wits and hex powers. First to three contacts wins. What do you say, brother?"

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' Pietro made a face. A disapproving one. Dressing to entice, to inflame the passions? Expected and good. Actually coupling with him? Big no-no. And a no-no that worked both ways, although to be fair he did presume for men it was honored more in the breach than the observance. Still, he preferred not to think about his twin, his sister, and some strange man. But then he offered him a _challenge_, and she knew him too well. And he her - she wouldn't have offered it if she wasn't in it to win it. That was the thing about Wanda - she was all smiles and coy looks while her hand under the table curled around the hilt of a knife. Tricksome, his witchy sister was. "A challenge, you say?" he told her, his Romany pride on full display. "What sort of contact?" he asked her. "Touch, or do you favor a rougher game these days? Or has your Stephen and the soft city living dulled your edge?" he asked teasingly.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda pointed at Pietro, her expression firm. "Touch. Just touch. A tap at most, nothing rough. I'll be using the same strength myself, so keep it light." She accepted his challenge with a mischievous smile, "Let's make it interesting. When I win, you have to go on a date with someone of my choosing, at a time I choose, and you have to get through the entire date." Turning on her heel, Wanda began to head towards the Avengers training area, her steps confident and purposeful. She glanced over her shoulder, giving Pietro a playful look. "Are you ready, brother? Let's see if you can keep up."

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' "You're forgetting a vital component." he reminded her after he scouted ahead and then came back to her side. "What are you wagering here, specifically? If I win, what do I gain?" he asked. "I have a thought." he said, as if it'd just occurred to him. "Since you seem committed to this course of fixing me up with someone, if I win ... and I will ... you will re-assume your role as a good Romany woman. You will prepare for your Stephen and I an excellent meal, then we shall play music and dance and tell the tales of our kith and kin." he taunted. "Assuming you even still remember." he added, to twist the knife just a little. "And you will accomplish it all with no aid of any kind, mundane or supernatural. Only your own skill as a cook, a musician, a dancer." he added.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda considers Pietro's counter-wager for a couple of moments, her eyes narrowing thoughtfully. Then she nods, a determined smile playing on her lips. "Deal," she agrees. Her hands begin to glow with the familiar crimson hue of her hex power. She raises them slowly, the energy crackling and swirling around her fingers. With a dramatic flourish, she holds her hands up, then drops them suddenly, shouting, "Go!" As she shouts, Wanda sweeps her arms toward the ground, turning in a graceful circle. From the center where she stands, a large circle of oil rushes out, spreading across the floor. Behind the oil, a dome of ice forms, glistening and opaque. Hidden behind the ice dome, Wanda conjures a dome of stone, solid and unyielding, and just behind that, a wall of steel rises up, encasing her in a formidable shell with a moat of oil around it. The sequence of barriers creates a layered obstacle course for Pietro, starting with the slippery oil, followed by the thick barriers of ice, stone, and steel. Wanda's aim is to challenge Pietro's speed and reflexes, testing him with the different moats and obstacles. She stands at the center, her eyes focused and ready, her stance poised for whatever comes next. "Let's see if you can keep up, brother." she murmurs, a playful yet determined glint in her eyes. Crafty witch she is.

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' Pietro just smiles at his sister. He has tricks now that she's never seen and it's time to use them. She starts with oil, because of course she does. Slippery and treacherous, but he is prepared for it. He withdraws a lighter from his pocket, flicks it to life, then carefully applies it to the oil. Now they are separated by a ring of flame, which does not do good things to her dome of ice. Her stone and steel domes are, of course, undisturbed by this development. So once the fire is out and the ice-dome mostly melted, it's a small matter to smash the remnants of the ice into shards which will melt away harmlessly. "Four layers? Not bad, sister." he said with an arrogant smirk that made most people, Wanda most likely included, want to smack it off his face. But now for the stone and the steel. He could go the barbaric route and smash it, but that'd be rough on his hands. He had a new trick for that, and it took a few moments still for him to set up.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' In the training dome, Wanda presses her ear against the icy surface of her protective barrier, tuning into the sounds of her brother's maneuvers. As the ice cracks and shatters under Pietro's relentless attack, she seizes her moment. With a deft flick of her wrist, Wanda's form blurs, and she teleports out from her layered defenses, popping into existence directly behind Pietro. Attempting a swift tap on his shoulder, whether successful or not, she doesn't linger. In an instant, she's airborne, retreating to a safe distance. As she lands, the lights in the training room flicker strangely.. With a mischievous glint in her eye, she begins to phase, her form splitting into dozens of duplicates that spread throughout the room. "Which witch is which, dear brother?" her voice echoes from every corner, each duplicate perfectly mimicking her tone and having different postures and gestures, challenging Pietro to discern the real Wanda from her illusions.

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' Pietro is too canny to let her sneak up on him like that, and he was surprised that she left her layered defenses. His entire body was beginning to blur, although he stayed in one place. With his speed it wouldn't be difficult to tag all the Wandas he could reach, which likely meant that she was one of the ones that was airborne. While he couldn't split into duplicates like she apparently could, he could rush around the room at speeds greater than her mortal eyes could track and tag her images. If he found the real one, he would win. If not, he would likely disrupt her casting and make the images go away. But then he got a better idea - why play her game, when he could make her play his? So he ignored the Wanda-images around the room and then sank _into_ the stone and then the steel domes, using his speed to slip his molecules between those of the stone and then of the steel. "Why, sister dearest, we have changed places!" he taunted from inside of her layered defenses. He also made sure to sweep every inch of the innermost dome to make sure she was not lurking inside invisibly. That'd be just like her.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Pietro, confident in his tactical pivot, might not have immediately realized the trick Wanda played with the flickering lights. The clues were all there---the sudden multiplication, the strange way the lights had dimmed and flickered---as if begging to be understood as holograms, but in the heat of the moment, the implications eluded him. It's a realization that would dawn on him later, perhaps when recounting the encounter. As Pietro phases into the stone and steel domes, believing he's seized the advantage, he's taken aback by a soft gasp. It's Wanda, unexpectedly still within the dome. In his moment of surprise, she materializes from invisibility, positioned perfectly behind him. Whispering his name softly, "Pietro," she reaches to touch his shoulders--- possibly her first point of contact. With the swift precision of a practiced sorceress, she teleports away before Pietro can react, securing a strategic hiding spot within the confines of the training room. While intending to leave Pietro momentarily disoriented, a split second that Wanda exploits to calculate her next move, hidden from sight and waiting for Pietro to piece together her clever use of light and illusion, her tricky move that he almost ruined, and what her next move might be..

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' Pietro cursed sulphurously. In Transian. She'd tagged him, dammit, which put her up on the game. And she was teleporting all over the place, which was really, really starting to irritate him. So it was time to even the game. At his speed, with phasing, he could not only pass through objects, he could also blow them up by literally shaking their molecular structure out of alignment. So that's what he did, making sure to stay so phased that he was near-intangible. If he could get better sightlines, take away her ability to hide, he could probably tag her. Also, more room to move meant he could just literally dance circles around her, out of her touch range. And once the domes were down he started doing laps, changing his course often, moving so fast that he was fairly sure she'd have a hard time drawing a bead on him. And his reaction time was good enough to change course when she did appear within her reach. And if she could reach him, he could reach her.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda knows she needs to stay at least four steps ahead of Pietro to have any chance of winning. Right now, she's only two steps ahead, a precarious position against her brother's rapid mind. Hiding behind one of Tony's sophisticated training machines, she racks her brain for the next move to out maneuver him. Sound distractions are too obvious; Pietro would see through them instantly. Then inspiration strikes. Wanda creates a hole in the ground beneath her, transforming the floor's consistency to sand. She sinks down into it, concealing herself and making the trap look like the solid floor. To perfect her ruse, she conjures a hologram of herself standing above the hidden pit, with just a shoelace sticking out as a subtle lure. Her plan set, she waits in her sandy concealment, ready to snag Pietro like an ant lion if he falls for her clever trap, hoping this will put her the necessary steps ahead in their game.

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' Unfortunately for Wanda, this was not the first time he'd seen that ruse. So he rushed to the very edge of the concealed sand trap and dipped a toe into it. "Come, sister. Such a dusty tomb ill-suits you." he taunted and then rushed away to the other side of the chamber. "If you're going to stay in there forever this will be a poor game indeed." he reminded her.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Taking a moment to recalibrate, Wanda floated gracefully out of the sandy trap, her eyes narrowing in determination. Hovering mid-air, she surveyed the training room, her mind racing to devise a new plan to outmaneuver her brother. She began weaving a complex spell, combining elements of illusion and chaos magic. First, she created multiple again, life-like holograms of herself, each one positioned strategically around the room. These illusions mimicked her exact movements and gestures, designed to be indistinguishable from the real Wanda. Next, she manipulated the ambient energy in the room, causing subtle, random flickers of light and shadow to disorient Pietro's enhanced perception. Finally, she layered her enchantments with a sensory twist. She infused the air with a faint, sweet scent that Pietro would recognize from their childhood---a distraction tied to memory, meant to momentarily divert his attention. Satisfied with her intricate setup, Wanda prepared herself, knowing that outdoing Pietro required not just power but cunning. "Alright, brother," she whispered to herself, "let's see how you handle this." She positioned herself within the array of illusions, her hands starting to glow on all of her copies, readying to strike. Was she gonna blast him? One of them was definitely Wanda. Hiding will do her no good at this point.

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' Wanda did sure love her emotions. And her distractions. But he could, if he put his mind to it, stay focused. So he made his way around the training room at superspeed, making sure to smack each illusory Wanda on the ass on the way by. Getting _her_ distrscted, getting _her_ angry, would make the magic more difficult. But he didn't go in a nice predictable hex-boltable straight line, oh no. He got _geometric_ with it. Rush in, smack a Wanda on the ass, rush away at a different angle, come back in, over and over.\<br\>\<br\>Finally, on one approach, his hand met not chaos-infused magic, but an actual flesh-and-blood buttock. He smiled as he tagged his sister - lightly, as per the rules of the game, and then darted away before she could work out something nasty to do to him.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' At the unexpected and annoying slap on her posterior, Wanda's irritation flared. Her mouth tightened into a growl of frustration as she prepared to counter and make her strike against Pietro. However, in a moment of clarity, she realized something crucial. Despite her fierce determination, she had to know when to concede, and this was one of those times. She had neglected to state an important rule. With a resigned sigh, she waved her hands, dismissing all the effects she had created. "Wait, wait... I concede. I've already lost," she admitted, the tightness in her voice giving way to a reluctant acknowledgment of her oversight. She had realized that without a rule to enforce a five-second interval between taps, Pietro could easily tag her three times in quick succession, securing his victory. Begrudgingly, Wanda frowned and pouted, feeling the sting of defeat from such a simple mistake. "Fine, you win this time," she said, conceding to Pietro's terms and admitting her defeat, a rare occurrence that highlighted her growing understanding of her boundaries.

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' Pietro laughed as he stopped phasing and came to a halt next to her. "An excellent try, sister." he said, patting her on the shoulder. "I'm looking forward to your Romany dinner and entertainment already." he said with a hearty laugh. "And I'm sure your Stephen won't know what hit him." he said with a wink and a nudge.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda thought for a moment, her initial irritation fading. She wasn't too upset about having to hold up her end of the deal. In fact, Pietro's victory was that much more assured because of what he had bet. Making dinner for Stephen and charming him with her skills? It wasn't such a bad forfeit. She laughed softly and gave Pietro a sisterly hug. "You haven't changed one bit," she said, shaking her head with a fond smile. "But don't think for a moment that I'm giving up on finding you a good and proper wife. This isn't over yet." With a playful glint in her eye, she pulled back and added, "And as for Stephen, I'm sure he'll be delighted. Just remember, this doesn't mean I'll go easy on you next time."

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' "I'd be deeply disappointed if you did." he pointed out sensibly. "But really, we know who's got the superior skills in the field. Your magic is flexible but you have picked up some terrible habits. We'll need to work on those." he pointed out.
}}

16427/Cafe Pour les Jumeaux

2024-07-16T14:56:41Z

Kstar: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2024/07/12 |Location=Quaint cafe in Midtown |Synopsis=The Maximoff twins meet up to catch up on things. |Cast of Characters=70, 177 |pretty=yes }} {{Poses |Poses=:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda Maximoff sits at a small, quaint French-style cafe, the aroma of freshly baked pastries and brewed coffee filling the air. The cafe is charmingly decorated with vintage French posters, rustic wooden tables, and soft, ambie..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2024/07/12
|Location=Quaint cafe in Midtown
|Synopsis=The Maximoff twins meet up to catch up on things.
|Cast of Characters=70, 177
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda Maximoff sits at a small, quaint French-style cafe, the aroma of freshly baked pastries and brewed coffee filling the air. The cafe is charmingly decorated with vintage French posters, rustic wooden tables, and soft, ambient lighting. A gentle breeze rustles the leaves of the potted plants scattered around the outdoor seating area, adding to the serene atmosphere. Dressed in a comfortable yet stylish outfit a soft, cream-colored sweater and well-fitted jeans---Wanda blends effortlessly into the cozy surroundings. Her dark hair cascades over her shoulders in loose waves, framing her face as she focuses on the old leather-bound tome in her hands. The book, aged and weathered, speaks of ancient knowledge, its pages filled with intricate diagrams and handwritten notes on the workings of vampires. As she reads, Wanda occasionally reaches for her cup of tea, lifting it gracefully to her lips and taking a slow, savoring sip. The steam from the tea rises in delicate tendrils, blending with the cool morning air. Her fingers idly trace the edge of the cup as she sets it back down on the table, her eyes never leaving the text before her. Every now and then, she glances up, her gaze sweeping over the entrance to the cafe, looking for any sign of her brother, Pietro. A faint smile tugs at the corners of her lips at the thought of their reunion, a momentary distraction from the heavy subject matter of her book. She adjusts her position slightly, crossing her legs and tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear, before diving back into the ancient tome with renewed focus. The setting sun casts a warm, golden glow over the scene, adding to the tranquil ambiance as Wanda patiently awaits Pietro's arrival.

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' A gust of wind, a strong one, and then he's there. Silver hair messy and flopping into his eyes, only to be irritatingly brushed back. Pietro's wearing stuff he can run in - securely-tied sweatpants, a shirt in his favored blue-and-silver-lightning-bolt motif, and runner's shoes that might, possibly, have been smoldering. Just a touch. The sweats even had pockets! "Wanda." he said with a rare-for-him smile, speaking slowly enough to be understood. "You look well. Are you eating?" he said, and then just like that, it's like a decade of their relationship disappeared and it was like they were kids again.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda, accustomed to Pietro's quick and breezy arrivals, instinctively places her hand on the pages of her book to prevent them from fluttering. As the gust of wind subsides, she looks up from her tome, a warm smile forming on her lips. "Hello, Pietro," she says fondly, her eyes lingering on the text for just a second longer before closing the book gently. She rises from her seat and steps closer to her brother, her smile broadening. Reaching up, she familiarly fixes his messy hair, smoothing it back into place. "You look well too," she replies, her tone affectionate. "And yes, I had a big breakfast this morning. Someone made sure of that." Her hand lingers on his hair for a moment before she lets it drop, her eyes sparkling with the warmth of their shared history and the comfort of their sibling bond. "It's good to see you. Let's sit and catch up." She gestures to the seat across from her, inviting him to join her.

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' Pietro, in the blink of an eye, was in the indicated chair. Clearly, he was having a mid-to-low slow tolerance day. As further evidence, he took the container of sweetener packets and sorted them by color, just to give himself something to do. "You should have big breakfasts more often. You're too skinny." he said in fine Romany male form. It was shaping up to be one of _those_ days. "So." he said. "How's life going for you?" he asked, still on the ragged edge of talking too fast.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda takes slight sisterly offense to Pietro's comment about her being too skinny. She frowns and says, "Pietro," with a chiding tone, giving him a look that clearly conveys her disapproval. Knowing her brother's overprotective nature, she decides to tug at those emotional strings a bit. "I'm sure Stephen would make me breakfast any morning I ask, or maybe even bring me breakfast in bed," she adds with a classy, smug look, letting the implication hang in the air. "Anyway," she continues, shifting the conversation, "I've had a VERY busy week. It's been a little draining." Wanda's expression turns more serious as she explains, "I'm dealing with a situation involving Lorna and her recent encounter with vampires. It's quite complex, and I've been immersed in my studies in the mystic arts to find a solution." She takes a sip of her tea, her eyes reflecting the weight of her concerns. "It's been challenging, to say the least. Are you holding up? Behaving? Probably not."

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' Pietro frowned - no brother wanted to contemplate his sister's sex life. He was also pretty sure it was mutual, that she didn't want to think about his. Fortunately for her, he had exacting standards and so far any attempts he'd made to find someone that met them had been met with failure. Their loss. "Then it's a good thing I'm back in town, isn't it?" he asked Wanda. "If you're having a vampire problem, they're slow and ugly and I can handle your problem for you." he said, once again displaying the uglier side of Romany gender politics. But at least he fully accepted the mystic arts as being real and valid and never - not once - has he given her shit for exploring her abilities in that direction. "Like that one time in Romania when we were, what, twelve? Thirteen?" he mused.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda internally disdains Pietro's tendency to display the somewhat chauvinistic nature of their Romany upbringing, but she sidesteps it as she usually does. She gives him a begrudging smile. "I remember that time in Romania, yes. But things are different now. I can take care of myself sometimes, Pietro. I'll always need you, but I won't always need you to save me." She pauses, acknowledging his willingness to help. "Your speed would be invaluable in combating vampires, I won't deny that. But fighting vampires isn't the nature of this particular problem, and it's not something that speed can fix." Wanda takes a deep breath, her expression growing more serious. "Lorna was bitten by a vampire. She received scientific treatment to purge the venom, but it doesn't seem to have completely worked. I'm trying to discern if mystical means are needed to cure her." She looks Pietro in the eyes, conveying the gravity of the situation. "I'm not sure if Count Dracula has anything to do with it, but after meeting and talking with him a couple of weeks ago, I'm going to try to track him down and have a 'discussion' with him about this issue." Wanda reaches across the table, placing a hand on Pietro's. "If you do want to help, be there for Lorna. She needs the support. Your presence and care would mean a lot to her, and to me."

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' Dammit, now she was playing dirty pool. When she batted those eyelashes at her and said please, he was helpless to resist her. And worst of all, _she knew this_. "You want me. To be there. For Lorna." he said incredulously. "You do remember how I am with slow people, right?" he asked. "I give it - generously - thirty seconds before she throws me out a window." he said. "It's a good thing you are fam ... my sister." he said, avoiding an entire minefield full of landmines that was _that_ topic. "I will try. No promises." he told her, patting her hand. And then re-sorting the sweetener packets in reverse alphabetical order at superspeed.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Knowing it was a touchy subject, she continued delicately, "I'm also going to talk to our father, Erik. He's probably going to have a hard time with this situation, and he might need some support too. It would mean a lot to me if you could try to be there for him as well." She took his other hand, motherly stroking the backs of his hands with her thumbs. "I know I'm asking a lot, Pietro, but it would make me feel so much better if you weren't 'Petulant Pietro' all the time. I miss seeing you genuinely smile about life." Since having the twins, Wanda had naturally settled into a more matronly demeanor, and Pietro was often the first on her mother hen list. She looked at him with a mixture of love and concern, hoping her words would reach him.

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Pietro pulled his hands back. "Absolutely not!" he said, sounding like one of the Chipmunks for a moment. "That man is a monster! Look how he treated us!" he said, still Alvin-ing. "Lorna I will help you with. I will hunt vampires if you wish it. But my father was Django Maximoff. Not ... Erik." he said with a sneer. "And you know I adore my nephews, even if you won't let me teach them how to be proper Romany men." he said with his petulance levels dropping, for once, to near-zero. "But I will _not_, not even for you, my beloved sister, break bread with that monster. Or even be in his presence."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda looked at Pietro with a knowing smile, fully aware of the psychological warfare she was waging and his inevitable defeat. "Yes, Pietro, I want you to be there for Lorna," she said softly, her eyes meeting his with sincerity. "Maybe if you exercise a little patience with people, you wouldn't be so grouchy about them all the time. It might help you see that they can be less frustrating than you think." She emphasized the next part with a gentle but firm tone, "Try to be nice to Lorna. Just be nice. That's all I'm asking." Wanda gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. "Thank you for being willing to try. I know it's not easy for you." Wanda's expression softens into a pained, empathetic look as she hears Pietro's emotional outburst. She says his name in a pleading tone, "Pietro, I know you have strong feelings about Magneto. But I'm trying to mend the sordid relationship I have with him, and I really need my only brother and twin by my side." She takes a moment to sip her tea, then closes her book. "Besides, hypothetically, if Stephen one day pops the question, who is going to be the father to give me away?" Her gaze turns heartfelt as she continues, "I know Django Maximoff is and always will be the father and man who raised us. While I've forgiven him for what happened with the stone and the dolls, I cannot forget that it was still done to us. I will cherish him in memory, but I want to move forward. I don't want to carry resentment and hatred in my heart. That hatred does not mix well with the chaos magic I wield." After a few moments, Wanda reaches out to touch Pietro's hand. "I will support you, whatever your choice, but I truly wish you would reconsider. I need you with me in this."

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' "You're putting me in a very difficult place, witch." he said, without any of the rancor usually associated with the W-word. To him, it's a job description and maybe a lifestyle. Nothing more, nothing less. "If your Stephen comes to his senses and wishes to see you both wed, _I_ will give you away at the altar." he said simply, voice now back down to his normal register. No more Chipmunking! "I suppose your desire to mend fences with that monster is possibly, if I squint, acceptable. For you." he said. "But he has done nothing to indicate he's anything other than what he is, Wanda. And when he uses you, abuses you, pushes you past your breaking point, I will always be there for you. Like when we were kids." he said. "But I will not voluntarily put myself under his thumb ever again. His honeyed words are _lies_, Wanda. We've been there before." he pointed out, perhaps a touch cruelly.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda sighs, feeling the weight of the brick wall she's hit with Pietro on this subject. She resigns herself to accept his decision, "Alright, I give. I know that trying to move Mount Wundagore would be more of a possibility than getting you to budge." With a wry smile, she then remarks, "Although, moving Mount Wundagore is something I could actually do, so that may not be the best analogy." She then regards him with a pained look, her voice soft and loving. "Pietro, when will you let go of your anger? You have every right to be angry, we've endured so much. But at some point, we need to try to let others into our lives." "I know that Tony would--" She abruptly stops when she is about to mention Tony Stark in her sentiment, knowing his inability to 'people' very well. That the Avengers would love to see you back," she reroutes, her eyes filled with hope. "I miss seeing you happy, Pietro. Truly happy. We can't let the past keep us from finding joy in the present." Wanda's eyes soften as she reminisces, her mind drifting back to a simpler time. "Do you remember that summer when we were about ten years old, Pietro? We were living in that small village in Transia, just below Mount Wundagore. It was before everything became so complicated." She smiles warmly, her voice filled with nostalgia. "We used to sneak away from the chores and run through the meadows, the wildflowers taller than we were. You'd race ahead, of course, always challenging me to keep up. But you never really left me behind." Wanda's eyes twinkle with the memory. "One day, we found that little stream hidden in the woods. We spent hours there, trying to build a dam with rocks and sticks, determined to create a little pool. We laughed so much that day, especially when the dam finally gave way and we ended up soaked from head to toe." She chuckles softly, the sound filled with affection. "You carried me all the way home, running so fast we were almost dry by the time we got there. That evening, we sat by the fire, drying our clothes and warming up. Django told us stories of old Romany legends, and we fell asleep listening to his voice, feeling safe and loved." Wanda looks at Pietro, her expression tender. "Those moments were precious, Pietro. They remind me of the bond we share, a bond that nothing can break. I want us to find that happiness again, to create new memories, even amidst all the chaos. With ourselves, and with others."

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' Pietro would probably commit homicide if it got out, but way deep down he was a sentimentalist. And Wanda's words touched something in him. "I'd like being an Avenger." he said softly. "And it's a part of my ... of _our_ cultural identity as Romany to serve our people. To make the clan better than it was before we came along. I try to do that, even though you slow people are so unbelievably irritating." he said with another rare Pietro smile. "Those were good days." he said fondly, in rememberance. "Unless our dancing monkey terrorism phase under Erik." he reminded his sister. "Hurting people. Stealing for more than just need. Racial superiority. These are not things I can forget, even if you are willing to put them behind you." he said. "Although you did keep that pretty bangle I stole for you for years until the clasp broke beyond my ability to fix it." he said warmly.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda gives Pietro a look that clearly says, "Now Pietro...." She puffs up slightly and says teasingly, "Need I remind you that if I wanted to, I could slow YOU down with just a few flicks of my fingers? Let's see, I could create a temporal distortion field, weave a binding spell, simply hold you in the air, change the density of the very floor beneath your feat to quicksand, or even just conjure a good old-fashioned energy barrier." She smirks, watching his reaction, then reaches into her pocket to produce the broken bangle. "Oh, you mean this?" she says with a mischievous glint in her eye. Right in front of him, she raises her hand, and with a subtle gesture, her chaos magic swirls around the trinket. The broken clasp mends itself, the metal weaving back together seamlessly until the bangle is as good as new. She hands it to him with a smile, "I've kept it all these years and waited until now to fix it. See, I still cherish the good memories." Her eyes soften as she looks at him, hoping that this small gesture will help bridge the gap between their differing views on the past.

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' Pietro looked at the once-broken now-mended bangle, examining it from all angles. Slowly, so as not to break it or sending it off like grapeshot. He took her hand in his, then attached the bangle to her wrist. "Wear it." he asked/told her with a smile. "I gave that witch a talisman. Witches love talismans." he joked with a grin straight out of their shared youth when they were young and brash and could conquer the world between her migraines and his bottomless stomach that needed stoked seven times a day minimum. "I'm actually surprised you kept it." he said. "Although, in hindsight, I should not be." he admitted. "And you could _try_ to slow me down, but half those things you mentioned are just to keep me in one place. None of them would change how I see the world, how _slow_ you all are." he said. "And yes, Wanda, I have as you have so often urged me, talked to someone about it. He refers to it now as Pietro Maximoff Syndrome. Says he remembers our conversation about it whenever he's stuck in line at ATM."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda waits patiently as Pietro fastens the bangle onto her wrist, appreciating the sentiment and the sentimental value of the trinket. She rolls her eyes at his literal contesting of her ability to slow him down. "In that case," she says dryly, "I would simply stick you in a space of time distortion where it would take you at least an hour to even blink." She knows the notion of such a thing would terrify him more than any monster ever could. After all, he did call her a witch. She gives him a pursed-lip expression and begins with a teasing tone, "Let me guess..." Wanda then launches into a detailed and humorous portrayal of how she imagines a therapy session with Pietro went. "You walked into the therapist's office, and before they even had a chance to say hello, you're already rearranging all the furniture at superspeed to make the place 'more efficient.' The poor therapist left spinning in their chair, trying to keep up with your rapid-fire explanations of how everything in the room could be improved." She continues, "By the time they managed to ask you the first question, you already gave them a complete rundown of your entire life story, your thoughts on modern society, and a detailed critique of the therapist's choice of wall art. The therapist is frantically jotting down notes, but you're talking so fast that their hand cramped up within the first five minutes." Wanda's eyes sparkle with amusement as she finishes, "And just as the therapist is about to have a nervous breakdown, you casually mention that you think they have 'Pietro Maximoff Syndrome' because they can't keep up with you. The session ends with the therapist needing therapy themselves."---She chuckles softly, giving Pietro a playful nudge. "Admit it, that's exactly how it went."

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' Pietro laughed. "You have such a vivid imagination, Wanda!" he chortled. "You neglected to mention how I fixed the squeak in his chair and found him a better toupee to cover his bald spot." he said with a laugh. "It was nothing like that and you know it. I was careful to be slow so he could understand me and he recorded the session for transcription later. His full focus was on me, which people not named Wanda seem to have such difficulty with." he said with an annoyed look. "But if he asks next time we speak I'll make sure to give him a nuanced breakdown of late-stage capitalism that will make him truly spin in his chair. And it was he, not I, that coined the syndrome based on our conversations and how I experience the world." he said. "It would be educational for you, dear sister, to try spending ten minutes with how I see the world."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda gingerly palms her face at Pietro's explanation about the man's toupee and his intention to discuss capitalism. She groans in frustration, muttering his name under her breath. Looking at him pointedly, she says, "Pietro, please don't intentionally terrorize or prank people." She takes a deep breath and continues, "Do you remember that time you thought it would be funny to rearrange the statue of that Transian dignitary? You turned his head backwards and switched his hands to look like he was clapping behind his back. The whole town was in an uproar, and I had to use my chaos magic to fix it to avoid the repercussions of another angry mob with pitchforks and torches." Wanda's eyes bore into his, a mix of exasperation and affection. "So, please, for everyone's sake, try to keep the pranks to a minimum." She gives him a small, hopeful smile, hoping her words will sink in. "I know you mean well, but sometimes, a little restraint can go a long way."

:'''{{#var:177|Pietro Maximoff (177)}} has posed:''' "You laughed harder than I did!" he protested, all in good fun. "I am out of the terrorism game, sister. Just like you are." he pointed out. "And do you think we could get something to eat here at this lovely little cafe?" he said, his stomach almost audibly growling. At least he didn't need to eat as much now as he did when he was a younger man. Maturity, at least physical maturity, had been kind to him. "Or would you prefer a croissant and tea from that place in France you liked?" he offered with a quirked smile. The thing was, he _could_ probably run there, buy the croissant and tea to go, and then run back. Wouldn't even take all that long if he pushed himself. "And listen to yourself. Miss Prim and Proper, never setting a single toe out of line." he said. "Pfaugh. Who are you and what have you done with Wanda Maximoff?" he mock-threatened. Then in a blur he disappeared from his chair, presumably to go inside and get them both something to eat.
}}

16420/Mean Girls

2024-07-10T13:13:19Z

Kstar: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2024/07/09 |Location=Rec Room - Xavier's School |Synopsis=Alex's introduction to the little Emma's is nothing short of 'yikes'. Clearly the girl's bite is way worse than their bark. Emma taught them well. |Cast of Characters=1702, 210 |pretty=yes }} {{Poses |Poses=:'''{{#var:1702|Stepford Cuckoos (1702)}} has posed:''' The Recreation Room hums with the quiet buzz of various activities, offering a sanctuary of leisure after a long day of..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2024/07/09
|Location=Rec Room - Xavier's School
|Synopsis=Alex's introduction to the little Emma's is nothing short of 'yikes'. Clearly the girl's bite is way worse than their bark. Emma taught them well.
|Cast of Characters=1702, 210
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:1702|Stepford Cuckoos (1702)}} has posed:''' The Recreation Room hums with the quiet buzz of various activities, offering a sanctuary of leisure after a long day of classes. The Stepford Cuckoos, each immersed in her own pastime, create a tableau of elegant relaxation: Phoebe, dressed in a sleek, black outfit that matches her sharp demeanor, is engrossed in a strategy game on one of the consoles. Her eyes flicker with intense focus as her fingers dance over the controller. Esme lounges on a plush couch, flipping through the pages of a high-fashion magazine. Her ensemble, a blend of the latest trends, screams sophistication and power. Sophie, the epitome of practicality, is seated comfortably in a beanbag, absorbed in a thick book on ethics. Her casual outfit mirrors her thoughtful nature. Irma, clad in a flowing, romantic dress, lets her fingers glide over the keys of the room's piano, filling the space with a gentle, melodic tune. Celeste, dressed in trendy yet mature attire, sketches designs in a notebook, her creative mind clearly at work. The tranquility is interrupted by the confident strides of five male students approaching the Cuckoos. Their swagger is evident as they stand before the girls, exuding a bravado fueled by their collective confidence. One of the boys, apparently the leader, steps forward with a charming smile. "Hey, ladies," he begins, his voice oozing with self-assurance. "We were thinking, how about you five join us for a night out? You know, dinner, a movie, maybe some dancing after?" He looks around at his friends, who nod in eager agreement, their own grins matching his. For a brief moment, the Cuckoos exchange glances, their telepathic connection buzzing with shared amusement. Then, in perfect unison, they deliver a harsh, unequivocal, "No." The rejection hits the boys like a physical blow, causing them to flinch visibly. Phoebe is the first to break the silence, her voice laced with sarcasm. "Are you serious? You think we'd go out with you?" Her gaze returns to her game, dismissing them as quickly as they appeared. Esme, not even bothering to lift her eyes from her magazine, adds coolly, "We know all about your little reputations. You think we'd fall for that?" Sophie, always direct and unflinching, closes her book momentarily to look at them. "We can read your minds, you know. The perverted thoughts you're having? Disgusting." Irma stops playing the piano, turning to face the boys with a look of clear disdain. "Ew. Just... no," she says, her voice dripping with revulsion. Finally, Celeste, her gaze icy and unyielding, looks up from her sketchbook. "Honestly, it's pathetic. Do you really think this would work?" she asks, her tone cutting through the air like a knife. With each stinging remark, the boys' confidence crumbles further, their expressions becoming increasingly wounded. The initial bravado they displayed is thoroughly dismantled by the Cuckoos' brutal honesty. Emma trained the well...

:'''{{#var:210|Alex Summers (210)}} has posed:''' Alex was walking down the hallway wearing his standard fare, hiking boots, jeans, and a black unstable molecule t-shirt that fits his muscular chest quite snugly. He got tired of burning off shirts when he had to leap into action, so he normally wears unstable molecule shirts now days. He had been in his old room and grabbed a few things that he expected to need in his planned trip to Genosha. So he carries a duffel bag, strap crossed over his chest and his right shoulder then down his back. Alex saw the 5 boys cross his path and was curious about their intentions. All fluffed up and cocky. Plus, he knew it would be entertaining. He stepped into the rec room doorway when they entered and stood there watching them approach the Cuckoos. In his mind, Alex began reciting the nature channel with David Attenborough or whatever his name is as he narrates the mating rituals of some animal. In this case Alex says in his mind . o ( Here we have the mating practice of the teen mutant boys who can only work in packs because their confidence is low. We see how they approach the females of their species. The 'alpha' mutant boy, being spurned on by his companions, is seen lurching forward toward the 'alpha' of the female mutant girl. He does his mating dance with the cockyness of his chest puffed out, trying to show dominance. Then he offers the mating call of 'do you want to go out with us'. The females chatter amongst themselves in aloof tones and postures and instantly turn him, and his flock of male mutant boys down quite flatly. Yet, it doesn't stop there. The females of the species want to ensure that it never happens again. They lash out with hurtful words that cower the males of the species. Making the males deflate and recoil from the dangerous female mutant girls.) Alex grins broadly. But he doesn't laugh. He's been shot down before. And he knows the pain of rejection. He glances over the Cuckoos and then back to the boys to see what happens next.

:'''{{#var:1702|Stepford Cuckoos (1702)}} has posed:''' The Cuckoos continue to glare at the boys, their expressions growing colder by the second. Suddenly, they all look shocked, their eyes widening in disbelief as they read a particularly offensive thought from the boy who had spoken to them. The girls exchange glances, their disbelief turning into a collective, steely resolve. Phoebe, always the boldest, starts with a chilling smile. "Unless you want to spend the next week walking around like a pen full of roosters, we suggest you not vocalize what we just read." Esme, her voice dripping with disdain, follows up. "You think you're clever, don't you? It's pathetic how you hide behind your bravado and crude thoughts." Sophie, ever the moral compass, adds with a sharp edge, "Respect is earned, not demanded. And you clearly haven't earned any." Irma's voice is softer but no less cutting. "Your behavior is disgusting. You really think anyone would be interested in you after that?" Celeste delivers the final blow, her tone icy. "You need to understand one thing: we are far beyond your league. Don't ever approach us like this again." The boys, already deflating under the barrage of verbal assaults, are visibly shrinking back. The Cuckoos' collective gaze turns even more intense, daggers practically shooting from their eyes. "Get out of our sight, you pervs!" they shout in unison, their voices echoing through the Recreation Room. The boys, thoroughly chastised, scramble to retreat, their confidence shattered.

:'''{{#var:210|Alex Summers (210)}} has posed:''' Alex moves out of the doorway, more into the room but off to the side. He expects the boys to flee past him. The duffel bag is pressed to the wall next to the door facing and he watches the boys scatter. When the boys have sufficiently scattered, Alex - who is still grinning, says, "It's always nice to see young ladies standing up for themselves and putting boys in their places. And yall make it fun to watch." ---- Alex is thinking exactly what he's saying. He's quite happy to see that a pervy boy doesn't get to take advantage of a girl. That there won't be some 'date rape' situation or setup. Because that shit still happens even at Xavier's.

:'''{{#var:1702|Stepford Cuckoos (1702)}} has posed:''' The Cuckoos inspect Alex with a scrutinizing look. Seeing that he is a grown-up and not a school student, they visibly ease up from their previous tension dealing with the boys. Coolly, they mostly return to their activities while speaking. They speak as if one person is talking, occasionally continuing their sentences with a different sister randomly and individually while idly doing what they were doing. With a general sense of ennui, they comment, "We make it a habit to handle overconfident teenage boys who think they can impress us. It's something we learned from our mother, Emma Frost---how to deal with unwanted attention and keep ourselves above it." They express a sense of relief, adding, "It's nice to see not every male is a complete jerk." Then, their attention sharpens with recognition. "Wait a minute, you're Alex Summers, aren't you? Scott Summers' brother. Have you come to teach or be a substitute or something?"

:'''{{#var:210|Alex Summers (210)}} has posed:''' Being recognized as Scott's brother is always a stab to his ego. Living in Scott's shadow has always annoyed Alex. Albeit, he's grown up some and has had his own adventures and things over the years that made him his own man (Earth-1298/Earth X storyline, X-Factor, etc). So it's not as painful as it once was. Alex grins and nods, "Yep. Scott's my brother. As for teaching... No. I taught last year. Classes that most found boring. Geology, Earth Science, and some Archeology. I shared classes with Lorna Dane. She handled most of the Archeology side of things." His tone and thoughts are that he's quite proud of having been a teacher here. But it was also a struggle dealing with the younger kids and their drama. He then adds, "But, we've been gone a few months and now heading down to Genosha for a bit. Gotta put some distance between us and this place." He doesn't talk about vampire troubles, but his mind definitely goes to it.

:'''{{#var:1702|Stepford Cuckoos (1702)}} has posed:''' The Cuckoos, still exuding a general sense of ennui, respond to Alex with a mix of boredom and interest. Their conversation bounces seamlessly from one sister to the next, affirming Alex's disdain for the classes with their own similar disdain. "Geology, Earth Science, and Archeology," Phoebe starts, rolling her eyes, "so dull." "Exactly," Esme continues, her voice dripping with disinterest, "no wonder most found them boring." While they speak, Esme, the most fashion-oriented sister, finds a mirror in the rec room. She shifts into her diamond form, admiring her outfit, checking to see if it pleases her. Contradicting their earlier harsh stance towards the boys, the girls suddenly brighten, their tone turning cheerful. "But you know," Sophie begins, "the only good thing about this school is Nate Grey." "Oh, definitely," Irma chimes in, a rare hint of girlish excitement in her voice. "We're all collectively dating him." They titter like young girls, taking turns talking about Nate. "He's so handsome," Celeste says. "And those eyes," Phoebe adds, sighing. "Not to mention he's just like us," Esme continues, clearly smitten. This train of thought sparks a realization among them. "Wait," Sophie says, her eyes narrowing in thought, "doesn't that make you Nate's uncle?" Their attention shifts back to Alex, curiosity piqued. "You mentioned putting distance between yourself and the school," Phoebe inquires. "Why is that?"

:'''{{#var:210|Alex Summers (210)}} has posed:''' Alex won't bother to address that he loves rocks - however it's boring to everyone else, so teaching the class wasn't all that thrilling for him. Instead, he'll leave that subject alone. Instead, he watches their conversation and hears the name Nate Grey and that they're all dating him. He wonders how that works, but chooses not to even ask because it would be way too much for his mind to comprehend - telepathy and all that stuff. He's grateful that he's pulled back to reality and not the imaginationary world of girls being all dreamy about a guy when he's asked about the distance thing. He's honest, it's the best way, "There is bad blood between the powers that be here in the school and Lorna because Logan can't sniff out an imposter. That Xavier himself violated Lorna's mind without her permission and accused her of wrongdoing. It's a lot of minutiae that I really can't go into cause Lorna is home waiting on me; and I should be heading out." He pushes forward, duffel separating from the wall as he gently turns toward the exit.
}}

16416/Talking With Her Sister

2024-07-10T12:56:51Z

Kstar: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2024/07/08 |Location=Fred's Diner - Mutant Town |Synopsis=Alex reached out to Wanda asking for aid with Lorna and the draculas that have been haunting her. |Cast of Characters=210, 70 |pretty=yes }} {{Poses |Poses=:'''{{#var:210|Alex Summers (210)}} has posed:''' Alex knows family trees. Especially Lorna's. And there's been some wacky mystical bullshit going on that he really needs advice with. So he reached out to Wanda yesterday becau..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2024/07/08
|Location=Fred's Diner - Mutant Town
|Synopsis=Alex reached out to Wanda asking for aid with Lorna and the draculas that have been haunting her.
|Cast of Characters=210, 70
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:210|Alex Summers (210)}} has posed:''' Alex knows family trees. Especially Lorna's. And there's been some wacky mystical bullshit going on that he really needs advice with. So he reached out to Wanda yesterday because she's the one who can probably handle the problem. It was a brief, "Hey, we need to talk about Lorna and draculas." and then set a time and date and now it's meeting time. Alex is found wearing his hiking boots, jeans, and a black unstable molecule t-shirt (which looks like a normal t-shirt, just a little thicker and tighter over his muscular chest). He's already seated at the end boot in the diner. It's an off time, so there is only one other patron sitting at the bar. Elvis is playing on the juke box and having a hunka hunka good time. The waitress, Beth, is standing behind the counter counting her tips from the lunch rush and expecting the dinner rush to be just as good. Behind the kitchen window is Mel, who is waiting for the next order and cleaning up some. In front of Alex are two glasses of water. One on his side, one on the empty other side of the booth. He's expecting Wanda to arrive at any minute.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' As Wanda Maximoff steps into the diner, the soft melody of Elvis's classics melds with the quiet hum of the off-hour ambiance. She's dressed casually, yet her outfit carries an understated elegance: a deep red blouse paired with black jeans, and a light scarf that adds a touch of color, suitable for her vibrant yet complex persona. Her eyes, carrying the wisdom of her tumultuous past and magical prowess, scan the room until they land on Alex. With a warm smile brightening her features, Wanda waves gracefully at Alex from across the diner. Her approach is calm and composed, every step deliberate, reflecting her deep connection to the world's mystical ebbs and flows. As she slides into the booth across from him, her smile softens into a look of genuine concern and affection. "Hello, Alex," she greets him, her voice carrying a comforting, melodic tone. She reaches for the glass of water, her movements smooth and sure, a subtle indicator of her control over both her powers and her presence. "It's good to see you under, albeit unusual, but less dire circumstances. How have you been holding up with everything going on?" Her inquiry is sincere, seeking to bridge any emotional distance with genuine concern, recognizing the weight of their shared and individual burdens. Her eyes hold his, steady and understanding, ready to delve into the complexities of their meeting but first ensuring the personal connection remains acknowledged. This blend of personal warmth and readiness to face mystical challenges encapsulates Wanda's approach to her relationships---deeply personal yet invariably tied to the broader strokes of fate and magic that paint their lives.

:'''{{#var:210|Alex Summers (210)}} has posed:''' When she enters, he will slide out of the booth to stand and await her approach. He offers a simple, "Hey." as she slides into the booth and he follows suit. It's clear that he's pleased to see her. Yet, not all smiles. Instead, he carries the deep seriousness that the moment should contain. He slides into the booth and joins her, seated across that he may keep an eye contact. His reply is simple, "I'm as good as I can be. And thank you for coming. This really means a lot. You're really the only one who can sort out this situation and it means a lot to me - and will to Lorna when her mind is clear; again."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' As Alex resumes his seat, Wanda's expression shifts subtly, the light of curiosity and concern flickering in her eyes. The mention of Lorna, clouded in ambiguity about her mental clarity, draws a faint crease of worry between Wanda's brows. Her posture, previously relaxed, tightens slightly---a visual cue of her escalating concern. "Alex, what's happened to Lorna?" Wanda's voice carries a mix of alarm and urgency, cutting directly to the heart of her fears. "When you mention her needing to be clear again, it sounds serious. Has she been harmed?" Her hands, resting on the tabletop, clench gently, betraying her rising anxiety. Hearing Dracula's involvement in the situation sends a chill through her, the name alone conjuring a slew of dangerous implications. With a slight lean forward, reducing the space between them as if to underscore the gravity of her next question, she continues, "Has Dracula... bitten her?" The question hangs heavily in the air, laden with all the dire possibilities that such an event could entail. Her gaze locks onto Alex's, searching for answers, her eyes a mirror to the storm of protective instincts and magical responsibilities swirling within her. Wanda's readiness to confront whatever mystical or malevolent challenges might arise is palpable, her commitment to her sister's safety overriding all else.

:'''{{#var:210|Alex Summers (210)}} has posed:''' His own tension could be evident within his shoulders and the tightness of his jaw muscles. His breath is also deliberate, focused. There's a slight nod of his head. His blue eyes seem darker. He keeps his voice low when he shares, "A few months ago she encountered a vampire coven. One of the vampires took her form; pretending to be her at the school. But it basically turned everyone at the school against her and drove her off. There was a huge mistaken identity thing going on. So she and I moved into my apartment here in Mutant Town. Then, a couple of weeks back, she disappeared. She showed up a week later and had been bitten. She was really out of it. Both physically and mentally. And seemed like she'd escaped, not freed. So I took her back to the school to have Hank check her out.." He clarifies, "Beast." He continues, "He's an MD and the tech at the school is pretty advanced. He realized there was a venom in her blood. Something that made her want to be bitten more, and submissive. He came up with an antidote, helped her purge the venom, and Nate Grey helped her out with some telepathic stuff. No idea what that was all about. Anyway, she seemed normal until two nights ago when she wanted to go to this club to see this goth band called the Bats or something batty. She's never listened to this stuff before. And she was also dressing the part. We ran into Angelica Jones there, Firestar and the three of us listened. When the band started up, Lorna went into this fangirl mode. Anyway, her entire personality was off. She was entranced by the music. Both Angelica and I saw the weirdness of it so I blasted the stage. When the music stopped, Lorna seemed to snap out of her mental fugue, if only for a moment. Then we got the hell out of there. Anyway, yes, the X-Men stated that Dracula was involved, that they encountered several vampires over the last few months and Dracula was at the head of it all. And yes, Lorna was bitten... likely a number of times."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda lets out a heavy sigh, her expression a mosaic of worry and exasperation as she processes Alex's distressing account. Leaning back slightly, she gathers her thoughts before speaking, her tone imbued with both empathy and expertise. "The vampire's bite is not merely physical harm---it embeds a mystical type of virus into the bloodstream, Alex. It's akin to an addiction," she explains, her voice steady, aimed at shedding light on the dark intricacies of their enemy's tactics. "The euphoria that comes with the bite is designed to bond the victim to the vampire, making them more susceptible, more submissive." She pauses, her gaze fixed on Alex, ensuring he understands the gravity of the situation. "In order for Lorna to fully transform into a vampire, she would have to be completely drained of her blood after the virus has integrated into her system. This makes the initial infection and its treatment critical." Her concern deepens as she contemplates the effectiveness of Beast's antidote. "I'm worried about whether Beast's efforts to purge the venom were entirely successful. If Lorna's recent changes in behavior are any indication, the antidote may not have fully worked. It might require a combined effort of medical and mystical intervention, or it might simply be a psychological issue now. Addiction of any kind can profoundly alter one's psyche." Wanda then shifts her attention to the specifics of their predicament. "Could you describe any specific behaviors or symptoms that might indicate whether Lorna is still under the influence of this vampiric enchantment? We need to know if she's showing typical signs of vampirism." Her curiosity piques as she reflects on the incident at the club. "The music's effect on her is particularly curious. It's possible that the vampire who bit her was present on stage, using some form of mystical influence embedded in the performance. Or perhaps there's something more complex at play, a type of enchantment woven through the music itself, aimed at controlling or activating her condition. It's just conjecture and speculation right now, though I should probably do some investigation." Wanda's words trail off as she ponders the implications, her mind racing with the possibilities of magical and mundane solutions, ready to delve deeper into the mystical underpinnings that might be exacerbating Lorna's plight. "I spoke with Dracula not long ago, and he seemed to lament his condition, though it could be a ruse. If she IS still under the influence, there might be something I could do. It may require Stephen's help."

:'''{{#var:210|Alex Summers (210)}} has posed:''' Alex does seem to understand what Wanda is relaying. He gives nods and reflective hums when she touches upon familiar character traits that Lorna has been displaying. "That makes the most sense. That Hank's venom purge could have only covered the chemical aspect of the bite and not the mystical. Which could have caused the relapse behavior and her new addiction for goth music and in particular that band that I blasted." Then when she gets to the part of talking to Dracula... "Hang on. What? Why didn't you kill him? He's like the most evil thing on the planet akin to Sinister, Apocalypse, Hodge and every other evil out there."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda listens attentively to Alex's concerns, her eyes reflecting a depth of understanding that comes from years of navigating the complex moral and mystical landscapes of their world. As Alex mentions the possibility that Hank's treatment might not have addressed the mystical aspects of the bite, Wanda nods thoughtfully. "It's possible that Lorna's sudden shift in taste and behavior could also be a psychological response to the trauma," Wanda muses, her voice calm and thoughtful. "Being exposed to that environment, feeling the euphoric effects of the bite---it could have sparked a curiosity or a phase, as you said. It's not uncommon for survivors to gravitate towards things that remind them of their trauma, sometimes in an attempt to process or control it." When Alex sharply questions her about not eliminating Dracula, Wanda offers a gentle, almost motherly smile, her gaze softening as she seeks to bridge their differing views on justice and responsibility. She sighs softly, conveying both empathy and resolve. "Alex, I understand why you feel that way. Dracula, given his history, could easily be placed alongside the likes of Sinister or Apocalypse," she begins, her tone level but firm. "However, when I encountered him, he was not engaged in any overt acts of evil. In fact, he expressed a strong desire to rid himself of his darker impulses." Her hands fold in front of her, a gesture of sincerity. "It wouldn't have been right to end him based solely on his past, not while he was showing a willingness to change. Moreover, engaging him could have endangered innocent bystanders. We must consider the broader consequences of our actions, especially in such morally gray areas." Wanda's eyes lock onto Alex's, conveying a profound sense of commitment. "Please trust me on this. I plan to have a 'discussion' with Dracula---though it might involve more magical persuasion than words. If he is indeed behind what's happening to Lorna, I assure you, I will deal with him accordingly. We need to handle this carefully, but be assured, I will not let this go unresolved." Her assurance is both a promise and a reminder of her role not just as a powerful witch but as a protector who balances the scales of justice with a deep awareness of the complexities involved

:'''{{#var:210|Alex Summers (210)}} has posed:''' Alex watches her body language and believes that what she says is true. However, that doesn't fix his anxiety or lack of patience on the matter. He still seems pensive, yet soothed by her tone and her demeanor. But also knows that she's the best person for the job and the most powerful in these realms. He intones, "I trust you. And I trust you know what you're doing. Sorry. I'm just really worried about Lorna and worried that she won't get over this; whatever it is. It's not like when Malice took her over. When Malice was kicked out, Lorna became Lorna again." He doesn't question the Dracula part. And he suspects she knows what's best in that situation. But it's clear that he would have simply tried to immolate the vampire on sight. He then asks, "So what's the next move? What do I need to do?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda's expression softens with understanding as she perceives the depth of Alex's concern and his barely contained urgency. She extends her hand across the table, a gesture of solace and support. Her touch hovers just above his hand, offering him the choice to accept this comfort should he wish. "Dealing with vampires and their afflictions is always complex, Alex," Wanda begins, her voice gentle yet laced with the gravity of their predicament. "The influence of a vampire's bite isn't easily reversed, and the process can be long and fraught with uncertainty. Over time, there's hope that Lorna might return to her true self, as the mystical and psychological effects wane." She maintains a respectful proximity, her hand still poised in an offer of comfort, acknowledging his autonomy in seeking physical reassurance. "For now, the best course of action is to be there for her. Lorna needs your support, perhaps now more than ever. After such a traumatic experience, the familiar presence of family can be incredibly grounding." Wanda's gaze holds steady, conveying both the seriousness of the situation and her confidence in their approach. "Keep a watchful eye on her, and on any unusual activities or individuals that seem overly interested in her. We must be vigilant. Vampires are often persistent, and they might attempt to draw her back into their fold. We need to be prepared to protect her from further harm." Her advice is pragmatic, focusing on immediate and practical steps they can take while also hinting at the complexities that lie ahead. Her approach combines empathy, strategic thinking, and a readiness to confront whatever challenges may arise in their fight to restore Lorna's well-being.

:'''{{#var:210|Alex Summers (210)}} has posed:''' The touch is accepted. His hands are incredibly warm, almost as if he's running a fever. But it's common for him to be warm, all that cosmic energy and fiery plasma inside of him. He listens intently with the description of how the process takes place and how much of a challenge it is. He gives a gentle sigh and then a squeeze of her hand before releasing and then he leans back, out of reach. His hands drop into his lap. Alex grunts and then says, "Then would it be reasonable to think that if I take her to Genosha, that it would help keep her safe and outside the influence of whatever this is? Or should we stay here and near you?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda's response is thoughtful, her expression conveying a deep sense of responsibility as she contemplates the options laid out by Alex. She gently taps her fingers on the tabletop, a subtle, rhythmic motion that reflects her processing of the situation. "Currently, I'm staying with Stephen Strange at the Sanctum Sanctorum," Wanda begins, her voice steady and calm. "It's a fortified place, steeped in protective magic, which could offer Lorna a safe haven from external influences." Her hands gesture subtly towards an invisible map, illustrating the protective barrier she describes. "However, Genosha is also a strong option," she continues, her fingers now pausing to clasp together, signifying the solidity of this choice. "It's secluded and secure, potentially just as effective in keeping her out of harm's way while we work through this." Leaning slightly forward, Wanda locks eyes with Alex, ensuring her next words carry the weight of their importance. "Whichever location you choose, it's critical to keep a vigilant watch over her. The chance of relapse is not insignificant, and we must be prepared to act swiftly should she attempt to slip away or if she shows signs of falling back under the vampire's influence." Her demeanor is both reassuring and commanding, a balance of empathy for their shared concern and a strategic approach to dealing with the mystical threats they face. Wanda's advice is clear: choose a safe location but remain alert and ready to intervene at a moment's notice.

:'''{{#var:210|Alex Summers (210)}} has posed:''' "Flight risk. Gotcha." He says with an understanding tone and a clear intent on what he must do should the need arise. Too bad he can't fly very well - and Lorna can fly amazingly well. He nods while pondering the choices. He admits, "There's no way I could stop her from leaving any location if she really wanted to. Hell, she could be out the door right now, for all I know. But the remoteness of Genosha and her father being around - that'd probably be best. Cause he can ground her if need be." Then he realizes the double entendre of his remark of grounding. And he clarifies, "As in anchor her down. Not send her to her room." and then he shifts physically and shifts mental gears, "I'll make it happen. I'll reach out to Mags and he'll be convincing for us to come visit."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda nods thoughtfully as Alex outlines his plan, her expression a mix of resolve and concern. She leans back slightly, her gaze fixed on him with an intensity that underscores the seriousness of the situation. "If Lorna does manage to escape, please let me know immediately," she instructs, her tone firm but supportive. "I'll do everything in my power to locate her. With my resources and connections, especially with Stephen, we should be able to track her down efficiently." Wanda then pauses, her fingers tracing a slow circle on the tabletop as she contemplates the next steps. "I think it might be wise for me to examine Lorna myself before you take her to Genosha. There could still be residual effects from the enzyme that need to be addressed." Her eyes meet Alex's, conveying her readiness to help. "I'll need a bit of time to prepare the necessary spells and perhaps consult with Stephen to ensure we have a comprehensive approach." She gives a reassuring smile, her posture relaxed yet alert, signaling her commitment to helping Lorna and ensuring Alex feels supported in this difficult time. "Let's plan for that. Once I've had a chance to assess her condition, we can better prepare for any potential challenges that might arise while she's in Genosha." Wanda's suggestion to check on Lorna herself shows her proactive approach to dealing with the mystical complications of the situation, emphasizing her role not only as a powerful ally but also as a caring figure deeply invested in the well-being of her family.

:'''{{#var:210|Alex Summers (210)}} has posed:''' Alex seems to be put at ease with that suggestion and he gives an affirming nod, "Definitely; on both counts. I'll reach out to Magneto and then start the prep work for the trip. That'll give you plenty of time to do what you need to do and link up with Lorna. We're just across the street, fifth floor, apartment 12 - you can see it from here." and he points. "Feel free to just swing by when you're ready. I'll make sure we're there. And yeah... I'll reach out immediately if something goes wrong." His tone seems final, as if there's a plan and the two of you are wrapping up the situation. He pulls money out of his pocket and leaves it on the table. No food was had. Just water and there seemed to be no intention of ordering. He just wanted some place to meet Wanda and share the situation.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda nods in agreement with the finalized plan, her expression resolute yet imbued with a compassionate warmth. She rises from the booth, smoothing the fabric of her casual attire as she prepares to leave. "Thank you, Alex, for bringing this to my attention. It's crucial that we tackle these issues together," she says, her voice carrying a reassuring confidence. "I'm ready to assist and will make preparations to meet with Lorna as soon as possible. You have my word; we'll figure this out together." She steps toward the exit, pausing briefly to offer Alex a supportive smile. "I'll swing by your apartment when I'm ready. Expect me soon. And remember, any sign of trouble, don't hesitate to call. We need to stay one step ahead." With a final nod, Wanda makes her way out of the diner, her demeanor reflecting a blend of determination and the burden of responsibility. As she disappears from view, her figure is a symbol of the resolve and unity needed to face the supernatural challenges ahead.

:'''{{#var:210|Alex Summers (210)}} has posed:''' He'll stand as she does, sliding out of the booth and standing with the lingerings of a concerned appearance. Yet, he's way more comfortable now than he was when she first got here. He's got a plan. They have a plan. And the plan involves a really powerful sister witch of witchness which really helps his outlook. He gives a nod and a simple, "Thank you, Wanda." as she departs. Then he walks over to the counter and hits up the waitress to place an order to-go for Lorna - the other thing he came for.
}}

16323/Magic in Milan

2024-06-21T18:18:34Z

Kstar:

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2024/05/30
|Location=Sanctum Santorum - Third Floor
|Synopsis=Doctor Strange finds Wanda preparing to go on a night on the town, and instead takes her on a date to Milan of all places, while Wanda enlists the Sorcerer Supreme in her efforts to save Count Dracula
|Cast of Characters=70, 71
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' The sun has set to dusk about a half an hour ago, and it is set to be a very lovely evening complete with warm weather and a full set of stars overhead. The sanctum is almost still, save for the presence of Wanda Maximoff, who has found herself a reflecting mirror to model in front of. Initially she looks a bit frustrated, with the lovely purple evening gown that she's wearing. It's beautiful, yet doesn't seem to be what she's looking for. "Mnh, no. This won't do." she shakes her head and strokes her hands fluidly through the air while they illuminate with her signature scarlet power, like she is swiping a picture on a cellphone. He dress transmutes to another one, this time white, and a different style than the other one. Doesn't look like she likes that one either by the frown on her face. "No." she purses her lips. Third time is a charm, as she manipulates the forces of probability to its finest point. The dress that transmutes is a vision of elegance and sophistication, crafted from the finest scarlet silk that shimmers with every movement. The bodice hugs the Wanda's figure perfectly, featuring intricate lace detailing and a subtle sweetheart neckline that adds a touch of timeless romance. The waistline is cinched gracefully, flowing into a full, floor-length skirt that seems to cascade like a waterfall of rich crimson hues. The highlight of this stunning creation is the unique sash, made from the same luxurious scarlet fabric. The sash drapes gracefully over the shoulders and down the arms, attaching delicately to a loop that fit over a finger on each hand. This design creates an ethereal, almost magical effect, as if the dress and the wearer were one fluid, flowing entity. Each movement caused the sash to ripple and dance, adding an extra layer of sophistication and charm. The back of the dress is equally enchanting, with a low-cut back adorned with a series of elegant buttons that run down to the waist. The dress is complemented by subtle, sparkling embellishments that caught the light, making the entire ensemble glow with a warm, inviting brilliance. This scarlet dress is the epitome of grace and beauty, perfect for a lady of refinement and poise.

:'''{{#var:71|Doctor Strange (71)}} has posed:''' It takes *quite* the practitioner of magic to cast without the good Doctor's notice. The sun had long since set to dusk, and Strange's meditations were mildly interrupted by Wanda's casting. As Strange exits his room and into the hallway, adorned in his usual storm blue robes, he can't help but notice Wanda Maximoff standing in front of a conjured mirror, as she transmutes her dress from purple...to white...and finally? To the scarlet one that adorns her body now. He watches the transformation in front of him as a masterpiece of elegant design forms right in front of him. It's only when such a ethereal design is finished does Strange approach, her low-cut back may feel the warmth of a gentle touch, if she hadn't noticed his presence already. "You look beautiful, Wanda." The words spoken softly...as softly as one would speak to their lover.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' With the completion of the final dress, Wanda moves and checks the angles and the fitting, doing a turn to get a look at the back, "Yes, perfect!" she elates, testing out the flow and wear of the garment. She may have initially sensed his presence, though preoccupied with her attire, Wanda had neglected to speak until he does, "Why thank you, Stephen. I'm glad you approve." Wanda smiles, looking pleased with herself. "It is geared to be a rather enchanting evening. I thought I might try to get out a bit. Perhaps catch a little dancing, and a stroll under the stars. So far, by myself, which is not an issue. Every now and again, one should treat themselves."

:'''{{#var:71|Doctor Strange (71)}} has posed:''' Approve he does. She looked as though the first blooming flower of Spring. Her radiant beauty was beyond anything that Stephen had ever seen before. There's a softness in his eyes when she smiles, when she expresses such tremendous joy. He's seen her in the pit of despair before. It's...good to see good times on her. She wishes to go out dancing? "Well, if you're going to go out dancing, perhaps I would be a good partner. It's been a moment and my hands aren't what they used to be, but.." Stephen smiles at her. "How about a date? Tonight? Treating ourselves, as you say?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Flattered initially, The Scarlet Witch's expression turned to one of mild and pleasant surprise at Stephen Strange's suggestion for a date. Her plans were simply to go out on the town by herself and see where the night would take her. So many opportunities awaited such a lovely woman on an evening like this in the city. The silk fabric shimmered with her every move, the unique sash draped gracefully over her shoulders and attaching delicately to her fingers flowing. She turned her head to look back at him, quirking a brow. "Really?" she asked. Her expression then melted into a smile. "I couldn't refuse such an offer, not that I'd want to. A date sounds fantastic. I was thinking perhaps Paris, or Milan, maybe even Greece. I thought about choosing randomly, but if you would like to take the lead..." She offered her hand to him, the scarlet sash flowing like a delicate stream of crimson between them.

:'''{{#var:71|Doctor Strange (71)}} has posed:''' She said yes. Her hand extended, she softens him further with her admittance that she wouldn't refuse him. His own hand, scarred and damaged, lifts and gently takes her hand in his own, the warmth like a sparking electricity through his body as he meets her eyes, a flick of his free hand and his storm-blue robes become a fine three-piece black suit complete with white undershirt, nice watch, and excellent shoes. He couldn't help but smile as she speaks of Milan or Paris or even Greece. "How about Greece? I hear the islands are lovely this time of year." He gently brings her knuckles to his lips, as though to press a gentle kiss there if she might allow, all while his hand gestures in a swirl, creating a swirling portal of eldritch energy and sparks.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda's heart flutters as Stephen's hand, roughened by his many battles, envelops her own with a surprising tenderness. The touch sends anticipation down her spine, mingling with the warmth that his proximity always kindles within her. As he meets her gaze, she sees the depth of his sincerity reflected in his eyes, a softness that contrasts beautifully with his usually stoic demeanor. When his storm-blue robes transform into a perfectly tailored black suit with a flick of his wrist, Wanda smiles in admiration. The transformation is seamless, highlighting his elegance and the air of sophistication that always surrounds him. She lets out a soft, appreciative sigh, her smile growing as she nods at his suggestion. "Greece sounds absolutely enchanting. The islands under the stars, the soft whispers of the waves... it's perfect." As Stephen lifts her hand to his lips, Wanda feels her breath catch. The gesture is old-fashioned, yet it stirs something deep within her, a romanticism she rarely allows herself to indulge in. The gentle press of his lips against her knuckles sends a wave of warmth through her, and she can't help but blush slightly, her eyes never leaving his. The swirling portal of eldritch energy materializes beside them, casting flickering shadows across the room and illuminating their faces with an otherworldly glow. Wanda glances at the portal, then back at Stephen, her excitement palpable. "Shall we?" she asks softly, her voice filled with anticipation. "An evening in Greece, just the two of us... it sounds like a dream." Her free hand lightly touches the edge of the portal, feeling the energy coursing through it. "Thank you, Stephen," she murmurs, her voice tender. "For making this evening magical." She steps closer, ready to embark on this enchanting journey with him, her heart full of hope and excitement for the night ahead.

:'''{{#var:71|Doctor Strange (71)}} has posed:''' And together....they connect. "I know the perfect place." Stephen's smile slowly grows upon the sight of her, softening in the face of her warmth. Her blush is a sight to behold as that pink flush races across her cheeks, the flickering light of the portal casting them in an otherworldly glow. This would be a night to remember, Strange had thought...it would be the perfect evening for both of them. "Then I'm happy to ensure that this dream comes true." He gives her hand a gentle squeeze and as she stepped closer, he began to move through the portal with Wanda in tow. When they emerge? They step onto the island of Santorini, the white buildings and blue roofs illuminated by the orange-casted light of the sunset. The once-active volcanic island now of such beautiful scenery and life and few could dare compare. People move through the streets as a grand celebration is occurring. No doubt someone has gotten married or perhaps one of their own has achieved a great feat.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' As they step through the portal, Wanda feels the exhilarating sensation of traversing through space and time, her hand firmly held in Stephen's. Emerging on the other side, her eyes widen in awe at the breathtaking sight before her. The island of Santorini unfurls like a dreamscape, its white buildings and blue roofs bathed in the warm, golden hues of the setting sun. The air is filled with the fragrant scent of blooming flowers and the distant sound of joyful music, hinting at the celebration taking place. Wanda's heart swells with emotion as she takes in the vibrant scene. The picturesque setting is almost surreal, each detail more enchanting than the last. She turns to Stephen, her eyes shimmering with gratitude and affection. "It's perfect, Stephen. Absolutely perfect," she murmurs, her voice filled with genuine appreciation. The soft blush that had colored her cheeks deepens, the romantic ambiance amplifying her feelings. Walking hand in hand through the bustling streets, Wanda can feel the energy of the celebration around them. Laughter and music fill the air, mingling with the clinking of glasses and the happy chatter of the locals. The atmosphere is infectious, and Wanda can't help but smile, feeling a sense of peace and happiness she hasn't experienced in a long time. She looks up at Stephen, her heart fluttering with a mix of excitement and affection. "Thank you for this, Stephen. For making this evening so magical," she says softly, her fingers intertwining with his. The celebration seems to welcome them into its fold, the vibrant colors and lively sounds creating a tapestry of joy and festivity. Wanda's dress shimmers in the twilight, the scarlet fabric catching the light and reflecting it back in dazzling patterns. She feels like she is part of the enchantment, her every movement adding to the magic of the night. As they continue to explore the island, she feels a deeper connection to Stephen, their shared experience weaving a new chapter in their story. This night, under the Santorini sky, feels like the beginning of something truly special. Yet, amidst the joy and the enchanting surroundings, a shadow from the past lingers in her mind. She recalls her encounter with Count Dracula, the weight of the promise she made to him pressing against her consciousness. Wanda's expression shifts subtly, a flicker of concern mingling with her happiness. She takes a deep breath and turns to Stephen, her eyes earnest. "Stephen, there's something I need to talk to you about," she begins, her voice soft but serious. "Just the other night, I had an encounter with Count Dracula at an art gallery. The exchange was rather pleasant. He shared with me his desire to be freed from his curse, to have his soul restored. It's a noble cause, and I promised to help him. But I can't do it alone." She pauses, searching his face for understanding. "Will you help me in this, Stephen? I told him I would try to round up powerful and knowledgeable mystics to try and find a way to lift Dracula's curse and return his soul?" Her plea hangs in the air, a poignant contrast to the festive atmosphere around them. Wanda's eyes are filled with hope and determination, her hand still holding his as she awaits his response, the future of her promise to Dracula resting in his capable hands.

:'''{{#var:71|Doctor Strange (71)}} has posed:''' Wanda's firm grip on Stephen's hand is not repelled or pushed away. In fact, she'll feel his fingers tighten around her own even as they pass through time and space. When they arrive on the other side and that beautiful sight of the Santorini islands come into view, Stephen's gaze softens as he looks at the most beautiful sunset in the world...but that is nothing in comparison to the woman who stands beside him, her eyes alight with curiosity and warmth around her, even as her scarlet dress hovers around her as though in a constant dance. When she looks upon him, there's gratitude and affection in her eyes...a feeling mirrored in Stephen's own dark hues as he regards her with a complete, deep fondness. "I'm glad, Wanda." His thumb brushes the back of her hand affectionately. "If you ask me? This was long overdo." He winks at her, and together, they walk through the streets of the infectious atmosphere as plates are shattered against the ground amongst cries of 'OPA!' and wines are indulged, people dance even in the streets, some without the comfort of shoes. And yet, they move together...and Stephen's cheeks darken when he feels her fingers intertwine with his own. It connects them, it binds them in a way. "Anything for you, Wanda." He tells her with a kindness in his eyes. Though as they walk, he notices how her dress shimmers in the twilight, like sparkling stars in it's dazzling patterns. "You have no idea how beautiful you are." He remarks to her in a soft tone of voice, yet as they move, and as their connection grows, she tells him something important to her. "What's wrong?" He asks, his voice tinged with worry and concern. She speaks to him of Dracula, that infernal creature who has been both friend and thorn for as long as Strange has known him. Wanda shares her heart, telling him that she wishes to help him free him from his curse. There's a moment of silence from Strange as he slows to a stop, meeting her eyes as he sighed softly. "To return a soul is no small feat, especially from the one who would have it. I warn you to be careful, Wanda. Dracula has a long history of manipulating beautiful women." He meets her eyes then, softening them, perhaps against his better wisdom. "But...while I cannot guarantee success...I promise to help."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda feels a surge of warmth as Stephen's grip tightens around her hand, their connection deepening with each step they take together. The sight of Santorini's picturesque beauty, with its white buildings and blue roofs bathed in the golden hues of the setting sun, fills her with a sense of awe. Yet, the magic of the moment pales in comparison to the man beside her, his gaze filled with affection and admiration. As they walk through the bustling streets, the vibrant celebration around them adds a lively backdrop to their intimate conversation. The cries of "OPA!" and the sound of shattering plates blend with the joyous laughter of the locals brings laughter to her lips. The infectious energy of the celebration seeps into Wanda's heart, her steps light and graceful. Her scarlet dress dances with every movement, shimmering like the stars in the twilight, drawing appreciative glances from passersby. Wanda chuckles softly at Stephen's words, nodding in agreement. "Yes, Stephen, this is long overdue," she says with a smile. "And I wouldn't want to be here with anyone else but you." She feels the warmth of his thumb brushing the back of her hand, the gesture intimate and comforting. "Thank you for the compliments," she continues, her eyes twinkling with genuine appreciation. "You yourself are rather dashing. That suit suits you perfectly, and I believe people agree." Wanda gestures to a group of young local ladies giggling and whispering to each other about him while blushing. Her heart swells with happiness as they continue to stroll through the streets, Stephen's kind words making her feel cherished and valued. "I'm very vigilant with Count Dracula, always keeping in mind the monster he has become because of his curse," Wanda reassures, her voice steady. "But I believe that even he deserves redemption. At one time, he was a human who had a soul, and the curse persists because that soul was lost. It's my theory that the key to discovering a cure is to locate and re-install his soul." A sense of relief washes over Wanda as she squeezes Stephen's hand once more, her gratitude evident. "Thank you, Stephen. With your help, I feel more hopeful about this endeavor. Together I believe we will eventually we will succeed." Which reminds her of something. "It sort of correlates with a guest that dropped by just before my encounter with Dracula. Of all people, Superman sought me out, asking about the ins and outs of immortality. It was a rather interesting discussion." Wanda leans closer, her voice filled with determination and affection. "So tell me something. I'm curious as to what young Stephen Strange was like."

:'''{{#var:71|Doctor Strange (71)}} has posed:'''They move together through the streets. Even Stephen, in all of his serious weight-of-the-world demeanor that often weighs on his shoulders, glances to the beautiful Wanda Maximoff beside him, giving her the warmest smile in light of how she looks at him. How she stays near and close to him, how his thumb brushes against the back of her hand affectionately. Each step they take is a love letter, carefully penned and sent. Each unspoken word is a novel of sonnets and poems. He keeps his eyes on her in that moment. "There's no one else I could possibly be here with than you." Stephen speaks so softly to her it's almost like an admission of love. Told that other women might find him dashing, he turns his head to look at the group of young ladies who seem to be giggling when they look upon him. "Alas, I'm already taken by the best." He turns to look at Wanda then in that moment, though hearing that she's vigilant with Dracula and is aware that the man will not be able to control his darker urges, he gives her that nod. "I trust you. I will help." He restates for her, though as that hand squeezes his own, his cheeks flare with red. "Superman? That is a surprise...to what purpose did he seek immortality?" He questions her, though as she leans closer, Stephen rather boldly leans forward to nuzzle her nose with his own. "Young Stephen?" He tilts his head. "You wouldn't have liked him. He was arrogant, selfish, and greedy. He hadn't yet learned many much-needed lessons."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''Wanda walks beside Stephen, her heart light with the joy of his company. The streets of Milan seem to glow with a romantic warmth, each step they take together feeling like a dance. She feels his thumb brush against the back of her hand, a simple gesture that speaks volumes. Each step, each glance, is a silent affirmation of the bond they share, a connection that feels as if it transcends the ordinary. When Stephen turns to her with that warm smile, Wanda feels her heart flutter. His words, soft and almost like an admission of love, send a pleasant shiver down her spine. "There's no one else I could possibly be here with than you." She smiles back at him, her eyes shining with affection. "And there's no one else I'd rather be here with than you, Stephen." As he glances at the giggling group of young ladies and declares himself taken, Wanda feels a surge of warmth and pride. She looks at him with a playful glint in her eye. "You're quite the charmer, Doctor Strange. I'm glad to have you all to myself." Hearing his reassurance about Dracula, she nods, her expression serious yet grateful. "Thank you, Stephen. Your trust means the world to me. I promise to be careful." She squeezes his hand, feeling a comforting strength in his presence. When he asks about Superman, Wanda's eyes twinkle with a mix of amusement and thoughtfulness. "He sought immortality to ensure he could always protect those he loved, but it came at a great cost. It's a reminder that even the best intentions can lead us down dark paths." As Stephen leans forward to nuzzle her nose with his own, Wanda's heart skips a beat. The tender gesture feels intimate, a quiet declaration of the affection between them. She chuckles softly at his self-deprecating remark. "Young Stephen might have been arrogant and selfish, but the man standing beside me now is anything but. You've grown, learned, and become someone truly remarkable. And I'm grateful to share this moment with you." She leans in closer, her lips brushing softly against his cheek. "Here's to more moments like this, Stephen. To us."

:'''{{#var:71|Doctor Strange (71)}} has posed:'''The streets of Santorini or the streets of Milan or the heights of Paris... Wherever they might go, Strange is just happy to have Wanda with him. The bond they share is such that those witnessing them can easily see the affection they have for one another as a bonded pair who have gone through more trials and tribulations together than the average people. Yet, Wanda's radiance is not without notice, such as the way her dress moves to and fro when she walks, or the flowing waves of her hair or the way she looks at him with wonder in her eyes. What on earth did Stephen do right for her to look upon him and make such a choice? "If I am the charmer, you are easily the written word." For wherefore can the tongue draw it's strength than with the pen? Though she promises him to be careful and his nod is a careful one, drawing Wanda just a hair closer to himself if she allows. "Immortality always has a cost. Even through my experiences as the Sorcerer Supreme, my immortality relied on defeating death...and were I to lose...the cost outweighs every benefit." Strange remarks. "I'm glad you were able to speak with him on the matter." Then...their noses nuzzle each other. The soft gesture an intimate one and inviting further, Stephen pulls away just enough to meet her eyes as she speaks such high praises. The flush on his cheeks is a bit more apparent now as Wanda leans in and gives a little brush against his cheek. "Here's to us." He whispers to her...and slowly, he begins to lean in, to brush her soft lips with his own in a sweet kiss.
}}

16323/Magic in Milan

2024-06-21T18:16:24Z

Kstar: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2024/05/30 |Location=Sanctum Santorum - Third Floor |Synopsis=Doctor Strange catches Wanda preparing to go on a night on the town, and instead takes her on a date to Milan of all places. |Cast of Characters=70, 71 |pretty=yes }} {{Poses |Poses=:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' The sun has set to dusk about a half an hour ago, and it is set to be a very lovely evening complete with warm weather and a full set of stars ove..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2024/05/30
|Location=Sanctum Santorum - Third Floor
|Synopsis=Doctor Strange catches Wanda preparing to go on a night on the town, and instead takes her on a date to Milan of all places.
|Cast of Characters=70, 71
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' The sun has set to dusk about a half an hour ago, and it is set to be a very lovely evening complete with warm weather and a full set of stars overhead. The sanctum is almost still, save for the presence of Wanda Maximoff, who has found herself a reflecting mirror to model in front of. Initially she looks a bit frustrated, with the lovely purple evening gown that she's wearing. It's beautiful, yet doesn't seem to be what she's looking for. "Mnh, no. This won't do." she shakes her head and strokes her hands fluidly through the air while they illuminate with her signature scarlet power, like she is swiping a picture on a cellphone. He dress transmutes to another one, this time white, and a different style than the other one. Doesn't look like she likes that one either by the frown on her face. "No." she purses her lips. Third time is a charm, as she manipulates the forces of probability to its finest point. The dress that transmutes is a vision of elegance and sophistication, crafted from the finest scarlet silk that shimmers with every movement. The bodice hugs the Wanda's figure perfectly, featuring intricate lace detailing and a subtle sweetheart neckline that adds a touch of timeless romance. The waistline is cinched gracefully, flowing into a full, floor-length skirt that seems to cascade like a waterfall of rich crimson hues. The highlight of this stunning creation is the unique sash, made from the same luxurious scarlet fabric. The sash drapes gracefully over the shoulders and down the arms, attaching delicately to a loop that fit over a finger on each hand. This design creates an ethereal, almost magical effect, as if the dress and the wearer were one fluid, flowing entity. Each movement caused the sash to ripple and dance, adding an extra layer of sophistication and charm. The back of the dress is equally enchanting, with a low-cut back adorned with a series of elegant buttons that run down to the waist. The dress is complemented by subtle, sparkling embellishments that caught the light, making the entire ensemble glow with a warm, inviting brilliance. This scarlet dress is the epitome of grace and beauty, perfect for a lady of refinement and poise.

:'''{{#var:71|Doctor Strange (71)}} has posed:''' It takes *quite* the practitioner of magic to cast without the good Doctor's notice. The sun had long since set to dusk, and Strange's meditations were mildly interrupted by Wanda's casting. As Strange exits his room and into the hallway, adorned in his usual storm blue robes, he can't help but notice Wanda Maximoff standing in front of a conjured mirror, as she transmutes her dress from purple...to white...and finally? To the scarlet one that adorns her body now. He watches the transformation in front of him as a masterpiece of elegant design forms right in front of him. It's only when such a ethereal design is finished does Strange approach, her low-cut back may feel the warmth of a gentle touch, if she hadn't noticed his presence already. "You look beautiful, Wanda." The words spoken softly...as softly as one would speak to their lover.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' With the completion of the final dress, Wanda moves and checks the angles and the fitting, doing a turn to get a look at the back, "Yes, perfect!" she elates, testing out the flow and wear of the garment. She may have initially sensed his presence, though preoccupied with her attire, Wanda had neglected to speak until he does, "Why thank you, Stephen. I'm glad you approve." Wanda smiles, looking pleased with herself. "It is geared to be a rather enchanting evening. I thought I might try to get out a bit. Perhaps catch a little dancing, and a stroll under the stars. So far, by myself, which is not an issue. Every now and again, one should treat themselves."

:'''{{#var:71|Doctor Strange (71)}} has posed:''' Approve he does. She looked as though the first blooming flower of Spring. Her radiant beauty was beyond anything that Stephen had ever seen before. There's a softness in his eyes when she smiles, when she expresses such tremendous joy. He's seen her in the pit of despair before. It's...good to see good times on her. She wishes to go out dancing? "Well, if you're going to go out dancing, perhaps I would be a good partner. It's been a moment and my hands aren't what they used to be, but.." Stephen smiles at her. "How about a date? Tonight? Treating ourselves, as you say?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Flattered initially, The Scarlet Witch's expression turned to one of mild and pleasant surprise at Stephen Strange's suggestion for a date. Her plans were simply to go out on the town by herself and see where the night would take her. So many opportunities awaited such a lovely woman on an evening like this in the city. The silk fabric shimmered with her every move, the unique sash draped gracefully over her shoulders and attaching delicately to her fingers flowing. She turned her head to look back at him, quirking a brow. "Really?" she asked. Her expression then melted into a smile. "I couldn't refuse such an offer, not that I'd want to. A date sounds fantastic. I was thinking perhaps Paris, or Milan, maybe even Greece. I thought about choosing randomly, but if you would like to take the lead..." She offered her hand to him, the scarlet sash flowing like a delicate stream of crimson between them.

:'''{{#var:71|Doctor Strange (71)}} has posed:''' She said yes. Her hand extended, she softens him further with her admittance that she wouldn't refuse him. His own hand, scarred and damaged, lifts and gently takes her hand in his own, the warmth like a sparking electricity through his body as he meets her eyes, a flick of his free hand and his storm-blue robes become a fine three-piece black suit complete with white undershirt, nice watch, and excellent shoes. He couldn't help but smile as she speaks of Milan or Paris or even Greece. "How about Greece? I hear the islands are lovely this time of year." He gently brings her knuckles to his lips, as though to press a gentle kiss there if she might allow, all while his hand gestures in a swirl, creating a swirling portal of eldritch energy and sparks.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda's heart flutters as Stephen's hand, roughened by his many battles, envelops her own with a surprising tenderness. The touch sends anticipation down her spine, mingling with the warmth that his proximity always kindles within her. As he meets her gaze, she sees the depth of his sincerity reflected in his eyes, a softness that contrasts beautifully with his usually stoic demeanor. When his storm-blue robes transform into a perfectly tailored black suit with a flick of his wrist, Wanda smiles in admiration. The transformation is seamless, highlighting his elegance and the air of sophistication that always surrounds him. She lets out a soft, appreciative sigh, her smile growing as she nods at his suggestion. "Greece sounds absolutely enchanting. The islands under the stars, the soft whispers of the waves... it's perfect." As Stephen lifts her hand to his lips, Wanda feels her breath catch. The gesture is old-fashioned, yet it stirs something deep within her, a romanticism she rarely allows herself to indulge in. The gentle press of his lips against her knuckles sends a wave of warmth through her, and she can't help but blush slightly, her eyes never leaving his. The swirling portal of eldritch energy materializes beside them, casting flickering shadows across the room and illuminating their faces with an otherworldly glow. Wanda glances at the portal, then back at Stephen, her excitement palpable. "Shall we?" she asks softly, her voice filled with anticipation. "An evening in Greece, just the two of us... it sounds like a dream." Her free hand lightly touches the edge of the portal, feeling the energy coursing through it. "Thank you, Stephen," she murmurs, her voice tender. "For making this evening magical." She steps closer, ready to embark on this enchanting journey with him, her heart full of hope and excitement for the night ahead.

:'''{{#var:71|Doctor Strange (71)}} has posed:''' And together....they connect. "I know the perfect place." Stephen's smile slowly grows upon the sight of her, softening in the face of her warmth. Her blush is a sight to behold as that pink flush races across her cheeks, the flickering light of the portal casting them in an otherworldly glow. This would be a night to remember, Strange had thought...it would be the perfect evening for both of them. "Then I'm happy to ensure that this dream comes true." He gives her hand a gentle squeeze and as she stepped closer, he began to move through the portal with Wanda in tow. When they emerge? They step onto the island of Santorini, the white buildings and blue roofs illuminated by the orange-casted light of the sunset. The once-active volcanic island now of such beautiful scenery and life and few could dare compare. People move through the streets as a grand celebration is occurring. No doubt someone has gotten married or perhaps one of their own has achieved a great feat.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' As they step through the portal, Wanda feels the exhilarating sensation of traversing through space and time, her hand firmly held in Stephen's. Emerging on the other side, her eyes widen in awe at the breathtaking sight before her. The island of Santorini unfurls like a dreamscape, its white buildings and blue roofs bathed in the warm, golden hues of the setting sun. The air is filled with the fragrant scent of blooming flowers and the distant sound of joyful music, hinting at the celebration taking place. Wanda's heart swells with emotion as she takes in the vibrant scene. The picturesque setting is almost surreal, each detail more enchanting than the last. She turns to Stephen, her eyes shimmering with gratitude and affection. "It's perfect, Stephen. Absolutely perfect," she murmurs, her voice filled with genuine appreciation. The soft blush that had colored her cheeks deepens, the romantic ambiance amplifying her feelings. Walking hand in hand through the bustling streets, Wanda can feel the energy of the celebration around them. Laughter and music fill the air, mingling with the clinking of glasses and the happy chatter of the locals. The atmosphere is infectious, and Wanda can't help but smile, feeling a sense of peace and happiness she hasn't experienced in a long time. She looks up at Stephen, her heart fluttering with a mix of excitement and affection. "Thank you for this, Stephen. For making this evening so magical," she says softly, her fingers intertwining with his. The celebration seems to welcome them into its fold, the vibrant colors and lively sounds creating a tapestry of joy and festivity. Wanda's dress shimmers in the twilight, the scarlet fabric catching the light and reflecting it back in dazzling patterns. She feels like she is part of the enchantment, her every movement adding to the magic of the night. As they continue to explore the island, she feels a deeper connection to Stephen, their shared experience weaving a new chapter in their story. This night, under the Santorini sky, feels like the beginning of something truly special. Yet, amidst the joy and the enchanting surroundings, a shadow from the past lingers in her mind. She recalls her encounter with Count Dracula, the weight of the promise she made to him pressing against her consciousness. Wanda's expression shifts subtly, a flicker of concern mingling with her happiness. She takes a deep breath and turns to Stephen, her eyes earnest. "Stephen, there's something I need to talk to you about," she begins, her voice soft but serious. "Just the other night, I had an encounter with Count Dracula at an art gallery. The exchange was rather pleasant. He shared with me his desire to be freed from his curse, to have his soul restored. It's a noble cause, and I promised to help him. But I can't do it alone." She pauses, searching his face for understanding. "Will you help me in this, Stephen? I told him I would try to round up powerful and knowledgeable mystics to try and find a way to lift Dracula's curse and return his soul?" Her plea hangs in the air, a poignant contrast to the festive atmosphere around them. Wanda's eyes are filled with hope and determination, her hand still holding his as she awaits his response, the future of her promise to Dracula resting in his capable hands.

:'''{{#var:71|Doctor Strange (71)}} has posed:''' Wanda's firm grip on Stephen's hand is not repelled or pushed away. In fact, she'll feel his fingers tighten around her own even as they pass through time and space. When they arrive on the other side and that beautiful sight of the Santorini islands come into view, Stephen's gaze softens as he looks at the most beautiful sunset in the world...but that is nothing in comparison to the woman who stands beside him, her eyes alight with curiosity and warmth around her, even as her scarlet dress hovers around her as though in a constant dance. When she looks upon him, there's gratitude and affection in her eyes...a feeling mirrored in Stephen's own dark hues as he regards her with a complete, deep fondness. "I'm glad, Wanda." His thumb brushes the back of her hand affectionately. "If you ask me? This was long overdo." He winks at her, and together, they walk through the streets of the infectious atmosphere as plates are shattered against the ground amongst cries of 'OPA!' and wines are indulged, people dance even in the streets, some without the comfort of shoes. And yet, they move together...and Stephen's cheeks darken when he feels her fingers intertwine with his own. It connects them, it binds them in a way. "Anything for you, Wanda." He tells her with a kindness in his eyes. Though as they walk, he notices how her dress shimmers in the twilight, like sparkling stars in it's dazzling patterns. "You have no idea how beautiful you are." He remarks to her in a soft tone of voice, yet as they move, and as their connection grows, she tells him something important to her. "What's wrong?" He asks, his voice tinged with worry and concern. She speaks to him of Dracula, that infernal creature who has been both friend and thorn for as long as Strange has known him. Wanda shares her heart, telling him that she wishes to help him free him from his curse. There's a moment of silence from Strange as he slows to a stop, meeting her eyes as he sighed softly. "To return a soul is no small feat, especially from the one who would have it. I warn you to be careful, Wanda. Dracula has a long history of manipulating beautiful women." He meets her eyes then, softening them, perhaps against his better wisdom. "But...while I cannot guarantee success...I promise to help."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda feels a surge of warmth as Stephen's grip tightens around her hand, their connection deepening with each step they take together. The sight of Santorini's picturesque beauty, with its white buildings and blue roofs bathed in the golden hues of the setting sun, fills her with a sense of awe. Yet, the magic of the moment pales in comparison to the man beside her, his gaze filled with affection and admiration. As they walk through the bustling streets, the vibrant celebration around them adds a lively backdrop to their intimate conversation. The cries of "OPA!" and the sound of shattering plates blend with the joyous laughter of the locals brings laughter to her lips. The infectious energy of the celebration seeps into Wanda's heart, her steps light and graceful. Her scarlet dress dances with every movement, shimmering like the stars in the twilight, drawing appreciative glances from passersby. Wanda chuckles softly at Stephen's words, nodding in agreement. "Yes, Stephen, this is long overdue," she says with a smile. "And I wouldn't want to be here with anyone else but you." She feels the warmth of his thumb brushing the back of her hand, the gesture intimate and comforting. "Thank you for the compliments," she continues, her eyes twinkling with genuine appreciation. "You yourself are rather dashing. That suit suits you perfectly, and I believe people agree." Wanda gestures to a group of young local ladies giggling and whispering to each other about him while blushing. Her heart swells with happiness as they continue to stroll through the streets, Stephen's kind words making her feel cherished and valued. "I'm very vigilant with Count Dracula, always keeping in mind the monster he has become because of his curse," Wanda reassures, her voice steady. "But I believe that even he deserves redemption. At one time, he was a human who had a soul, and the curse persists because that soul was lost. It's my theory that the key to discovering a cure is to locate and re-install his soul." A sense of relief washes over Wanda as she squeezes Stephen's hand once more, her gratitude evident. "Thank you, Stephen. With your help, I feel more hopeful about this endeavor. Together I believe we will eventually we will succeed." Which reminds her of something. "It sort of correlates with a guest that dropped by just before my encounter with Dracula. Of all people, Superman sought me out, asking about the ins and outs of immortality. It was a rather interesting discussion." Wanda leans closer, her voice filled with determination and affection. "So tell me something. I'm curious as to what young Stephen Strange was like."

:'''{{#var:71|Doctor Strange (71)}} has posed:'''They move together through the streets. Even Stephen, in all of his serious weight-of-the-world demeanor that often weighs on his shoulders, glances to the beautiful Wanda Maximoff beside him, giving her the warmest smile in light of how she looks at him. How she stays near and close to him, how his thumb brushes against the back of her hand affectionately. Each step they take is a love letter, carefully penned and sent. Each unspoken word is a novel of sonnets and poems. He keeps his eyes on her in that moment. "There's no one else I could possibly be here with than you." Stephen speaks so softly to her it's almost like an admission of love. Told that other women might find him dashing, he turns his head to look at the group of young ladies who seem to be giggling when they look upon him. "Alas, I'm already taken by the best." He turns to look at Wanda then in that moment, though hearing that she's vigilant with Dracula and is aware that the man will not be able to control his darker urges, he gives her that nod. "I trust you. I will help." He restates for her, though as that hand squeezes his own, his cheeks flare with red. "Superman? That is a surprise...to what purpose did he seek immortality?" He questions her, though as she leans closer, Stephen rather boldly leans forward to nuzzle her nose with his own. "Young Stephen?" He tilts his head. "You wouldn't have liked him. He was arrogant, selfish, and greedy. He hadn't yet learned many much-needed lessons."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''Wanda walks beside Stephen, her heart light with the joy of his company. The streets of Milan seem to glow with a romantic warmth, each step they take together feeling like a dance. She feels his thumb brush against the back of her hand, a simple gesture that speaks volumes. Each step, each glance, is a silent affirmation of the bond they share, a connection that feels as if it transcends the ordinary. When Stephen turns to her with that warm smile, Wanda feels her heart flutter. His words, soft and almost like an admission of love, send a pleasant shiver down her spine. "There's no one else I could possibly be here with than you." She smiles back at him, her eyes shining with affection. "And there's no one else I'd rather be here with than you, Stephen." As he glances at the giggling group of young ladies and declares himself taken, Wanda feels a surge of warmth and pride. She looks at him with a playful glint in her eye. "You're quite the charmer, Doctor Strange. I'm glad to have you all to myself." Hearing his reassurance about Dracula, she nods, her expression serious yet grateful. "Thank you, Stephen. Your trust means the world to me. I promise to be careful." She squeezes his hand, feeling a comforting strength in his presence. When he asks about Superman, Wanda's eyes twinkle with a mix of amusement and thoughtfulness. "He sought immortality to ensure he could always protect those he loved, but it came at a great cost. It's a reminder that even the best intentions can lead us down dark paths." As Stephen leans forward to nuzzle her nose with his own, Wanda's heart skips a beat. The tender gesture feels intimate, a quiet declaration of the affection between them. She chuckles softly at his self-deprecating remark. "Young Stephen might have been arrogant and selfish, but the man standing beside me now is anything but. You've grown, learned, and become someone truly remarkable. And I'm grateful to share this moment with you." She leans in closer, her lips brushing softly against his cheek. "Here's to more moments like this, Stephen. To us."

:'''{{#var:71|Doctor Strange (71)}} has posed:'''The streets of Santorini or the streets of Milan or the heights of Paris... Wherever they might go, Strange is just happy to have Wanda with him. The bond they share is such that those witnessing them can easily see the affection they have for one another as a bonded pair who have gone through more trials and tribulations together than the average people. Yet, Wanda's radiance is not without notice, such as the way her dress moves to and fro when she walks, or the flowing waves of her hair or the way she looks at him with wonder in her eyes. What on earth did Stephen do right for her to look upon him and make such a choice? "If I am the charmer, you are easily the written word." For wherefore can the tongue draw it's strength than with the pen? Though she promises him to be careful and his nod is a careful one, drawing Wanda just a hair closer to himself if she allows. "Immortality always has a cost. Even through my experiences as the Sorcerer Supreme, my immortality relied on defeating death...and were I to lose...the cost outweighs every benefit." Strange remarks. "I'm glad you were able to speak with him on the matter." Then...their noses nuzzle each other. The soft gesture an intimate one and inviting further, Stephen pulls away just enough to meet her eyes as she speaks such high praises. The flush on his cheeks is a bit more apparent now as Wanda leans in and gives a little brush against his cheek. "Here's to us." He whispers to her...and slowly, he begins to lean in, to brush her soft lips with his own in a sweet kiss.
}}

Scarlet Witch

2024-06-07T17:47:04Z

Kstar:

{{CharacterNew
|NameOnMUSH=Wanda Maximoff
|Color=#333
|TextColor=#c1c1c1
|Char_id=70
|Img=https://www.unitedheroesmush.com/images/7/74/WandaMaximoff.jpg
|FullName=Wanda Maximoff
|Gender=Female
|Species=Mutant
|Theme=Marvel
|Chartype=DFC
|Active=Approved
|Occupation=Witch
|Citizenship=Transia, Genosha, United States
|Residence=New York
|Education=History (MA)
|Groups=[[Mystic Arts-OOC]], [[Avengers]], [[JL Dark]], [[Mutant-OOC]],
|Quote="You break the rules and become a hero. I do it and I become the enemy. That doesn't seem fair."
|PAge=33
|AAge=33
|DOB=31 October 1997
|Height=170 cm (5'7")
|Weight=63 kg (139 lb)
|Hair=Brown
|Eyes=Green
|Actor=Elizabeth Olsen
|Song=
|Profile=Scarlet Witch is a figure of contradictions. Earning a degree of infamy as an early ally of the mutant Brotherhood leader Magneto, a villainous figure to many, she and her brother turned from his service and joined the Avengers in some of their transitional years. As a member of the team, she has proven herself as a powerful hero, wielding her own brand of 'Chaos Magic' along with more traditional mystical talents to varied, and spectacular effect. Still, people are slow to trust- and especially, to trust a Witch.
===Current Player Approved: April 29, 2024===
|Description=
'''Description:'''
 
This woman is a classic Eastern European beauty, dark-haired, lightly olive-skinned, a mix of the familiar and the exotic with an inexplicable touch of mystery. Relatively tall without being towering, her figure is all elegant feminine curves, neither too subtle nor overly exaggerated. Her face is a long tapered oval, with high cheekbones but otherwise soft features. Her eyes are deep jade green, vivid and dark, and just somewhat conspicuously large in her face. Their presence is made more striking by long lashes and the slightest smudge of smokey eyeshadow. Crimson-painted lips are a final accent of color, standing against the rich auburn of her hair, an enviably glossy mane that falls around her neck and shoulders in rippling waves. It is only tamed, drawn back from her face and behind ears, by her most noticeable fashion accessory: a jeweled tiara or headdress of sorts, comprised of a latticework of small scarlet stones. The piece runs around her forehead, where a larger jewel stands at its center, with two vaguely horn- or ear-like peaks above her temples, and tassels dangling before her ears. Black and red, contrasting dark and fiery light characterize her outfit, which seems a mixture of styles and sensibilities: modern and vintage, simple and avant-garde, conservative and provocative. The innermost layer is black and form-fitting, tight pants and a low-cut, off-shoulder bodysuit top. A front-laced outerwear corset is worn atop this, the bright crimson garment a touch from another time with its intricate detailing. Detached statin sleeves of rich vermillion worn over the darker ones of her top, leading to to fingerless black gloves. Calf-high black leather boots boast substansial heels, giving her just enough extra height to stand near eye-to-eye with men of more average stature. To complete the archaic, exotic flair of it all, she wears a voluminous scarlet cape, the mantle resting on her shoulders and secured over the notch of her throat by a strange winged brooch.
|History=
'''History:'''
 
The early life of Wanda Maximoff is surrounded in mystery, a mass of interconnecting tales both complementary and contradictory. Yet this mystery, this confusion is every bit as defining as a more certain background would be. The woman's life is defined by the unknown, by contradiction, uncertainty, and most of all, by chaos itself. There is certainty that Wanda and her twin brother Pietro are of Eastern European descent, born around the border of Serbia and Transia, and raised among the Roma people who reside there. It is from the couple that raised them that they take their name, the only parents they knew as children. And it was in their care that they first experienced hatred as suspicion turned against their camp. Accusations of theft, true or not. Superstitious whispers over the talents the young mutants displayed. Simple prejudice. No matter the real cause, they fled their old life in flames. Hardship followed hardship in those early days. The twins wandered, rarely welcome, distrusted for any number of reasons. Pietro was the only constant Wanda had in those early days. They learned to survive in places besieged by war and unrest, hunted by Chthon's cult, and Wanda struggled with the spectre of her powers. In one incident, she reflexively defended herself against an assault. Subjected to mob justice by an armed village, the twins nearly lost lives if not for the man who came to their aid. Erik Lensherr, better known as Magneto. It was the first of many shocking revelations, when Magneto told them what they were, taking them underwing. He guided them in their powers, Wanda's 'hexes,' her brother's speed. His formidable reputation provided protection from enemies known and not, and badly desired stability. But The twins fell in with him for a time, for Magneto revealed he was their father, their mother dying in childbirth in perilous conditions. Yet this could not undo the doubts the siblings harbored. Finally they fled, going to America. There, amidst doubts about mutantkind, there were also people with powers who were celebrated. The Avengers opened themselves in an unprecedented 'audition' for new members. The twins soon joined. The years that followed have been a time of growth and change, of heroic deeds and failures, and for Wanda, a time of questions and seeking. Out from under her father's controlling hand, Wanda met her tutor, companion, and friend: the archsorceress Agatha Harkness, who felt in her a great capacity for the mystic arts, and took her on as a protege. Under her guidance, Wanda learned about her natural abilities and refined her grasp on the Mystic Arts. In this quest she found other truths, if not ones she had ever imagined or sought out: she discovered the dark influences on her soul, the touch of the Elder God Chthon. She discovered her unique place in the universe as a 'Nexus being' for their reality, a trait that seemed to draw danger to her as much as it might empower her. More recently, she reconciled with her father as he began to moderate his own ways of promoting mutant kind. She stepped into an important role in the mystic community as the pursuit for knowledge and experience brought her in contact with ever more practitioners. She rejects the darkness of her birth and genetic tampering, determined to make her own path, a good path. Despite her fated responsibility to the universe, she somehow still feels so alone in it. Such has prompted many mystic seekings, yet none could prepare her for the answer they finally revealed, the final of many revelations of her heritage: a brief glimpse of the spirit of her own mother, a woman who herself bore the mantle of the Scarlet Witch and claimed a long-standing mystic tradition. How such a history may fit with her father's tale she is unsure - yet it is a question she now must face.
|Personality=
'''Personality:'''
 
Wanda is a person of internal contradiction. She is a daughter of chaos in every sense of the word, but also the binding nexus for the world. She was born to evil, and aspires to live up to most benevolent prototypes of her craft, to be, in essence 'the Good Witch' personified. A passionate and loving woman with a strong moral compass and an openness toward others, she is strong... yet she is also fragile. Wanda is a classic INFJ personality, the "Advocate" of the MBTI, with a few twists. Behind her gentle manner, she holds a sharp intellectual streak that weaves around the idealistic notions that fuel her endless drive to better the world. Her deep-rooted beliefs and opinions give her an enormous wellspring of willpower to fall back upon when the going gets tough, and her difficult upbringing tempered her weaknesses. Wanda seeks balance in the world through creative and imaginative means, reading the scales of karma through her mutant gifts and magic, and she commits herself with absolute conviction to improving matters. She cares deeply for others' wellbeing, especially their feelings, and pays close attention to those relationships she chooses to cultivate. The passion of her convictions sometimes overwhelms her capacity to function on a day-to-day level, consuming her attention, and she relies on her close ties to help balance her. Her talent for connecting with others through compassion and the warm fire of charisma rather than overbearing zeal is a touchstone of her outgoing nature, but the damage done to her in the past makes it hard for Wanda to trust outsiders. She builds those bridges superficially and takes a much longer time to accept someone in her inner circle. Insight to others assists her with getting to the heart of a matter, aided in no small part by her ability to read connections between events, people, and places. Wanda has a strong streak of noblesse oblige manifested in doing the proper thing, and acting on her insights to the way things should be. Her decisiveness and inspiration can carry her far, and others with her. Her passion for a cause is inseperable as part of whom she is, and that sensitivity is probably her greatest downfall. She possesses a strong streak of protectiveness that comes in part with her position, one formed over the years. Wanda guards those around her with a shield stronger than adamantine, and no where is this more apparent than in her personal relationships. Those people she lets in hold her absolute love and loyalty. She'll move heaven and earth to allow them to thrive. Anything getting in her way will find her unyielding in her commitment to them.
|Abilities=
'''Chaos Magic:'''
 
Wanda's main power is the innate ability to manipulate and warp reality via altering underlying probabilities, a power rooted in her genetic makeup and enhanced by the influence of the demon Chthon, as well as her nature as the Nexus Being. At a basic level, she can manipulate these probabilities to create good or bad 'luck.' Without particular desire or mental guidance, these shifts manifest unpredictably. Yet by imagining particular outcomes, Wanda can bring specific unlikely scenarios into being with almost unlimited scope and variety. Indeed, by suitably focusing her will (with the degree and length of concentration required varying according to the task), she may make not only the unlikely, but the impossible occur, potentially on a massive scale and only truly limited by her own creativity (and her mental state). Cataloguing the breadth of this ability is difficult, although examples include: * physical destruction or repair, device disruption, etc. * molecular matter control, ie state changes and transmutation * energy control, disruption, amplification, transmutation or even creation * inertia control, ie telekinesis * power negation * cellular modification and natural healing * teleportation * potentially, even resurrection 
'''Divine Heritage:'''
 
Wanda's connection to Chthon, great a curse as it may be, also provides one to the more benevolent Elder Gods: to Oshtur and Gaea as her spiritual 'aunts,' to their own 'parent' the Demiurge (to whom she is something of a conduit), and to Oshtur's son Agamotto, and thus the Vishanti. These beings influence her study and practice of Mystic Arts. Wanda worships Oshtur and Gaea directly to counteract Chthon's influence. With this heritage, she can attempt invoke divine aid through incantations and rituals specifically meant to beseech the gods. With beseeching, the divinity determines the effect and scale based on their power. Wanda is merely the vessel and channel. (TP or staff approved power only.) 
'''Hex:'''
 
The 'Hex' is the most basic form of Wanda's innate Chaos Magic, and it was the primary form of her abilities when they first manifested. While only a narrow subset of her abilities, the Hex is important because of its ease and instinctive nature. While large-scale manipulation of reality requires concentration, will, and can vary in efficacy based upon her mental state, and traditional magic requires knowledge, concentration, and various incantation, Wanda's Hexes are almost second nature. Indeed, in her youth, she often activated them purely by accident, and while she has since learned far greater control, the ease of use remains. These basic Hexes are created with a gesture and within her range of sight, and can either be unseen or visible, depending on purpose and power. They take a limited number of typical forms: * Instant bad luck, altering probabilities to leverage instantaneous misfortune upon a target. Trips and falls, weapon jams and power failures, or spontaneous environmental hazards are common. Against inanimate targets, immediate failure is typical. Usually this ability leaves no visible sign. * Hex-bolts and blasts, invoking chaotic energy to effectively unravel her targets in a more direct form of attack. These readily destroy inanimate targets and can have devastating effect upon the living, though she is hesitant to use this lethal application except upon suitable (and powerful) foes. These are visible as bolts of scarlet energy. * Reflexive shields and wards, deflecting attacks or otherwise turning away danger from herself or her allies. These can be visible fields or manifest only in whatever effect, ie the turning away of a bullet mid-air. 
'''Iron Will:'''
 
No matter how great the potential, no mystic develops their full power without also building up their internal discipline and self-control. Wanda's magic proved inhibited until she learned to master herself sufficiently to gain control, applying those lessons with increasing complexity to balance her natural impulses and emotions. As driven and sensitive as she is, the Scarlet Witch must maintain a strong moral center for her own health. Strategic lessons, meditation, and exposure to a wide array of dangers on cosmic and astral battlefields have given her considerably more mental fortitude than the average caster. Her conviction are rooted firmly in her ideals, and in defense of those ideals, her heels dig in and she can be very difficult to assault mentally or physically. Her power responds to any emotional volatility, and at its peak, can have violent outcomes on the people and environment surrounding her. Her mental endurance is not endless, but she can endure a hell of a lot more than the average person while holding up a spell. 
'''Magic:'''
 
Though born to innate, some would call 'mutant' powers that grant her a potent influence upon reality as a whole, the Scarlet Witch is also heir to a lineage of more traditional magic through her Eastern European and Romani roots. The daughter of a line of witches of similar title, she has great innate talent in the mystic arts, a talent that has been nurtured into maturity under the tutelage of Agatha Harkness. In her career, she has studied and mastered a diverse variety of cultural styles and traditions hailing from every corner of the world, from ancient greece to celtic ireland, from the middle east to east asia. Yet she is strongest in those traditions that reflect the very word and title that define her, in those forms of Witchcraft that invoke the primal feminine energies of reality and a host of female Goddesses. These beings are her guides, and her bulwark against the influence of Chthon. In terms of ability, she is capable of casting almost any sort of spell that would be typical among other Mystic practitioners, and her repertoire includes a wide array of such incantations and invocations suitable to most situations she might encounter. Others she is more than capable of learning and casting with appropriate tomes or teachers. While her Witchcraft reflects the leanings of various cultural styles, across her whole suite of knowledge she may achieve almost any result (and in many case may overlap with her more innate ability). Thus her magic's most important applications are those more geared toward the realms mystic themselves, and toward their inhabitants: summoning, exorcism and banishment, astral projection and dimensional travel, divination, mental communication and illusion, and the raw manipulation of magical forces at a more meta level, such as counterspells and dispelling. 
'''Nexus Being:'''
 
The Scarlet Witch is the reality nexus being of this universe. All magical energies and presences meet in her, and she can tap a voluminous mystical wellspring of power to accomplish feats that no mere mortal or immortal ought to be able to do. She can vastly expand the range of a spell or perform seemingly impossible feats through concentrated will and tapping into a boundless ocean of energies. Fate and time shift a little around her with every action she takes, and she can have a profound impact on the world. Alternate realities can have other nexus beings, but they can never interact with one another. This status makes her an essential measure of how reality is doing. She embodies reality in a fundamental way, so her mental well-being becoming very unstable or chaotic is a sign that things are (or will soon be) going horrifically. Powerful beings watch over her as a matter of circumstance. 
'''Occultism:'''
 
Wanda is an expert on occult topics pertaining to magical lore, mystical entities, grimoires, magical traditions, and dimensions. She recognizes various arcane manifestations and can correctly identify mystical effects or items based on her experience. With time and the assistance of her library, few answers on major matters are likely to elude her for long. Her expertise is strongest in European traditions, extraplanar entities, summoning and banishment. 
'''Witch's Sight:'''
 
The Witch's Sight allows Wanda to see the unseen, perceiving the mystical and supernatural energies that underpin mundane reality. She can see invisible or otherwise concealed foes, detect mystic presences in her vicinity, pierce illusions, view the true form of shapeshifters, witness active magic in use and read auras. Many such observations are instinctive, visible to her with no greater difficulty than the normal visual spectrum. However, with concentration, she can draw on far greater levels of detail, deciphering such characteristics of another spell as to identify its nature, purpose and caster, or reading disruptions or snarls in the flow of magic to identify their source. Though her senses are not infallible and efforts can be taken to ward against them, her power, experience, and most of all her innate connection to reality itself makes it difficult if not impossible to foil her permanently.
|Skills=
'''Combat:'''
 
Due to training regimens undertaken with the Avengers, Wanda maintains herself in good physical condition. She has advanced training in defensive acrobatic techniques and free-running to keep up with her speedster brother. As an extension of certain mystic practices, she also studies some forms of martial arts, with a focus on evasive or blocking techniques, and bladed melee weapons with moderate skill. Particularly in concert with her probability-altering powers, she is capable of holding her own against physically superior opponents. She practices a regular yoga regimen to maintain the overall mental, physical, and spiritual wellness necessary to control her powers. 
'''Combined Casting:'''
 
The art of witchcraft often uses tandem or group casting to achieve lasting rituals among a coven of skilled practitioners. Wanda is an expert at casting in conjunction with another spellcaster, an effect that often bolsters the effect, broadening the power, or simply providing her own energy as a stabilizing force. 
'''Education:'''
 
Wanda received an uneven education from her mentors and personal pursuits in libraries, lectures, and seminars to make up for the deficiencies of her childhood. She possesses a postdoctoral expertise in statistics and probability modeling due to her innate need to calculate outcomes through her mutation. When it comes to history, she is exceptionally well-versed in ancient history through the present day, due in no small part to a mentor old even in the days of Atlantis. Wanda specializes in occult issues and European social history.Since joining the Avengers, she acquired a Masters degree in History from Columbia University. 
'''Languages:'''
 
There are fewer languages Wanda cannot speak or read than she can, thanks to an inherent enchantment. She knows a broad range of ancient languages, including Tibetan, Sanskrit, ancient Greek, demotic and hieratic Egyptian, Latin, and Romany. She's conversant in many central and eastern European languages, including German, Russian, Serbian, Croatian, Transian, and their sisters. Her Mandarin, Italian and French are enough to get by, and her English and Hindi are both almost passable as native. 
'''Meditation:'''
 
Meditation is to Wanda as baking is to the English. She finds it therapeutic and healing, a cathartic experience built into the necessity of her daily life. Mindfulness is essential for her mental wellbeing. Regular practice combined with yoga and breathing techniques allow her a clarity of mind and emotions on most days. 
'''Occultism:'''
 
Wanda is an expert on occult topics pertaining to magical lore, mystical entities, grimoires, magical traditions, and dimensions. She has a particular focus on extraplanar travel and entities, summoning and banishment, and related topics. She recognizes various arcane manifestations and can correctly identify mystical effects or items based on her experience. With time and the assistance of her library, few answers on major matters are likely to elude her for long. Mirroring the strength of her magical styles, her knowledge is greatest in regard to those magical traditions that fit the cultural pattern of 'Witchcraft,' in the sense of those that are female- or goddess- centric, rather than their more patriarchal counterparts. 
'''Survival:'''
 
Living on the run for long left her with a talent for surviving in rather harsh urban and natural environments. Wanda can read the weather, find shelter, and provide adequate food and water in any season in most mundane environments. She is difficult to track and competent at hiding herself from dogged pursuit. In some cases, she can use environmental advantages to help her defeat enemies with substantially stronger physical abilities.
|Resources=
'''Agatha:'''
 
Wanda's primary mentor in the Mystic Arts is Agatha Harkness, an ancient Sorceress of immense power. Recently the leader of a coven of Witches in New Salem, her true history dates to at least before the destruction of Atlantis some twelve thousand years ago. Although an enigmatic figure, to Wanda she is not only a teacher, but surrogate (grand)mother figure as well, acting as a guide and confidant throughout the younger witch's mystical journeys. The connection between the two is unique in its depth and strength. 
'''Avenger:'''
 
'Avengers Assemble' - they're words known throughout the world, and to many call to mind a team that represents the gold standard in heroism, matched only by the Justice League for its fame, list of heroic accomplishments, and the pedigree of its roster. While it would be an understatement to say that Pietro and Wanda don't *quite* enjoy the reputation of the team's founders, membership still has its benefits. Aside from powerful teammates to call on, the Avengers have many resources to offer in terms of bases, equipment, training facilities, and so on. They're also known for their ties to S.H.I.E.L.D., and thus a degree of official legitimacy that many heroes - particularly their mutant cousins - lack. 
'''Energy Wellspring:'''
 
As the Nexus Being, Wanda can potentially tap into vast pools of mystic energy flowing around the planet. In times of desperation, she has instinctively channeled this raw mana into her magic to produce expanded effects at the cost of increased volatility. With greater tutelage, she now knows how to control the flow and incorporate the energy into her spellcasting. This benefit prevents her from drawing on her own energy reserves or depleting them too quickly. The drawbacks to using the world's mystic energy lie primarily on other spellcasters manipulating the source (and hence her spell) and the energy's resistance to being used for corruptive, entropic or otherwise negative effects when it is naturally an expression of Gaia's creative, restorative impulses. 
'''Mystic Community:'''
 
Wanda Maximoff is a member in respected standing of the larger Mystic community. This network, both formal and informal, of Mages, Sorcerers, Witches and Warlocks, of spellcasters every stripe, provides access to a variety of resources. The most important of these may simply be information, for the practice of the Mystic Arts relies on knowledge above all else. While not all of the members of this group are purely allies, there is a mutual respect among their number and a shared understanding that cooperation may be necessary in the face of greater esoteric threats. 
'''Occult Trove:'''
 
Wanda is a mystic collector and connoisseur of arcane antiquities, grimoires, and artifacts. Her respectable, growing collection specialises in witchcraft and traditions of the Mystic Arts, focused on esoteric components needed for ritual spells and spellbooks. She's dedicated herself to recovering objects to keep them safe or out of the wrong hands. She maintains this trove in a few sealed and scattered locations to avoid its easy plundering. 
'''Witch Road:'''
 
Wanda can access a dimension called the "Witch Road," which is better thought of as a connective plane between multiple other areas, particularly the realms of various magical entities connected to different mystic traditions. It is generally accessible only to those of great mystical talent, and the character of the road itself warps to reflect both the powers being sought out and those who walk upon it. A dangerous place, it is filled with unique beings and guardians, although a skillful traveler (as Wanda is at least learning to become) can use it to reach conceptual destinations inaccessible to other methods, such at the abodes of the most powerful magical deities. Perceptions of time and space function differently on the road, which can have both helpful and troubling implications for those who tread upon it.
|Weaknesses=
'''Child of Chthon:'''
 
Chthon is one of the four Elder Gods, a degenerate infernalentity of chaos, darkness, and evil. Though banned from direct influence on Earth, it was able to taint the Maximoff twins with some portion of its essence. Wanda is its living vessel for the majority of this. Although potentially a source of great power, particularly in the Dark Arts and magic of chaos and darkness, Chthon's grip on Wanda poses an ever-present danger. A jealous parent-slash-master, its influence can potentially intercede to protect her, particularly from other forms of possession. It could also serve to empower her, although she would never dare draw upon such forces, or risk possession. Still, no matter what she does, Chthon's influence is with her, inescapable. 
'''Children:'''
 
Both the horrific conditions of her upbringing and a strong ethical stance prevent her from deliberately doing harm to children, typically those under 14. Wanda will put herself in harm's way or take a different tactic rather than inflict physical trauma on a child. The only time her moral code allows her to act differently would be a substantial threat with no other alternative or it's not actually a child (for example, a demon masquerading as a teenaged boy). 
'''Family:'''
 
Where it comes to Wanda's family, the easiest answer is... it's complicated. Originally raised among the Romani alongside her twin brother Pietro, she has subsequently had many of revelations about her heritage, some seemingly in conflict. Rescued and recruited by the mutant leader Magneto, he eventually revealed himself as their true father. Later, she was told that the High Evolutionary had kidnapped the twins at birth, experimenting upon them in and ultimately enhancing her abilities. And subsequently to these already major revelations, Wanda's mystic wanderings have uncovered that her mother was herself a former 'Scarlet Witch', an inherited, if discriminated against, tradition among their people. The truth of all these varied, and in some cases conflicting stories may lay somewhere inbetween it all. Her desire to know and understand herself is motivating force for Wanda, but also one of inner doubt and uncertainty. In any case, Wanda's heritage and family are greatly important matters to her. She cares deeply for her brother, even if their relationship has at times been uneven. Magneto, likewise, occupies a large place in her life. Not just a father figure, he stands as a leader, teacher, a symbol of strength, but also a representation of the dark side of her own conscience. And then there are her adopted families, the Avengers, her mentor Agatha and other mystic tutors, all of whom live large in her heart. These people are all sources of strength for her, but occasionally, they are sources of pain and worry as well. 
'''Stability:'''
 
Equilibrium of spirit and mind lie at the heart of Wanda's abilities. Without a stable foundation, her supernatural abilities suffer. Her mutation to harness potentials relies on clear focus to avoid volatile, sometimes destructive outcomes. When she is emotionally distressed or destabilized, her powers can badly fluctuate. Catastrophic outcomes follow her lashing out blindly, and no one wants that. No one. Similarly, as the reality nexus, Wanda is an excellent barometer for the state of the world. When things aren't going so good for reality, subtle signs show in her demeanor, appearance, and behaviour. Conversely when matters are particularly stable, she is equally grounded. 
'''Trouble Magnet:'''
 
Being a probability warping sorceress would be a problem enough in its own right. Now add a few layers -- Avenger, Agatha Harkness' pupil, priestess of the Earth, nexus, Doctor Strange's ally, daughter to a warlord -- and Wanda is inescapably caught in a web of intrigues. The spiders on that web are no means small or toothless. She attracts attention from demons and aliens right down to humans who would rather burn witches. Trouble travels in her wake and she is drawn to it, in part of her role and position. 
'''Twin:'''
 
While it's already been touched upon that Wanda has a weakness when it comes to her family, a special, separate note must be made on behalf of Pietro. Pietro is, for better or worse, her literal other half. They are twins and have been together their entire lives, suffering every trial and torment, every slim glimmer of hope together. For a time, they only had one another to rely on in a world that hated them, and while they've since discovered a larger family and opportunities for belonging, their bond is still the oldest and most important. There is absolutely nothing that could tear them apart, not forever. That said, the two are very much different people, polar opposites, even, in being supplementary halves. On the run, and in their early years with the Brotherhood, Pietro largely led and 'guided' Wanda, although often in a domineering way. For years, she followed him, accepted his treatment of her, and even defended his hot-headed arrogance to others. Suffice it to say, she's starting to outgrow that. While Wanda has matured, learned to stand on her own, his words *do* carry influence with her and clashes with her brother still take their toll. Naturally, any harm done to him is likely to both shake and enrage her, and such emotional catalysts can terribly destabilize Wanda's control over her powers... leading to dangerous results for basically everyone.
}}
<gallery>
Wanda_coat.jpg
</gallery>
[[Category:Mutant-OOC]][[Category:Mystic Arts-OOC]][[Category:Avengers]] [[Category:JL Dark]]

16337/Eternal Reflections: Scarlet Light Through the Darkness

2024-06-03T18:25:57Z

Kstar:

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2024/06/03
|Location=Empire State Building, Midtown
|Synopsis=Meeting in an evening art gallery, Wanda and Dracula exchange regarding The Count's curse, and the possibility and hope of bringing him out of the darkness.
|Cast of Characters=1308, 70
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:''' Dracula is currently slowly walking through one of the gallery levels on the building, a smile playing on his lips. "Very nice," he considers, tilting his head to the side and examines it again, "You can almost feel the artist's emotions, the torture, the relief..." He is dressed in a suit and tie, hair slicked back as he looks like a businessman or venture capitalist.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda entered the gallery, her presence commanding attention as the elegant scarlet silk dress she wore shimmered with every movement. The bodice hugged her figure perfectly, intricate lace detailing adding a touch of timeless romance to the subtle sweetheart neckline. The dress' waistline was cinched gracefully, flowing into a full, floor-length skirt that cascaded like a waterfall of rich crimson hues. She walked up to Dracula, recognizing him immediately despite his business-like appearance. "Count Dracula," she greeted him with familiarity, a smile playing on her lips. "It's been a while." Her eyes shifted to the painting he was admiring. "You're right. The artist's emotions are palpable, aren't they? The blend of torture and relief is almost hauntingly beautiful." Wanda stood beside him, her gaze lingering on the artwork. "It's fascinating how art can capture the essence of human experience so vividly," she continued, her voice soft and contemplative. "Every brushstroke seems to tell a story, weaving together the complexities of joy and sorrow. I can see why this piece caught your attention."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:''' Dracula smiles a little more as he glances at Wand, taking in the figure as her bodice is hugging that figure and presenting a lovely view. He nods, eyes tracing along the figure and up to her face. "Too long," he offers and smiles softly, giving a light bow of his head. "So very much, " he replies to her comment and then chuckles before offering quietly, "Art is history captured in a single moment, baring bits of the world, and the artist who creates it. Some of them can almost feel like a whole history of the experience." Turning to look at Wanda more directly, he smiles, "And how have you been, oh Mistress of Reality? Everything been going... good for you?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' ;Wanda responded with a warm smile, her eyes reflecting her appreciation for Dracula's words. "Art truly is a moment of history captured and preserved, often revealing intimate pieces of the artist's soul. I once knew an artist who used mystical paints that allowed their creations to mimic life. The scenes would change periodically---people moving, objects shifting---making the art feel almost alive." She tilted her head slightly, her gaze thoughtful. "It's fascinating how such magic can capture the essence of life's transient beauty, much like your observation. These pieces can tell entire stories with just a glance." Turning her attention fully to Dracula, she replied, "As for me, things have been well, thank you. I've found a balance and peace in my studies and daily life. How about you? It's not often our paths cross in such serene settings."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:''' "Oh no, not so often, but very pleasurable when they do," Dracula offers, "So many people see just the horrendous side of me, the fact of the pointy fans and the movies making me out to be a villain," he offers and chuckles, "I mean sure... that can be true, there are times when something happens and when you measure time in centuries instead of minutes... well, there may be some differences in what is important." He pauses and smiles a litte, "But there is more to me than that. I appreciate beauty, it is why my estates are decorated with art," some of it priceless pieces thought lost to time but he doesn't mention that, "and how I choose my brides."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda maintained her poise and sophistication, her expression respectful yet cautious. "It's true, media can often twist details to paint someone in a more sinister light than they deserve. However, your nature as a vampire does tend to substantiate the fears and stereotypes held by what you might consider 'cattle'." She hesitated briefly before continuing, "As for your brides, if you truly want to move away from being labeled a monster, perhaps you should choose those who willingly accept your... gift. Ensuring they come to you of their own free will is crucial. Anything less would only reinforce the very image you wish to dispel." Her gaze softened slightly as she added, "Respecting their autonomy and choices is a vital step toward changing perceptions. It would show that there's more to you than the legends and fears that have built up over centuries."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:''' "Do you know the history of the vampire, Miss Maximoff?" Dracula asks and smiles, "The whole story of Cain and Abel, with the dispute over whose offering pleased God more and ending with Cain sacrificing Abel to God as that was the finest offering he could give. Then he gets cursed to walk alone for all eternity, no one to help him, even the lands would turn against him. It was then, cast out that he found Lilith, a magic user like yourself who saw something in him. The power to be more than he was as he could see beyond the limitations of Adam and do things the Gods could only do. Lillith had been Adam's first wife before she was cast out, so her dislike for God was already powerful. She imbued Cain with great powers, which he desired as there was nothing for him now. She granted his powers and then, and only then did God's angels appear asking him to repent, which he denied in his belief that sacrificing his brother was indeed giving God the finest things he had." Dracula shakes his head as he considers this bit of lore and sighs, "So then they cursed him and his children with punishments...." He turns away from her, looking at the ceiling for a moment. "So now tell me.. God asks for the greatest gift a man has, and he gives his own brother, the thing meaning the most to him in the world... and he is cast out. Then he finds love and gains some power and then God feels threatened and must slap him down again, showing his cruelty for a man who was only trying to please him. But even worse, cursing those yet unborn to share the same fate?" He turns back to Wanda, looking her in the eyes, "Should I be judged by the sins of my father? Should I have to live in the darkness and curse the light for decisions made that I had no control over?" He waves a hand to take in the room and the people in it, "The mutants living among you are different because of one genetic anomaly or another. Should they be outcast from society because they are different, because of something they had no decision in?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda listened with a motherly empathy, her expression softening. "Yes, I am well versed with the history of the vampire, and I agree on one hand that tt doesn't seem fair for you to suffer the fate of a curse thrust upon you by an ancestor. The Bible tells us of Cain receiving God's curse: 'And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.' Cain did sacrifice the one thing he loved dearly, but that sacrifice was a life not his to take. God loved Abel just as much, and His response likely came from the pain of losing a beloved son and the betrayal by another." She paused, her eyes reflecting the complexity of the situation. "Cain's act was vile because he took away something precious to both himself and God. That pain and betrayal likely fueled God's harsh punishment. It is a tragedy that you, as a descendant, bear the weight of these ancient sins." "As a mutant, I understand the pain of being outcast, but our situations are different. Mutants are outcast because of fear and ignorance, not because of ancient curses. Your embrace of your vampirism and the powers it grants you essentially voids your argument about suffering the sins of your father. By continuing in this way, it's as if you are compounding the original sin with your actions." She looked him in the eye, her voice gentle but firm. "If you truly feel burdened by what you are, perhaps your energy should be spent trying to reverse or mitigate the curse, rather than accepting and perpetuating it. True redemption lies in striving to change and better oneself, not in embracing the darkness."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:''' "You say I embrace the powers that I am granted, but what is the alternative?" Dracula asks, "Live eternity in a box until the heat death of the universe?" He takes a breath and looks down at the floor, "I am not a religious man for a long time, but the Church has some pretty harsh things to say on suicide, so me stepping out into the Daystar and letting it consume me is out," he offers with a chuckle. "So, I choose to live my life and surround myself with beauty of things I may never see, experiences I may not have... " "I have poured over magic tomes, studied ancient texts and all but called up the Devil himself from Hell.. What more should I do? Save the planet? Humankind has shown a distinct lack of interest in conserving what they were given, so should I champion that cause that others have decided is not worth their time?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda moved gracefully around the gallery, her eyes briefly lingering on various pieces of art as she considered Dracula's words. "You have an eternity to figure out a cure, which should be a significant portion of your time and energy," she said, her voice soft but firm. "Combat the darkness in any way possible. Feed only on those who are completely willing and find a way to ensure you don't pass on your curse to them." She paused in front of a painting, contemplating its beauty. "Seek your soul, wherever it has gone. It may hold the key to fighting your nature. If you can reclaim it, you might find the answers you seek." Turning back to him, she offered, "I'd be glad to assist you in this search, though I must maintain a safe distance, as I'm sure you understand. I'm willing to help you, but only if you're willing to help yourself and fight the darkness within." Wanda's gaze softened with genuine concern. "It's not an easy path, but dedicating yourself to finding a cure and living with integrity could make all the difference. The choice to strive for change is yours, and I'll support you in that journey."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:''' "That is assuming I still have a soul left. I do not breathe, my heart does not beat, for all intents and purposes, I am dead" offers Dracula and frowns. "The dead have no souls, thus why a risen corpse comes back as zombie," he offers and mmms, "Unless you are thinking you have something in your Bag of Tricks that can locate a soul... then I ma just be doomed to walk this path until my time on the planet ends. But we shall see, maybe one day I can feel the sun on my skin and not bun."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda nodded thoughtfully, understanding the complexities of his predicament. "It's true that the soul doesn't reside within the dead, except under very specific circumstances. However, your soul had to go somewhere. It might be trapped, lost on some forgotten plane, or even in limbo---places not easily accessible, even by the most powerful of mystics." She glanced at a nearby sculpture, her mind working through the possibilities. "But perhaps with multiple sorcerers working together, combining their collective power and knowledge, we could discover its location. It would be a monumental task, but not impossible." Turning back to Dracula, her expression was determined. "If you're willing to embark on this journey, we can start seeking answers. It won't be easy, but there's a chance we could find a way for you to feel the sun on your skin again without burning."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''"The great occult minds on the planet, viewing different angles," Dracula considers and chuckles dryly, "Perhaps they can, and perhaps it may be worth it. It is a heavy choice. Would you give up your mutation and all it does for you?" ge asks, looking over an abstract painting hanging on the wall, "Would you give up all that power and not look back and wonder if you made a mistake, if life was better before? There's no easy answers to these questions., as they are the kind that people have been devising whole philosophies over. But in the end, it will be everything I've seen, every moment of human history experienced... All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain..."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda's eyes softened with empathy as she prepared to share her story. "My childhood was far from idyllic. I lost my home and parents at a young age, and my brother Pietro and I were left to fend for ourselves. We were hated and feared, constantly on the run from those who sought to harm us simply because we were different. The fear and prejudice we faced were overwhelming, and it seemed like we would never find a place where we truly belonged." She paused, the memories of her troubled past clearly weighing on her. "Then, I was thrust into a destiny I didn't choose, entangled in the webs of old gods and mystical forces that sought to decide my fate. The situation with my children was another painful chapter. They were taken from me, and it felt like a piece of my soul was ripped away. My relationship with my real father, Magneto, is tense and complicated, to say the least. His radical views and my own path often clash, creating a chasm between us that seems impossible to bridge." Wanda took a deep breath, steadying herself. "So, to answer your question, yes, I would give up my powers if it meant I wouldn't have to endure such turmoil. The pain and suffering that have come with these abilities are sometimes too much to bear. A simpler, happier life would be worth the loss of power." Turning to address his concern about losing all he has experienced and seen in history, Wanda offered a thoughtful solution. "You should immortalize your knowledge and experiences by recording them. Share your wisdom and stories with others, so they can carry your legacy through the ages. By doing so, you can ensure that the valuable moments of human history you've witnessed aren't lost in time, but instead, they live on through the ages."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:''' Dracula nods and smiles a little more considering that. "It's definitely some words to consider on this, giving up the powers for the simple life, giving up the ability to change the world for all the strife in your life as well," he nods, stroking his chin as the words are spoken. "I suppose there is value to the words and to consider the future. So yes, maybe putting word out to the magic types would have some value. It just depends if they would choose to help."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda's eyes brightened with genuine relief as she saw Dracula's openness to her suggestions. "I'm glad to hear that you're considering my words," she said warmly. "I'll speak to the Sorcerer Supreme, Stephen Strange, and see if he's willing to help. I believe he would be more than willing to assist in such a noble cause as helping you rid yourself of this darkness." She paused, her expression turning serious. "I've thought critically about the unlikely event of becoming a vampire myself, and it terrifies me. Mutants often grow stronger in their abilities when they change, and if that were to happen to me, it could be devastating for the world, reality, and even the universe. It's something that should and cannot ever happen." Wanda took a step back, offering a polite smile. "I wish you a good evening, Dracula. But I really must be getting home. Take care, and let's stay in touch regarding this endeavor."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:''' "Well then, it seems that you've got a lot of this all figured out," Dracula replies and nods, "I shall see you some other time, hopefully with good news," he admits and nods. "But for now, good evening."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:''' Wanda smiled graciously, offering Dracula a respectful curtsey. "Thank you for this enlightening conversation, Dracula. I hope we can continue this journey toward a brighter future for you." With that, she straightened and began to walk herself out of the gallery. Her movements were elegant and deliberate, the scarlet silk of her dress shimmering in the ambient light. As she exited, she glanced back one last time, giving Dracula a nod of encouragement before disappearing into the evening.
}}

16337/Eternal Reflections: Scarlet Light Through the Darkness

2024-06-03T17:19:32Z

Kstar:

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2024/06/03
|Location=Empire State Building, Midtown
|Synopsis=Meeting in an evening art gallery, Wanda and Dracula exchange regarding The Count's curse, and the possibility and hope of bringing him out of the darkness.
|Cast of Characters=1308, 70
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Dracula is currently slowly walking through one of the gallery levels on the building, a smile playing on his lips. "Very nice," he considers, tilting his head to the side and examines it again, "You can almost feel the artist's emotions, the torture, the relief..." He is dressed in a suit and tie, hair slicked back as he looks like a businessman or venture capitalist.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda entered the gallery, her presence commanding attention as the elegant scarlet silk dress she wore shimmered with every movement. The bodice hugged her figure perfectly, intricate lace detailing adding a touch of timeless romance to the subtle sweetheart neckline. The dress's waistline was cinched gracefully, flowing into a full, floor-length skirt that cascaded like a waterfall of rich crimson hues.\<br\>\<br\>She walked up to Dracula, recognizing him immediately despite his business-like appearance. "Count Dracula," she greeted him with familiarity, a smile playing on her lips. "It's been a while." Her eyes shifted to the painting he was admiring. "You're right. The artist's emotions are palpable, aren't they? The blend of torture and relief is almost hauntingly beautiful."\<br\>\<br\>Wanda stood beside him, her gaze lingering on the artwork. "It's fascinating how art can capture the essence of human experience so vividly," she continued, her voice soft and contemplative. "Every brushstroke seems to tell a story, weaving together the complexities of joy and sorrow. I can see why this piece caught your attention."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Dracula smiles a little more as he glances at Wand, taking in the figure as her bodice is hugging that figure and presenting a lovely view. He nods, eyes tracing along the figure and up to her face. "Too long," he offers and smiles softly, giving a light bow of his head. "So very much, " he replies to her comment and then chuckles before offering quietly, "Art is history captured in a single moment, baring bits of the world, and the artist who creates it. Some of them can almost feel like a whole history of the experience."\<br\>\<br\>Turning to look at Wanda more directly, he smiles, "And how have you been, oh Mistress of Reality? Everything been going... good for you?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda responded with a warm smile, her eyes reflecting her appreciation for Dracula's words. "Art truly is a moment of history captured and preserved, often revealing intimate pieces of the artist's soul. I once knew an artist who used mystical paints that allowed their creations to mimic life. The scenes would change periodically---people moving, objects shifting---making the art feel almost alive."\<br\>\<br\>She tilted her head slightly, her gaze thoughtful. "It's fascinating how such magic can capture the essence of life's transient beauty, much like your observation. These pieces can tell entire stories with just a glance."\<br\>\<br\>Turning her attention fully to Dracula, she replied, "As for me, things have been well, thank you. I've found a balance and peace in my studies and daily life. How about you? It's not often our paths cross in such serene settings."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"Oh no, not so often, but very pleasurable when they do," Dracula offers, "So many people see just the horrendous side of me, the fact of the pointy fans and the movies making me out to be a villain," he offers and chuckles, "I mean sure... that can be true, there are times when something happens and when you measure time in centuries instead of minutes... well, there may be some differences in what is important." He pauses and smiles a litte, "But there is more to me than that. I appreciate beauty, it is why my estates are decorated with art," some of it priceless pieces thought lost to time but he doesn't mention that, "and how I choose my brides."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda maintained her poise and sophistication, her expression respectful yet cautious. "It's true, media can often twist details to paint someone in a more sinister light than they deserve. However, your nature as a vampire does tend to substantiate the fears and stereotypes held by what you might consider 'cattle'."\<br\>\<br\>She hesitated briefly before continuing, "As for your brides, if you truly want to move away from being labeled a monster, perhaps you should choose those who willingly accept your... gift. Ensuring they come to you of their own free will is crucial. Anything less would only reinforce the very image you wish to dispel."\<br\>\<br\>Her gaze softened slightly as she added, "Respecting their autonomy and choices is a vital step toward changing perceptions. It would show that there's more to you than the legends and fears that have built up over centuries."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"Do you know the history of the vampire, Miss Maximoff?" Dracula asks and smiles, "The whole story of Cain and Abel, with the dispute over whose offering pleased God more and ending with Cain sacrificing Abel to God as that was the finest offering he could give. Then he gets cursed to walk alone for all eternity, no one to help him, even the lands would turn against him. It was then, cast out that he found Lilith, a magic user like yourself who saw something in him. The power to be more than he was as he could see beyond the limitations of Adam and do things the Gods could only do. Lillith had been Adam's first wife before she was cast out, so her dislike for God was already powerful. She imbued Cain with great powers, which he desired as there was nothing for him now. She granted his powers and then, and only then did God's angels appear asking him to repent, which he denied in his belief that sacrificing his brother was indeed giving God the finest things he had." Dracula shakes his head as he considers this bit of lore and sighs, "So then they cursed him and his children with punishments...." He turns away from her, looking at the ceiling for a moment.\<br\>\<br\>"So now tell me.. God asks for the greatest gift a man has, and he gives his own brother, the thing meaning the most to him in the world... and he is cast out. Then he finds love and gains some power and then God feels threatened and must slap him down again, showing his cruelty for a man who was only trying to please him. But even worse, cursing those yet unborn to share the same fate?" He turns back to Wanda, looking her in the eyes, "Should I be judged by the sins of my father? Should I have to live in the darkness and curse the light for decisions made that I had no control over?" He waves a hand to take in the room and the people in it, "The mutants living among you are different because of one genetic anomaly or another. Should they be outcast from society because they are different, because of something they had no decision in?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda listened with a motherly empathy, her expression softening. "Yes, I am well versed with the history of the vampire, and I agree on one hand that tt doesn't seem fair for you to suffer the fate of a curse thrust upon you by an ancestor. The Bible tells us of Cain receiving God's curse: 'And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.' Cain did sacrifice the one thing he loved dearly, but that sacrifice was a life not his to take. God loved Abel just as much, and His response likely came from the pain of losing a beloved son and the betrayal by another."\<br\>\<br\>She paused, her eyes reflecting the complexity of the situation. "Cain's act was vile because he took away something precious to both himself and God. That pain and betrayal likely fueled God's harsh punishment. It is a tragedy that you, as a descendant, bear the weight of these ancient sins."\<br\>\<br\>"As a mutant, I understand the pain of being outcast, but our situations are different. Mutants are outcast because of fear and ignorance, not because of ancient curses. Your embrace of your vampirism and the powers it grants you essentially voids your argument about suffering the sins of your father. By continuing in this way, it's as if you are compounding the original sin with your actions."\<br\>\<br\>She looked him in the eye, her voice gentle but firm. "If you truly feel burdened by what you are, perhaps your energy should be spent trying to reverse or mitigate the curse, rather than accepting and perpetuating it. True redemption lies in striving to change and better oneself, not in embracing the darkness."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"You say I embrace the powers that I am granted, but what is the alternative?" Dracula asks, "Live eternity in a box until the heat death of the universe?" He takes a breath and looks down at the floor, "I am not a religious man for a long time, but the Church has some pretty harsh things to say on suicide, so me stepping out into the Daystar and letting it consume me is out," he offers with a chuckle. "So, I choose to live my life and surround myself with beauty of things I may never see, experiences I may not have... "\<br\>\<br\>"I have poured over magic tomes, studied ancient texts and all but called up the Devil himself from Hell.. What more should I do? Save the planet? Humankind has shown a distinct lack of interest in conserving what they were given, so should I champion that cause that others have decided is not worth their time?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda moved gracefully around the gallery, her eyes briefly lingering on various pieces of art as she considered Dracula's words. "You have an eternity to figure out a cure, which should be a significant portion of your time and energy," she said, her voice soft but firm. "Combat the darkness in any way possible. Feed only on those who are completely willing and find a way to ensure you don't pass on your curse to them."\<br\>\<br\>She paused in front of a painting, contemplating its beauty. "Seek your soul, wherever it has gone. It may hold the key to fighting your nature. If you can reclaim it, you might find the answers you seek." Turning back to him, she offered, "I'd be glad to assist you in this search, though I must maintain a safe distance, as I'm sure you understand. I'm willing to help you, but only if you're willing to help yourself and fight the darkness within."\<br\>\<br\>Wanda's gaze softened with genuine concern. "It's not an easy path, but dedicating yourself to finding a cure and living with integrity could make all the difference. The choice to strive for change is yours, and I'll support you in that journey."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"That is assuming I still have a soul left. I do not breathe, my heart does not beat, for all intents and purposes, I am dead" offers Dracula and frowns. "The dead have no souls, thus why a risen corpse comes back as zombie," he offers and mmms, "Unless you are thinking you have something in your Bag of Tricks that can locate a soul... then I ma just be doomed to walk this path until my time on the planet ends. But we shall see, maybe one day I can feel the sun on my skin and not bun."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda nodded thoughtfully, understanding the complexities of his predicament. "It's true that the soul doesn't reside within the dead, except under very specific circumstances. However, your soul had to go somewhere. It might be trapped, lost on some forgotten plane, or even in limbo---places not easily accessible, even by the most powerful of mystics."\<br\>\<br\>She glanced at a nearby sculpture, her mind working through the possibilities. "But perhaps with multiple sorcerers working together, combining their collective power and knowledge, we could discover its location. It would be a monumental task, but not impossible."\<br\>\<br\>Turning back to Dracula, her expression was determined. "If you're willing to embark on this journey, we can start seeking answers. It won't be easy, but there's a chance we could find a way for you to feel the sun on your skin again without burning."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"The great occult minds on the planet, viewing different angles," Dracula consers and chuckles dryly, "Perhaps they can, and perhaps it may be worth it. It is a heavy choice. Would you give up your mutation and all it does for you?" ge asks, looking over an abstract painting hanging on the wall, "Would you give up all that poweer and not look back and wonder if you made a mistake, if life was better before? There's no easy answers to these questions., as they are the kind that people have been devising whole philosophies over. But in the end, it will be everything I've seen, every moment of human history experienced... All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain..."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda's eyes softened with empathy as she prepared to share her story. "My childhood was far from idyllic. I lost my home and parents at a young age, and my brother Pietro and I were left to fend for ourselves. We were hated and feared, constantly on the run from those who sought to harm us simply because we were different. The fear and prejudice we faced were overwhelming, and it seemed like we would never find a place where we truly belonged."\<br\>\<br\>She paused, the memories of her troubled past clearly weighing on her. "Then, I was thrust into a destiny I didn't choose, entangled in the webs of old gods and mystical forces that sought to decide my fate. The situation with my children was another painful chapter. They were taken from me, and it felt like a piece of my soul was ripped away. My relationship with my real father, Magneto, is tense and complicated, to say the least. His radical views and my own path often clash, creating a chasm between us that seems impossible to bridge."\<br\>\<br\>Wanda took a deep breath, steadying herself. "So, to answer your question, yes, I would give up my powers if it meant I wouldn't have to endure such turmoil. The pain and suffering that have come with these abilities are sometimes too much to bear. A simpler, happier life would be worth the loss of power."\<br\>\<br\>Turning to address his concern about losing all he has experienced and seen in history, Wanda offered a thoughtful solution. "You should immortalize your knowledge and experiences by recording them. Share your wisdom and stories with others, so they can carry your legacy through the ages. By doing so, you can ensure that the valuable moments of human history you've witnessed aren't lost in time, but instead, they live on through the ages."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Dracula nods and smiles a little more considering that. "It's definitely some words to consider on this, giving up the powers for the simple life, giving up the ability to change the world for all the strife in your life as well," he nods, stroking his chin as the words are spoken. "I suppose there is value to the words and to consider the future. So yes, maybe putting word out to the magic types would have some value. It just depends if they would choose to help."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda's eyes brightened with genuine relief as she saw Dracula's openness to her suggestions. "I'm glad to hear that you're considering my words," she said warmly. "I'll speak to the Sorcerer Supreme, Stephen Strange, and see if he's willing to help. I believe he would be more than willing to assist in such a noble cause as helping you rid yourself of this darkness."\<br\>\<br\>She paused, her expression turning serious. "I've thought critically about the unlikely event of becoming a vampire myself, and it terrifies me. Mutants often grow stronger in their abilities when they change, and if that were to happen to me, it could be devastating for the world, reality, and even the universe. It's something that should and cannot ever happen."\<br\>\<br\>Wanda took a step back, offering a polite smile. "I wish you a good evening, Dracula. But I really must be getting home. Take care, and let's stay in touch regarding this endeavor."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"Well then, it seems that you've got a lot of this all figured out," Dracula replies and nods, "I shall see you some other time, hopefully with good news," he admits and nods. "But for now, good evening."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda smiled graciously, offering Dracula a respectful curtsey. "Thank you for this enlightening conversation, Dracula. I hope we can continue this journey toward a brighter future for you."\<br\>\<br\>With that, she straightened and began to walk herself out of the gallery. Her movements were elegant and deliberate, the scarlet silk of her dress shimmering in the ambient light. As she exited, she glanced back one last time, giving Dracula a nod of encouragement before disappearing into the evening.
}}

16337/Eternal Reflections: Scarlet Light Through the Darkness

2024-06-03T17:18:33Z

Kstar:

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2024/06/03
|Location=Empire State Building, Midtown
|Synopsis=Meeting in an evening art gallery, Wanda and Count Dracula exchange regarding Dracula's curse, and the possibility and hope of bringing him out of the darkness.
|Cast of Characters=1308, 70
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Dracula is currently slowly walking through one of the gallery levels on the building, a smile playing on his lips. "Very nice," he considers, tilting his head to the side and examines it again, "You can almost feel the artist's emotions, the torture, the relief..." He is dressed in a suit and tie, hair slicked back as he looks like a businessman or venture capitalist.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda entered the gallery, her presence commanding attention as the elegant scarlet silk dress she wore shimmered with every movement. The bodice hugged her figure perfectly, intricate lace detailing adding a touch of timeless romance to the subtle sweetheart neckline. The dress's waistline was cinched gracefully, flowing into a full, floor-length skirt that cascaded like a waterfall of rich crimson hues.\<br\>\<br\>She walked up to Dracula, recognizing him immediately despite his business-like appearance. "Count Dracula," she greeted him with familiarity, a smile playing on her lips. "It's been a while." Her eyes shifted to the painting he was admiring. "You're right. The artist's emotions are palpable, aren't they? The blend of torture and relief is almost hauntingly beautiful."\<br\>\<br\>Wanda stood beside him, her gaze lingering on the artwork. "It's fascinating how art can capture the essence of human experience so vividly," she continued, her voice soft and contemplative. "Every brushstroke seems to tell a story, weaving together the complexities of joy and sorrow. I can see why this piece caught your attention."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Dracula smiles a little more as he glances at Wand, taking in the figure as her bodice is hugging that figure and presenting a lovely view. He nods, eyes tracing along the figure and up to her face. "Too long," he offers and smiles softly, giving a light bow of his head. "So very much, " he replies to her comment and then chuckles before offering quietly, "Art is history captured in a single moment, baring bits of the world, and the artist who creates it. Some of them can almost feel like a whole history of the experience."\<br\>\<br\>Turning to look at Wanda more directly, he smiles, "And how have you been, oh Mistress of Reality? Everything been going... good for you?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda responded with a warm smile, her eyes reflecting her appreciation for Dracula's words. "Art truly is a moment of history captured and preserved, often revealing intimate pieces of the artist's soul. I once knew an artist who used mystical paints that allowed their creations to mimic life. The scenes would change periodically---people moving, objects shifting---making the art feel almost alive."\<br\>\<br\>She tilted her head slightly, her gaze thoughtful. "It's fascinating how such magic can capture the essence of life's transient beauty, much like your observation. These pieces can tell entire stories with just a glance."\<br\>\<br\>Turning her attention fully to Dracula, she replied, "As for me, things have been well, thank you. I've found a balance and peace in my studies and daily life. How about you? It's not often our paths cross in such serene settings."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"Oh no, not so often, but very pleasurable when they do," Dracula offers, "So many people see just the horrendous side of me, the fact of the pointy fans and the movies making me out to be a villain," he offers and chuckles, "I mean sure... that can be true, there are times when something happens and when you measure time in centuries instead of minutes... well, there may be some differences in what is important." He pauses and smiles a litte, "But there is more to me than that. I appreciate beauty, it is why my estates are decorated with art," some of it priceless pieces thought lost to time but he doesn't mention that, "and how I choose my brides."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda maintained her poise and sophistication, her expression respectful yet cautious. "It's true, media can often twist details to paint someone in a more sinister light than they deserve. However, your nature as a vampire does tend to substantiate the fears and stereotypes held by what you might consider 'cattle'."\<br\>\<br\>She hesitated briefly before continuing, "As for your brides, if you truly want to move away from being labeled a monster, perhaps you should choose those who willingly accept your... gift. Ensuring they come to you of their own free will is crucial. Anything less would only reinforce the very image you wish to dispel."\<br\>\<br\>Her gaze softened slightly as she added, "Respecting their autonomy and choices is a vital step toward changing perceptions. It would show that there's more to you than the legends and fears that have built up over centuries."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"Do you know the history of the vampire, Miss Maximoff?" Dracula asks and smiles, "The whole story of Cain and Abel, with the dispute over whose offering pleased God more and ending with Cain sacrificing Abel to God as that was the finest offering he could give. Then he gets cursed to walk alone for all eternity, no one to help him, even the lands would turn against him. It was then, cast out that he found Lilith, a magic user like yourself who saw something in him. The power to be more than he was as he could see beyond the limitations of Adam and do things the Gods could only do. Lillith had been Adam's first wife before she was cast out, so her dislike for God was already powerful. She imbued Cain with great powers, which he desired as there was nothing for him now. She granted his powers and then, and only then did God's angels appear asking him to repent, which he denied in his belief that sacrificing his brother was indeed giving God the finest things he had." Dracula shakes his head as he considers this bit of lore and sighs, "So then they cursed him and his children with punishments...." He turns away from her, looking at the ceiling for a moment.\<br\>\<br\>"So now tell me.. God asks for the greatest gift a man has, and he gives his own brother, the thing meaning the most to him in the world... and he is cast out. Then he finds love and gains some power and then God feels threatened and must slap him down again, showing his cruelty for a man who was only trying to please him. But even worse, cursing those yet unborn to share the same fate?" He turns back to Wanda, looking her in the eyes, "Should I be judged by the sins of my father? Should I have to live in the darkness and curse the light for decisions made that I had no control over?" He waves a hand to take in the room and the people in it, "The mutants living among you are different because of one genetic anomaly or another. Should they be outcast from society because they are different, because of something they had no decision in?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda listened with a motherly empathy, her expression softening. "Yes, I am well versed with the history of the vampire, and I agree on one hand that tt doesn't seem fair for you to suffer the fate of a curse thrust upon you by an ancestor. The Bible tells us of Cain receiving God's curse: 'And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.' Cain did sacrifice the one thing he loved dearly, but that sacrifice was a life not his to take. God loved Abel just as much, and His response likely came from the pain of losing a beloved son and the betrayal by another."\<br\>\<br\>She paused, her eyes reflecting the complexity of the situation. "Cain's act was vile because he took away something precious to both himself and God. That pain and betrayal likely fueled God's harsh punishment. It is a tragedy that you, as a descendant, bear the weight of these ancient sins."\<br\>\<br\>"As a mutant, I understand the pain of being outcast, but our situations are different. Mutants are outcast because of fear and ignorance, not because of ancient curses. Your embrace of your vampirism and the powers it grants you essentially voids your argument about suffering the sins of your father. By continuing in this way, it's as if you are compounding the original sin with your actions."\<br\>\<br\>She looked him in the eye, her voice gentle but firm. "If you truly feel burdened by what you are, perhaps your energy should be spent trying to reverse or mitigate the curse, rather than accepting and perpetuating it. True redemption lies in striving to change and better oneself, not in embracing the darkness."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"You say I embrace the powers that I am granted, but what is the alternative?" Dracula asks, "Live eternity in a box until the heat death of the universe?" He takes a breath and looks down at the floor, "I am not a religious man for a long time, but the Church has some pretty harsh things to say on suicide, so me stepping out into the Daystar and letting it consume me is out," he offers with a chuckle. "So, I choose to live my life and surround myself with beauty of things I may never see, experiences I may not have... "\<br\>\<br\>"I have poured over magic tomes, studied ancient texts and all but called up the Devil himself from Hell.. What more should I do? Save the planet? Humankind has shown a distinct lack of interest in conserving what they were given, so should I champion that cause that others have decided is not worth their time?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda moved gracefully around the gallery, her eyes briefly lingering on various pieces of art as she considered Dracula's words. "You have an eternity to figure out a cure, which should be a significant portion of your time and energy," she said, her voice soft but firm. "Combat the darkness in any way possible. Feed only on those who are completely willing and find a way to ensure you don't pass on your curse to them."\<br\>\<br\>She paused in front of a painting, contemplating its beauty. "Seek your soul, wherever it has gone. It may hold the key to fighting your nature. If you can reclaim it, you might find the answers you seek." Turning back to him, she offered, "I'd be glad to assist you in this search, though I must maintain a safe distance, as I'm sure you understand. I'm willing to help you, but only if you're willing to help yourself and fight the darkness within."\<br\>\<br\>Wanda's gaze softened with genuine concern. "It's not an easy path, but dedicating yourself to finding a cure and living with integrity could make all the difference. The choice to strive for change is yours, and I'll support you in that journey."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"That is assuming I still have a soul left. I do not breathe, my heart does not beat, for all intents and purposes, I am dead" offers Dracula and frowns. "The dead have no souls, thus why a risen corpse comes back as zombie," he offers and mmms, "Unless you are thinking you have something in your Bag of Tricks that can locate a soul... then I ma just be doomed to walk this path until my time on the planet ends. But we shall see, maybe one day I can feel the sun on my skin and not bun."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda nodded thoughtfully, understanding the complexities of his predicament. "It's true that the soul doesn't reside within the dead, except under very specific circumstances. However, your soul had to go somewhere. It might be trapped, lost on some forgotten plane, or even in limbo---places not easily accessible, even by the most powerful of mystics."\<br\>\<br\>She glanced at a nearby sculpture, her mind working through the possibilities. "But perhaps with multiple sorcerers working together, combining their collective power and knowledge, we could discover its location. It would be a monumental task, but not impossible."\<br\>\<br\>Turning back to Dracula, her expression was determined. "If you're willing to embark on this journey, we can start seeking answers. It won't be easy, but there's a chance we could find a way for you to feel the sun on your skin again without burning."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"The great occult minds on the planet, viewing different angles," Dracula consers and chuckles dryly, "Perhaps they can, and perhaps it may be worth it. It is a heavy choice. Would you give up your mutation and all it does for you?" ge asks, looking over an abstract painting hanging on the wall, "Would you give up all that poweer and not look back and wonder if you made a mistake, if life was better before? There's no easy answers to these questions., as they are the kind that people have been devising whole philosophies over. But in the end, it will be everything I've seen, every moment of human history experienced... All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain..."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda's eyes softened with empathy as she prepared to share her story. "My childhood was far from idyllic. I lost my home and parents at a young age, and my brother Pietro and I were left to fend for ourselves. We were hated and feared, constantly on the run from those who sought to harm us simply because we were different. The fear and prejudice we faced were overwhelming, and it seemed like we would never find a place where we truly belonged."\<br\>\<br\>She paused, the memories of her troubled past clearly weighing on her. "Then, I was thrust into a destiny I didn't choose, entangled in the webs of old gods and mystical forces that sought to decide my fate. The situation with my children was another painful chapter. They were taken from me, and it felt like a piece of my soul was ripped away. My relationship with my real father, Magneto, is tense and complicated, to say the least. His radical views and my own path often clash, creating a chasm between us that seems impossible to bridge."\<br\>\<br\>Wanda took a deep breath, steadying herself. "So, to answer your question, yes, I would give up my powers if it meant I wouldn't have to endure such turmoil. The pain and suffering that have come with these abilities are sometimes too much to bear. A simpler, happier life would be worth the loss of power."\<br\>\<br\>Turning to address his concern about losing all he has experienced and seen in history, Wanda offered a thoughtful solution. "You should immortalize your knowledge and experiences by recording them. Share your wisdom and stories with others, so they can carry your legacy through the ages. By doing so, you can ensure that the valuable moments of human history you've witnessed aren't lost in time, but instead, they live on through the ages."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Dracula nods and smiles a little more considering that. "It's definitely some words to consider on this, giving up the powers for the simple life, giving up the ability to change the world for all the strife in your life as well," he nods, stroking his chin as the words are spoken. "I suppose there is value to the words and to consider the future. So yes, maybe putting word out to the magic types would have some value. It just depends if they would choose to help."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda's eyes brightened with genuine relief as she saw Dracula's openness to her suggestions. "I'm glad to hear that you're considering my words," she said warmly. "I'll speak to the Sorcerer Supreme, Stephen Strange, and see if he's willing to help. I believe he would be more than willing to assist in such a noble cause as helping you rid yourself of this darkness."\<br\>\<br\>She paused, her expression turning serious. "I've thought critically about the unlikely event of becoming a vampire myself, and it terrifies me. Mutants often grow stronger in their abilities when they change, and if that were to happen to me, it could be devastating for the world, reality, and even the universe. It's something that should and cannot ever happen."\<br\>\<br\>Wanda took a step back, offering a polite smile. "I wish you a good evening, Dracula. But I really must be getting home. Take care, and let's stay in touch regarding this endeavor."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"Well then, it seems that you've got a lot of this all figured out," Dracula replies and nods, "I shall see you some other time, hopefully with good news," he admits and nods. "But for now, good evening."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda smiled graciously, offering Dracula a respectful curtsey. "Thank you for this enlightening conversation, Dracula. I hope we can continue this journey toward a brighter future for you."\<br\>\<br\>With that, she straightened and began to walk herself out of the gallery. Her movements were elegant and deliberate, the scarlet silk of her dress shimmering in the ambient light. As she exited, she glanced back one last time, giving Dracula a nod of encouragement before disappearing into the evening.
}}

16337/Eternal Reflections: Scarlet Light Through the Darkness

2024-06-03T17:16:22Z

Kstar: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2024/06/03 |Location=Empire State Building, Midtown |Synopsis=Meeting in an evening art gallery, Wanda and Count Dracula exchange regarding Dracula's curse, and the possibility and hope of bringing him out of the darkness. |Cast of Characters=1308, 70 |pretty=yes }} {{Poses |Poses=:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Dracula is currently slowly walking through one of the gallery levels on the bulding, a smile playing on hi..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2024/06/03
|Location=Empire State Building, Midtown
|Synopsis=Meeting in an evening art gallery, Wanda and Count Dracula exchange regarding Dracula's curse, and the possibility and hope of bringing him out of the darkness.
|Cast of Characters=1308, 70
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Dracula is currently slowly walking through one of the gallery levels on the bulding, a smile playing on his lips. "Very nice," he considers, tilting his head to the side and examines it again, "You can almost feel the artist's emotions, the torture, the relief..." He is dressed in a suit and tie, hair slicked back as he looks like a businessman or venture capitalist.

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda entered the gallery, her presence commanding attention as the elegant scarlet silk dress she wore shimmered with every movement. The bodice hugged her figure perfectly, intricate lace detailing adding a touch of timeless romance to the subtle sweetheart neckline. The dress's waistline was cinched gracefully, flowing into a full, floor-length skirt that cascaded like a waterfall of rich crimson hues.\<br\>\<br\>She walked up to Dracula, recognizing him immediately despite his business-like appearance. "Count Dracula," she greeted him with familiarity, a smile playing on her lips. "It's been a while." Her eyes shifted to the painting he was admiring. "You're right. The artist's emotions are palpable, aren't they? The blend of torture and relief is almost hauntingly beautiful."\<br\>\<br\>Wanda stood beside him, her gaze lingering on the artwork. "It's fascinating how art can capture the essence of human experience so vividly," she continued, her voice soft and contemplative. "Every brushstroke seems to tell a story, weaving together the complexities of joy and sorrow. I can see why this piece caught your attention."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Dracula smiles a little more as he glances at Wand, taking in the figure as her bodice is hugging that figure and presenting a lovely view. He nods, eyes tracing along the figure and up to her face. "Too long," he offers and smiles softly, giving a light bow of his head. "So very much, " he replies to her comment and then chuckles before offering quietly, "Art is history captured in a single moment, baring bits of the world, and the artist who creates it. Some of them can almost feel like a whole history of the experience."\<br\>\<br\>Turning to look at Wanda more directly, he smiles, "And how have you been, oh Mistress of Reality? Everything been going... good for you?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda responded with a warm smile, her eyes reflecting her appreciation for Dracula's words. "Art truly is a moment of history captured and preserved, often revealing intimate pieces of the artist's soul. I once knew an artist who used mystical paints that allowed their creations to mimic life. The scenes would change periodically---people moving, objects shifting---making the art feel almost alive."\<br\>\<br\>She tilted her head slightly, her gaze thoughtful. "It's fascinating how such magic can capture the essence of life's transient beauty, much like your observation. These pieces can tell entire stories with just a glance."\<br\>\<br\>Turning her attention fully to Dracula, she replied, "As for me, things have been well, thank you. I've found a balance and peace in my studies and daily life. How about you? It's not often our paths cross in such serene settings."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"Oh no, not so often, but very pleasurable when they do," Dracula offers, "So many people see just the horrendous side of me, the fact of the pointy fans and the movies making me out to be a villain," he offers and chuckles, "I mean sure... that can be true, there are times when something happens and when you measure time in centuries instead of minutes... well, there may be some differences in what is important." He pauses and smiles a litte, "But there is more to me than that. I appreciate beauty, it is why my estates are decorated with art," some of it priceless pieces thought lost to time but he doesn't mention that, "and how I choose my brides."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda maintained her poise and sophistication, her expression respectful yet cautious. "It's true, media can often twist details to paint someone in a more sinister light than they deserve. However, your nature as a vampire does tend to substantiate the fears and stereotypes held by what you might consider 'cattle'."\<br\>\<br\>She hesitated briefly before continuing, "As for your brides, if you truly want to move away from being labeled a monster, perhaps you should choose those who willingly accept your... gift. Ensuring they come to you of their own free will is crucial. Anything less would only reinforce the very image you wish to dispel."\<br\>\<br\>Her gaze softened slightly as she added, "Respecting their autonomy and choices is a vital step toward changing perceptions. It would show that there's more to you than the legends and fears that have built up over centuries."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"Do you know the history of the vampire, Miss Maximoff?" Dracula asks and smiles, "The whole story of Cain and Abel, with the dispute over whose offering pleased God more and ending with Cain saceificing Abel to God as that was the finest offering he could give. Then he gets cursed to walk alone for all eternity, no one to help him, even the lands would turn against him. It was then, cast out that he found Lillith, a magic user like yourself who saw something in him. The power to be more than he was as he could stebeyond the limitations of Adam and do things the Gods could only do. Lillith had been Adam's first wife before she was cast out, so her dislike for God was already powerful. She imbued Cain with great powers, which he desired as there was nothing for him now. She granted his powers and then, and only then did God's angels appear asking him to repent, which he denied in his belief that sacrificing his brother was indeen giving God the finest things he had." Dracula shakes his head as he considers this bit of lore and sighs, "So then they cursed him and his children with punishments...." He turns away from her, looking at the ceiling for a moment.\<br\>\<br\>"So now tell me.. God asks for the greatest gift a man has, and he gives his own brother, the thing meaning the most to him in the world... and he is cast out. Then he finds love and gains some power and then God feels threatend and must slap him down again, showing his cruelty for a man who was only trying to please him. But even worse, cursing those yet unborn to share the same fate?" He turns back to Wanda, looking her in the eyes, "Should I be judged by the sins of my father? Should I have to live in the darkness and curse the light for decisions made that I had no control over?" He waves a hand to take in the room and the people in it, "The mutants living among you are different because of one genetic anomoly or anther. Should they be outcast from society because they are different, because of something they had no decision in?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda listened with a motherly empathy, her expression softening. "Yes, I am well versed with the history of the vampire, and I agree on one hand that tt doesn't seem fair for you to suffer the fate of a curse thrust upon you by an ancestor. The Bible tells us of Cain receiving God's curse: 'And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand.' Cain did sacrifice the one thing he loved dearly, but that sacrifice was a life not his to take. God loved Abel just as much, and His response likely came from the pain of losing a beloved son and the betrayal by another."\<br\>\<br\>She paused, her eyes reflecting the complexity of the situation. "Cain's act was vile because he took away something precious to both himself and God. That pain and betrayal likely fueled God's harsh punishment. It is a tragedy that you, as a descendant, bear the weight of these ancient sins."\<br\>\<br\>"As a mutant, I understand the pain of being outcast, but our situations are different. Mutants are outcast because of fear and ignorance, not because of ancient curses. Your embrace of your vampirism and the powers it grants you essentially voids your argument about suffering the sins of your father. By continuing in this way, it's as if you are compounding the original sin with your actions."\<br\>\<br\>She looked him in the eye, her voice gentle but firm. "If you truly feel burdened by what you are, perhaps your energy should be spent trying to reverse or mitigate the curse, rather than accepting and perpetuating it. True redemption lies in striving to change and better oneself, not in embracing the darkness."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"You say I embrace the powers that I am granted, but what is the alternative?" Dracula asks, "Live eternity in a box until the heat death of the universe?" He takes a breath and looks down at the floor, "I am not a relgious man for a long time, but the Church has some pretty harsh things to say on suicide, so me stepping out into the Daystar and letting it consume me is out," he offeers with a chuckle. "So, I choose to live my life and surround myself with beauty of things I may never see, experiences I may not have... "\<br\>\<br\>"I have poured over magic tomes, studied ancient texts and all but called up the Devil himself from Hell.. What more should I do? Save the planet? Humankind has shown a distinct lack of interest in conserving what they were given, so should I champion that cause that others have decided is not worth their time?"

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda moved gracefully around the gallery, her eyes briefly lingering on various pieces of art as she considered Dracula's words. "You have an eternity to figure out a cure, which should be a significant portion of your time and energy," she said, her voice soft but firm. "Combat the darkness in any way possible. Feed only on those who are completely willing and find a way to ensure you don't pass on your curse to them."\<br\>\<br\>She paused in front of a painting, contemplating its beauty. "Seek your soul, wherever it has gone. It may hold the key to fighting your nature. If you can reclaim it, you might find the answers you seek." Turning back to him, she offered, "I'd be glad to assist you in this search, though I must maintain a safe distance, as I'm sure you understand. I'm willing to help you, but only if you're willing to help yourself and fight the darkness within."\<br\>\<br\>Wanda's gaze softened with genuine concern. "It's not an easy path, but dedicating yourself to finding a cure and living with integrity could make all the difference. The choice to strive for change is yours, and I'll support you in that journey."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"That is assuming I still have a soul left. I do not breathe, my heart does not beat, for all intents and purposes, I am dead" offers Dracula and frowns. "The dead have no souls, thus why a risen corpse comes back as zombie," he offers and mmms, "Unless you are thinking you have something in your Bag of Tricks that can locate a soul... then I ma just be doomed to walk this path until my time on the planet ends. But we shall see, maybe one day I can feel the sun on my skin and not bun."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda nodded thoughtfully, understanding the complexities of his predicament. "It's true that the soul doesn't reside within the dead, except under very specific circumstances. However, your soul had to go somewhere. It might be trapped, lost on some forgotten plane, or even in limbo---places not easily accessible, even by the most powerful of mystics."\<br\>\<br\>She glanced at a nearby sculpture, her mind working through the possibilities. "But perhaps with multiple sorcerers working together, combining their collective power and knowledge, we could discover its location. It would be a monumental task, but not impossible."\<br\>\<br\>Turning back to Dracula, her expression was determined. "If you're willing to embark on this journey, we can start seeking answers. It won't be easy, but there's a chance we could find a way for you to feel the sun on your skin again without burning."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"The great occult minds on the planet, viewing different angles," Dracula consers and chuckles dryly, "Perhaps they can, and perhaps it may be worth it. It is a heavy choice. Would you give up your mutation and all it does for you?" ge asks, looking over an abstract painting hanging on the wall, "Would you give up all that poweer and not look back and wonder if you made a mistake, if life was better before? There's no easy answers to these questions., as they are the kind that people have been devising whole philosophies over. But in the end, it will be everything I've seen, every moment of human history experienced... All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain..."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda's eyes softened with empathy as she prepared to share her story. "My childhood was far from idyllic. I lost my home and parents at a young age, and my brother Pietro and I were left to fend for ourselves. We were hated and feared, constantly on the run from those who sought to harm us simply because we were different. The fear and prejudice we faced were overwhelming, and it seemed like we would never find a place where we truly belonged."\<br\>\<br\>She paused, the memories of her troubled past clearly weighing on her. "Then, I was thrust into a destiny I didn't choose, entangled in the webs of old gods and mystical forces that sought to decide my fate. The situation with my children was another painful chapter. They were taken from me, and it felt like a piece of my soul was ripped away. My relationship with my real father, Magneto, is tense and complicated, to say the least. His radical views and my own path often clash, creating a chasm between us that seems impossible to bridge."\<br\>\<br\>Wanda took a deep breath, steadying herself. "So, to answer your question, yes, I would give up my powers if it meant I wouldn't have to endure such turmoil. The pain and suffering that have come with these abilities are sometimes too much to bear. A simpler, happier life would be worth the loss of power."\<br\>\<br\>Turning to address his concern about losing all he has experienced and seen in history, Wanda offered a thoughtful solution. "You should immortalize your knowledge and experiences by recording them. Share your wisdom and stories with others, so they can carry your legacy through the ages. By doing so, you can ensure that the valuable moments of human history you've witnessed aren't lost in time, but instead, they live on through the ages."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Dracula nods and smiles a little more considering that. "It's definitely some words to consider on this, giving up the powers for the simple life, giving up the ability to change the world for all the strife in your life as well," he nods, stroking his chin as the words are spoken. "I suppose there is value to the words and to consider the future. So yes, maybe putting word out to the magic types would have some value. It just depends if they woull choose to help."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda's eyes brightened with genuine relief as she saw Dracula's openness to her suggestions. "I'm glad to hear that you're considering my words," she said warmly. "I'll speak to the Sorcerer Supreme, Stephen Strange, and see if he's willing to help. I believe he would be more than willing to assist in such a noble cause as helping you rid yourself of this darkness."\<br\>\<br\>She paused, her expression turning serious. "I've thought critically about the unlikely event of becoming a vampire myself, and it terrifies me. Mutants often grow stronger in their abilities when they change, and if that were to happen to me, it could be devastating for the world, reality, and even the universe. It's something that should and cannot ever happen."\<br\>\<br\>Wanda took a step back, offering a polite smile. "I wish you a good evening, Dracula. But I really must be getting home. Take care, and let's stay in touch regarding this endeavor."

:'''{{#var:1308|Dracula (1308)}} has posed:'''\<br\>"Well then, it seems that you've got a lot of this all figured out," Dracula replies and nods, "I shall see you some other time, hopefully with good news," he admits and nods. "But for now, good evening."

:'''{{#var:70|Wanda Maximoff (70)}} has posed:'''\<br\>Wanda smiled graciously, offering Dracula a respectful curtsey. "Thank you for this enlightening conversation, Dracula. I hope we can continue this journey toward a brighter future for you."\<br\>\<br\>With that, she straightened and began to walk herself out of the gallery. Her movements were elegant and deliberate, the scarlet silk of her dress shimmering in the ambient light. As she exited, she glanced back one last time, giving Dracula a nod of encouragement before disappearing into the evening.
}}

Scarlet Witch

2024-05-02T16:27:26Z

Kstar:

{{CharacterNew
|NameOnMUSH=Wanda Maximoff
|Color=#333
|TextColor=#c1c1c1
|Char_id=70
|Img=https://www.unitedheroesmush.com/images/7/74/WandaMaximoff.jpg
|FullName=Wanda Maximoff
|Gender=Female
|Species=Mutant
|Theme=Marvel
|Chartype=DFC
|Active=Approved
|Occupation=Witch
|Citizenship=Transia, Genosha, United States
|Residence=New York
|Education=History (MA)
|Groups=[[Mystic Arts-OOC]], [[Avengers]], [[JL Dark]], [[Mutant-OOC]],
|Quote="I can't control their fear - only my own."
|PAge=33
|AAge=33
|DOB=31 October 1997
|Height=170 cm (5'7")
|Weight=63 kg (139 lb)
|Hair=Brown
|Eyes=Green
|Actor=Elizabeth Olsen
|Song=
|Profile=Scarlet Witch is a figure of contradictions. Earning a degree of infamy as an early ally of the mutant Brotherhood leader Magneto, a villainous figure to many, she and her brother turned from his service and joined the Avengers in some of their transitional years. As a member of the team, she has proven herself as a powerful hero, wielding her own brand of 'Chaos Magic' along with more traditional mystical talents to varied, and spectacular effect. Still, people are slow to trust- and especially, to trust a Witch.
===Current Player Approved: Available for Application===
|Description=
'''Description:'''
 
This woman is a classic Eastern European beauty, dark-haired, lightly olive-skinned, a mix of the familiar and the exotic with an inexplicable touch of mystery. Relatively tall without being towering, her figure is all elegant feminine curves, neither too subtle nor overly exaggerated. Her face is a long tapered oval, with high cheekbones but otherwise soft features. Her eyes are deep jade green, vivid and dark, and just somewhat conspicuously large in her face. Their presence is made more striking by long lashes and the slightest smudge of smokey eyeshadow. Crimson-painted lips are a final accent of color, standing against the rich auburn of her hair, an enviably glossy mane that falls around her neck and shoulders in rippling waves. It is only tamed, drawn back from her face and behind ears, by her most noticeable fashion accessory: a jeweled tiara or headdress of sorts, comprised of a latticework of small scarlet stones. The piece runs around her forehead, where a larger jewel stands at its center, with two vaguely horn- or ear-like peaks above her temples, and tassels dangling before her ears. Black and red, contrasting dark and fiery light characterize her outfit, which seems a mixture of styles and sensibilities: modern and vintage, simple and avant-garde, conservative and provocative. The innermost layer is black and form-fitting, tight pants and a low-cut, off-shoulder bodysuit top. A front-laced outerwear corset is worn atop this, the bright crimson garment a touch from another time with its intricate detailing. Detached statin sleeves of rich vermillion worn over the darker ones of her top, leading to to fingerless black gloves. Calf-high black leather boots boast substansial heels, giving her just enough extra height to stand near eye-to-eye with men of more average stature. To complete the archaic, exotic flair of it all, she wears a voluminous scarlet cape, the mantle resting on her shoulders and secured over the notch of her throat by a strange winged brooch.
|History=
'''History:'''
 
The early life of Wanda Maximoff is surrounded in mystery, a mass of interconnecting tales both complementary and contradictory. Yet this mystery, this confusion is every bit as defining as a more certain background would be. The woman's life is defined by the unknown, by contradiction, uncertainty, and most of all, by chaos itself. There is certainty that Wanda and her twin brother Pietro are of Eastern European descent, born around the border of Serbia and Transia, and raised among the Roma people who reside there. It is from the couple that raised them that they take their name, the only parents they knew as children. And it was in their care that they first experienced hatred as suspicion turned against their camp. Accusations of theft, true or not. Superstitious whispers over the talents the young mutants displayed. Simple prejudice. No matter the real cause, they fled their old life in flames. Hardship followed hardship in those early days. The twins wandered, rarely welcome, distrusted for any number of reasons. Pietro was the only constant Wanda had in those early days. They learned to survive in places besieged by war and unrest, hunted by Chthon's cult, and Wanda struggled with the spectre of her powers. In one incident, she reflexively defended herself against an assault. Subjected to mob justice by an armed village, the twins nearly lost lives if not for the man who came to their aid. Erik Lensherr, better known as Magneto. It was the first of many shocking revelations, when Magneto told them what they were, taking them underwing. He guided them in their powers, Wanda's 'hexes,' her brother's speed. His formidable reputation provided protection from enemies known and not, and badly desired stability. But The twins fell in with him for a time, for Magneto revealed he was their father, their mother dying in childbirth in perilous conditions. Yet this could not undo the doubts the siblings harbored. Finally they fled, going to America. There, amidst doubts about mutantkind, there were also people with powers who were celebrated. The Avengers opened themselves in an unprecedented 'audition' for new members. The twins soon joined. The years that followed have been a time of growth and change, of heroic deeds and failures, and for Wanda, a time of questions and seeking. Out from under her father's controlling hand, Wanda met her tutor, companion, and friend: the archsorceress Agatha Harkness, who felt in her a great capacity for the mystic arts, and took her on as a protege. Under her guidance, Wanda learned about her natural abilities and refined her grasp on the Mystic Arts. In this quest she found other truths, if not ones she had ever imagined or sought out: she discovered the dark influences on her soul, the touch of the Elder God Chthon. She discovered her unique place in the universe as a 'Nexus being' for their reality, a trait that seemed to draw danger to her as much as it might empower her. More recently, she reconciled with her father as he began to moderate his own ways of promoting mutant kind. She stepped into an important role in the mystic community as the pursuit for knowledge and experience brought her in contact with ever more practitioners. She rejects the darkness of her birth and genetic tampering, determined to make her own path, a good path. Despite her fated responsibility to the universe, she somehow still feels so alone in it. Such has prompted many mystic seekings, yet none could prepare her for the answer they finally revealed, the final of many revelations of her heritage: a brief glimpse of the spirit of her own mother, a woman who herself bore the mantle of the Scarlet Witch and claimed a long-standing mystic tradition. How such a history may fit with her father's tale she is unsure - yet it is a question she now must face.
|Personality=
'''Personality:'''
 
Wanda is a person of internal contradiction. She is a daughter of chaos in every sense of the word, but also the binding nexus for the world. She was born to evil, and aspires to live up to most benevolent prototypes of her craft, to be, in essence 'the Good Witch' personified. A passionate and loving woman with a strong moral compass and an openness toward others, she is strong... yet she is also fragile. Wanda is a classic INFJ personality, the "Advocate" of the MBTI, with a few twists. Behind her gentle manner, she holds a sharp intellectual streak that weaves around the idealistic notions that fuel her endless drive to better the world. Her deep-rooted beliefs and opinions give her an enormous wellspring of willpower to fall back upon when the going gets tough, and her difficult upbringing tempered her weaknesses. Wanda seeks balance in the world through creative and imaginative means, reading the scales of karma through her mutant gifts and magic, and she commits herself with absolute conviction to improving matters. She cares deeply for others' wellbeing, especially their feelings, and pays close attention to those relationships she chooses to cultivate. The passion of her convictions sometimes overwhelms her capacity to function on a day-to-day level, consuming her attention, and she relies on her close ties to help balance her. Her talent for connecting with others through compassion and the warm fire of charisma rather than overbearing zeal is a touchstone of her outgoing nature, but the damage done to her in the past makes it hard for Wanda to trust outsiders. She builds those bridges superficially and takes a much longer time to accept someone in her inner circle. Insight to others assists her with getting to the heart of a matter, aided in no small part by her ability to read connections between events, people, and places. Wanda has a strong streak of noblesse oblige manifested in doing the proper thing, and acting on her insights to the way things should be. Her decisiveness and inspiration can carry her far, and others with her. Her passion for a cause is inseperable as part of whom she is, and that sensitivity is probably her greatest downfall. She possesses a strong streak of protectiveness that comes in part with her position, one formed over the years. Wanda guards those around her with a shield stronger than adamantine, and no where is this more apparent than in her personal relationships. Those people she lets in hold her absolute love and loyalty. She'll move heaven and earth to allow them to thrive. Anything getting in her way will find her unyielding in her commitment to them.
|Abilities=
'''Chaos Magic:'''
 
Wanda's main power is the innate ability to manipulate and warp reality via altering underlying probabilities, a power rooted in her genetic makeup and enhanced by the influence of the demon Chthon, as well as her nature as the Nexus Being. At a basic level, she can manipulate these probabilities to create good or bad 'luck.' Without particular desire or mental guidance, these shifts manifest unpredictably. Yet by imagining particular outcomes, Wanda can bring specific unlikely scenarios into being with almost unlimited scope and variety. Indeed, by suitably focusing her will (with the degree and length of concentration required varying according to the task), she may make not only the unlikely, but the impossible occur, potentially on a massive scale and only truly limited by her own creativity (and her mental state). Cataloguing the breadth of this ability is difficult, although examples include: * physical destruction or repair, device disruption, etc. * molecular matter control, ie state changes and transmutation * energy control, disruption, amplification, transmutation or even creation * inertia control, ie telekinesis * power negation * cellular modification and natural healing * teleportation * potentially, even resurrection 
'''Divine Heritage:'''
 
Wanda's connection to Chthon, great a curse as it may be, also provides one to the more benevolent Elder Gods: to Oshtur and Gaea as her spiritual 'aunts,' to their own 'parent' the Demiurge (to whom she is something of a conduit), and to Oshtur's son Agamotto, and thus the Vishanti. These beings influence her study and practice of Mystic Arts. Wanda worships Oshtur and Gaea directly to counteract Chthon's influence. With this heritage, she can attempt invoke divine aid through incantations and rituals specifically meant to beseech the gods. With beseeching, the divinity determines the effect and scale based on their power. Wanda is merely the vessel and channel. (TP or staff approved power only.) 
'''Hex:'''
 
The 'Hex' is the most basic form of Wanda's innate Chaos Magic, and it was the primary form of her abilities when they first manifested. While only a narrow subset of her abilities, the Hex is important because of its ease and instinctive nature. While large-scale manipulation of reality requires concentration, will, and can vary in efficacy based upon her mental state, and traditional magic requires knowledge, concentration, and various incantation, Wanda's Hexes are almost second nature. Indeed, in her youth, she often activated them purely by accident, and while she has since learned far greater control, the ease of use remains. These basic Hexes are created with a gesture and within her range of sight, and can either be unseen or visible, depending on purpose and power. They take a limited number of typical forms: * Instant bad luck, altering probabilities to leverage instantaneous misfortune upon a target. Trips and falls, weapon jams and power failures, or spontaneous environmental hazards are common. Against inanimate targets, immediate failure is typical. Usually this ability leaves no visible sign. * Hex-bolts and blasts, invoking chaotic energy to effectively unravel her targets in a more direct form of attack. These readily destroy inanimate targets and can have devastating effect upon the living, though she is hesitant to use this lethal application except upon suitable (and powerful) foes. These are visible as bolts of scarlet energy. * Reflexive shields and wards, deflecting attacks or otherwise turning away danger from herself or her allies. These can be visible fields or manifest only in whatever effect, ie the turning away of a bullet mid-air. 
'''Iron Will:'''
 
No matter how great the potential, no mystic develops their full power without also building up their internal discipline and self-control. Wanda's magic proved inhibited until she learned to master herself sufficiently to gain control, applying those lessons with increasing complexity to balance her natural impulses and emotions. As driven and sensitive as she is, the Scarlet Witch must maintain a strong moral center for her own health. Strategic lessons, meditation, and exposure to a wide array of dangers on cosmic and astral battlefields have given her considerably more mental fortitude than the average caster. Her conviction are rooted firmly in her ideals, and in defense of those ideals, her heels dig in and she can be very difficult to assault mentally or physically. Her power responds to any emotional volatility, and at its peak, can have violent outcomes on the people and environment surrounding her. Her mental endurance is not endless, but she can endure a hell of a lot more than the average person while holding up a spell. 
'''Magic:'''
 
Though born to innate, some would call 'mutant' powers that grant her a potent influence upon reality as a whole, the Scarlet Witch is also heir to a lineage of more traditional magic through her Eastern European and Romani roots. The daughter of a line of witches of similar title, she has great innate talent in the mystic arts, a talent that has been nurtured into maturity under the tutelage of Agatha Harkness. In her career, she has studied and mastered a diverse variety of cultural styles and traditions hailing from every corner of the world, from ancient greece to celtic ireland, from the middle east to east asia. Yet she is strongest in those traditions that reflect the very word and title that define her, in those forms of Witchcraft that invoke the primal feminine energies of reality and a host of female Goddesses. These beings are her guides, and her bulwark against the influence of Chthon. In terms of ability, she is capable of casting almost any sort of spell that would be typical among other Mystic practitioners, and her repertoire includes a wide array of such incantations and invocations suitable to most situations she might encounter. Others she is more than capable of learning and casting with appropriate tomes or teachers. While her Witchcraft reflects the leanings of various cultural styles, across her whole suite of knowledge she may achieve almost any result (and in many case may overlap with her more innate ability). Thus her magic's most important applications are those more geared toward the realms mystic themselves, and toward their inhabitants: summoning, exorcism and banishment, astral projection and dimensional travel, divination, mental communication and illusion, and the raw manipulation of magical forces at a more meta level, such as counterspells and dispelling. 
'''Nexus Being:'''
 
The Scarlet Witch is the reality nexus being of this universe. All magical energies and presences meet in her, and she can tap a voluminous mystical wellspring of power to accomplish feats that no mere mortal or immortal ought to be able to do. She can vastly expand the range of a spell or perform seemingly impossible feats through concentrated will and tapping into a boundless ocean of energies. Fate and time shift a little around her with every action she takes, and she can have a profound impact on the world. Alternate realities can have other nexus beings, but they can never interact with one another. This status makes her an essential measure of how reality is doing. She embodies reality in a fundamental way, so her mental well-being becoming very unstable or chaotic is a sign that things are (or will soon be) going horrifically. Powerful beings watch over her as a matter of circumstance. 
'''Occultism:'''
 
Wanda is an expert on occult topics pertaining to magical lore, mystical entities, grimoires, magical traditions, and dimensions. She recognizes various arcane manifestations and can correctly identify mystical effects or items based on her experience. With time and the assistance of her library, few answers on major matters are likely to elude her for long. Her expertise is strongest in European traditions, extraplanar entities, summoning and banishment. 
'''Witch's Sight:'''
 
The Witch's Sight allows Wanda to see the unseen, perceiving the mystical and supernatural energies that underpin mundane reality. She can see invisible or otherwise concealed foes, detect mystic presences in her vicinity, pierce illusions, view the true form of shapeshifters, witness active magic in use and read auras. Many such observations are instinctive, visible to her with no greater difficulty than the normal visual spectrum. However, with concentration, she can draw on far greater levels of detail, deciphering such characteristics of another spell as to identify its nature, purpose and caster, or reading disruptions or snarls in the flow of magic to identify their source. Though her senses are not infallible and efforts can be taken to ward against them, her power, experience, and most of all her innate connection to reality itself makes it difficult if not impossible to foil her permanently.
|Skills=
'''Combat:'''
 
Due to training regimens undertaken with the Avengers, Wanda maintains herself in good physical condition. She has advanced training in defensive acrobatic techniques and free-running to keep up with her speedster brother. As an extension of certain mystic practices, she also studies some forms of martial arts, with a focus on evasive or blocking techniques, and bladed melee weapons with moderate skill. Particularly in concert with her probability-altering powers, she is capable of holding her own against physically superior opponents. She practices a regular yoga regimen to maintain the overall mental, physical, and spiritual wellness necessary to control her powers. 
'''Combined Casting:'''
 
The art of witchcraft often uses tandem or group casting to achieve lasting rituals among a coven of skilled practitioners. Wanda is an expert at casting in conjunction with another spellcaster, an effect that often bolsters the effect, broadening the power, or simply providing her own energy as a stabilizing force. 
'''Education:'''
 
Wanda received an uneven education from her mentors and personal pursuits in libraries, lectures, and seminars to make up for the deficiencies of her childhood. She possesses a postdoctoral expertise in statistics and probability modeling due to her innate need to calculate outcomes through her mutation. When it comes to history, she is exceptionally well-versed in ancient history through the present day, due in no small part to a mentor old even in the days of Atlantis. Wanda specializes in occult issues and European social history.Since joining the Avengers, she acquired a Masters degree in History from Columbia University. 
'''Languages:'''
 
There are fewer languages Wanda cannot speak or read than she can, thanks to an inherent enchantment. She knows a broad range of ancient languages, including Tibetan, Sanskrit, ancient Greek, demotic and hieratic Egyptian, Latin, and Romany. She's conversant in many central and eastern European languages, including German, Russian, Serbian, Croatian, Transian, and their sisters. Her Mandarin, Italian and French are enough to get by, and her English and Hindi are both almost passable as native. 
'''Meditation:'''
 
Meditation is to Wanda as baking is to the English. She finds it therapeutic and healing, a cathartic experience built into the necessity of her daily life. Mindfulness is essential for her mental wellbeing. Regular practice combined with yoga and breathing techniques allow her a clarity of mind and emotions on most days. 
'''Occultism:'''
 
Wanda is an expert on occult topics pertaining to magical lore, mystical entities, grimoires, magical traditions, and dimensions. She has a particular focus on extraplanar travel and entities, summoning and banishment, and related topics. She recognizes various arcane manifestations and can correctly identify mystical effects or items based on her experience. With time and the assistance of her library, few answers on major matters are likely to elude her for long. Mirroring the strength of her magical styles, her knowledge is greatest in regard to those magical traditions that fit the cultural pattern of 'Witchcraft,' in the sense of those that are female- or goddess- centric, rather than their more patriarchal counterparts. 
'''Survival:'''
 
Living on the run for long left her with a talent for surviving in rather harsh urban and natural environments. Wanda can read the weather, find shelter, and provide adequate food and water in any season in most mundane environments. She is difficult to track and competent at hiding herself from dogged pursuit. In some cases, she can use environmental advantages to help her defeat enemies with substantially stronger physical abilities.
|Resources=
'''Agatha:'''
 
Wanda's primary mentor in the Mystic Arts is Agatha Harkness, an ancient Sorceress of immense power. Recently the leader of a coven of Witches in New Salem, her true history dates to at least before the destruction of Atlantis some twelve thousand years ago. Although an enigmatic figure, to Wanda she is not only a teacher, but surrogate (grand)mother figure as well, acting as a guide and confidant throughout the younger witch's mystical journeys. The connection between the two is unique in its depth and strength. 
'''Avenger:'''
 
'Avengers Assemble' - they're words known throughout the world, and to many call to mind a team that represents the gold standard in heroism, matched only by the Justice League for its fame, list of heroic accomplishments, and the pedigree of its roster. While it would be an understatement to say that Pietro and Wanda don't *quite* enjoy the reputation of the team's founders, membership still has its benefits. Aside from powerful teammates to call on, the Avengers have many resources to offer in terms of bases, equipment, training facilities, and so on. They're also known for their ties to S.H.I.E.L.D., and thus a degree of official legitimacy that many heroes - particularly their mutant cousins - lack. 
'''Energy Wellspring:'''
 
As the Nexus Being, Wanda can potentially tap into vast pools of mystic energy flowing around the planet. In times of desperation, she has instinctively channeled this raw mana into her magic to produce expanded effects at the cost of increased volatility. With greater tutelage, she now knows how to control the flow and incorporate the energy into her spellcasting. This benefit prevents her from drawing on her own energy reserves or depleting them too quickly. The drawbacks to using the world's mystic energy lie primarily on other spellcasters manipulating the source (and hence her spell) and the energy's resistance to being used for corruptive, entropic or otherwise negative effects when it is naturally an expression of Gaia's creative, restorative impulses. 
'''Mystic Community:'''
 
Wanda Maximoff is a member in respected standing of the larger Mystic community. This network, both formal and informal, of Mages, Sorcerers, Witches and Warlocks, of spellcasters every stripe, provides access to a variety of resources. The most important of these may simply be information, for the practice of the Mystic Arts relies on knowledge above all else. While not all of the members of this group are purely allies, there is a mutual respect among their number and a shared understanding that cooperation may be necessary in the face of greater esoteric threats. 
'''Occult Trove:'''
 
Wanda is a mystic collector and connoisseur of arcane antiquities, grimoires, and artifacts. Her respectable, growing collection specialises in witchcraft and traditions of the Mystic Arts, focused on esoteric components needed for ritual spells and spellbooks. She's dedicated herself to recovering objects to keep them safe or out of the wrong hands. She maintains this trove in a few sealed and scattered locations to avoid its easy plundering. 
'''Witch Road:'''
 
Wanda can access a dimension called the "Witch Road," which is better thought of as a connective plane between multiple other areas, particularly the realms of various magical entities connected to different mystic traditions. It is generally accessible only to those of great mystical talent, and the character of the road itself warps to reflect both the powers being sought out and those who walk upon it. A dangerous place, it is filled with unique beings and guardians, although a skillful traveler (as Wanda is at least learning to become) can use it to reach conceptual destinations inaccessible to other methods, such at the abodes of the most powerful magical deities. Perceptions of time and space function differently on the road, which can have both helpful and troubling implications for those who tread upon it.
|Weaknesses=
'''Child of Chthon:'''
 
Chthon is one of the four Elder Gods, a degenerate infernalentity of chaos, darkness, and evil. Though banned from direct influence on Earth, it was able to taint the Maximoff twins with some portion of its essence. Wanda is its living vessel for the majority of this. Although potentially a source of great power, particularly in the Dark Arts and magic of chaos and darkness, Chthon's grip on Wanda poses an ever-present danger. A jealous parent-slash-master, its influence can potentially intercede to protect her, particularly from other forms of possession. It could also serve to empower her, although she would never dare draw upon such forces, or risk possession. Still, no matter what she does, Chthon's influence is with her, inescapable. 
'''Children:'''
 
Both the horrific conditions of her upbringing and a strong ethical stance prevent her from deliberately doing harm to children, typically those under 14. Wanda will put herself in harm's way or take a different tactic rather than inflict physical trauma on a child. The only time her moral code allows her to act differently would be a substantial threat with no other alternative or it's not actually a child (for example, a demon masquerading as a teenaged boy). 
'''Family:'''
 
Where it comes to Wanda's family, the easiest answer is... it's complicated. Originally raised among the Romani alongside her twin brother Pietro, she has subsequently had many of revelations about her heritage, some seemingly in conflict. Rescued and recruited by the mutant leader Magneto, he eventually revealed himself as their true father. Later, she was told that the High Evolutionary had kidnapped the twins at birth, experimenting upon them in and ultimately enhancing her abilities. And subsequently to these already major revelations, Wanda's mystic wanderings have uncovered that her mother was herself a former 'Scarlet Witch', an inherited, if discriminated against, tradition among their people. The truth of all these varied, and in some cases conflicting stories may lay somewhere inbetween it all. Her desire to know and understand herself is motivating force for Wanda, but also one of inner doubt and uncertainty. In any case, Wanda's heritage and family are greatly important matters to her. She cares deeply for her brother, even if their relationship has at times been uneven. Magneto, likewise, occupies a large place in her life. Not just a father figure, he stands as a leader, teacher, a symbol of strength, but also a representation of the dark side of her own conscience. And then there are her adopted families, the Avengers, her mentor Agatha and other mystic tutors, all of whom live large in her heart. These people are all sources of strength for her, but occasionally, they are sources of pain and worry as well. 
'''Stability:'''
 
Equilibrium of spirit and mind lie at the heart of Wanda's abilities. Without a stable foundation, her supernatural abilities suffer. Her mutation to harness potentials relies on clear focus to avoid volatile, sometimes destructive outcomes. When she is emotionally distressed or destabilized, her powers can badly fluctuate. Catastrophic outcomes follow her lashing out blindly, and no one wants that. No one. Similarly, as the reality nexus, Wanda is an excellent barometer for the state of the world. When things aren't going so good for reality, subtle signs show in her demeanor, appearance, and behaviour. Conversely when matters are particularly stable, she is equally grounded. 
'''Trouble Magnet:'''
 
Being a probability warping sorceress would be a problem enough in its own right. Now add a few layers -- Avenger, Agatha Harkness' pupil, priestess of the Earth, nexus, Doctor Strange's ally, daughter to a warlord -- and Wanda is inescapably caught in a web of intrigues. The spiders on that web are no means small or toothless. She attracts attention from demons and aliens right down to humans who would rather burn witches. Trouble travels in her wake and she is drawn to it, in part of her role and position. 
'''Twin:'''
 
While it's already been touched upon that Wanda has a weakness when it comes to her family, a special, separate note must be made on behalf of Pietro. Pietro is, for better or worse, her literal other half. They are twins and have been together their entire lives, suffering every trial and torment, every slim glimmer of hope together. For a time, they only had one another to rely on in a world that hated them, and while they've since discovered a larger family and opportunities for belonging, their bond is still the oldest and most important. There is absolutely nothing that could tear them apart, not forever. That said, the two are very much different people, polar opposites, even, in being supplementary halves. On the run, and in their early years with the Brotherhood, Pietro largely led and 'guided' Wanda, although often in a domineering way. For years, she followed him, accepted his treatment of her, and even defended his hot-headed arrogance to others. Suffice it to say, she's starting to outgrow that. While Wanda has matured, learned to stand on her own, his words *do* carry influence with her and clashes with her brother still take their toll. Naturally, any harm done to him is likely to both shake and enrage her, and such emotional catalysts can terribly destabilize Wanda's control over her powers... leading to dangerous results for basically everyone.
}}
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Wanda_coat.jpg
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[[Category:Mutant-OOC]][[Category:Mystic Arts-OOC]][[Category:Avengers]] [[Category:JL Dark]]

Scarlet Witch

2024-05-02T16:15:51Z

Kstar:

{{CharacterNew
|NameOnMUSH=Wanda Maximoff
|Color=#333
|TextColor=#c1c1c1
|Char_id=70
|Img=https://www.unitedheroesmush.com/images/7/74/WandaMaximoff.jpg
|FullName=Wanda Maximoff
|Gender=Female
|Species=Mutant
|Theme=Marvel
|Chartype=DFC
|Active=Active
|Occupation=Witch
|Citizenship=Transia, Genosha, United States
|Residence=New York
|Education=History (MA)
|Groups=[[Mystic Arts-OOC]], [[Avengers]], [[JL Dark]], [[Mutant-OOC]],
|Quote="I can't control their fear - only my own."
|PAge=33
|AAge=33
|DOB=31 October 1997
|Height=170 cm (5'7")
|Weight=63 kg (139 lb)
|Hair=Brown
|Eyes=Green
|Actor=Elizabeth Olsen
|Song=
|Profile=Scarlet Witch is a figure of contradictions. Earning a degree of infamy as an early ally of the mutant Brotherhood leader Magneto, a villainous figure to many, she and her brother turned from his service and joined the Avengers in some of their transitional years. As a member of the team, she has proven herself as a powerful hero, wielding her own brand of 'Chaos Magic' along with more traditional mystical talents to varied, and spectacular effect. Still, people are slow to trust- and especially, to trust a Witch.
===Current Player Approved: Available for Application===
|Description=
'''Description:'''
 
This woman is a classic Eastern European beauty, dark-haired, lightly olive-skinned, a mix of the familiar and the exotic with an inexplicable touch of mystery. Relatively tall without being towering, her figure is all elegant feminine curves, neither too subtle nor overly exaggerated. Her face is a long tapered oval, with high cheekbones but otherwise soft features. Her eyes are deep jade green, vivid and dark, and just somewhat conspicuously large in her face. Their presence is made more striking by long lashes and the slightest smudge of smokey eyeshadow. Crimson-painted lips are a final accent of color, standing against the rich auburn of her hair, an enviably glossy mane that falls around her neck and shoulders in rippling waves. It is only tamed, drawn back from her face and behind ears, by her most noticeable fashion accessory: a jeweled tiara or headdress of sorts, comprised of a latticework of small scarlet stones. The piece runs around her forehead, where a larger jewel stands at its center, with two vaguely horn- or ear-like peaks above her temples, and tassels dangling before her ears. Black and red, contrasting dark and fiery light characterize her outfit, which seems a mixture of styles and sensibilities: modern and vintage, simple and avant-garde, conservative and provocative. The innermost layer is black and form-fitting, tight pants and a low-cut, off-shoulder bodysuit top. A front-laced outerwear corset is worn atop this, the bright crimson garment a touch from another time with its intricate detailing. Detached statin sleeves of rich vermillion worn over the darker ones of her top, leading to to fingerless black gloves. Calf-high black leather boots boast substansial heels, giving her just enough extra height to stand near eye-to-eye with men of more average stature. To complete the archaic, exotic flair of it all, she wears a voluminous scarlet cape, the mantle resting on her shoulders and secured over the notch of her throat by a strange winged brooch.
|History=
'''History:'''
 
The early life of Wanda Maximoff is surrounded in mystery, a mass of interconnecting tales both complementary and contradictory. Yet this mystery, this confusion is every bit as defining as a more certain background would be. The woman's life is defined by the unknown, by contradiction, uncertainty, and most of all, by chaos itself. There is certainty that Wanda and her twin brother Pietro are of Eastern European descent, born around the border of Serbia and Transia, and raised among the Roma people who reside there. It is from the couple that raised them that they take their name, the only parents they knew as children. And it was in their care that they first experienced hatred as suspicion turned against their camp. Accusations of theft, true or not. Superstitious whispers over the talents the young mutants displayed. Simple prejudice. No matter the real cause, they fled their old life in flames. Hardship followed hardship in those early days. The twins wandered, rarely welcome, distrusted for any number of reasons. Pietro was the only constant Wanda had in those early days. They learned to survive in places besieged by war and unrest, hunted by Chthon's cult, and Wanda struggled with the spectre of her powers. In one incident, she reflexively defended herself against an assault. Subjected to mob justice by an armed village, the twins nearly lost lives if not for the man who came to their aid. Erik Lensherr, better known as Magneto. It was the first of many shocking revelations, when Magneto told them what they were, taking them underwing. He guided them in their powers, Wanda's 'hexes,' her brother's speed. His formidable reputation provided protection from enemies known and not, and badly desired stability. But The twins fell in with him for a time, for Magneto revealed he was their father, their mother dying in childbirth in perilous conditions. Yet this could not undo the doubts the siblings harbored. Finally they fled, going to America. There, amidst doubts about mutantkind, there were also people with powers who were celebrated. The Avengers opened themselves in an unprecedented 'audition' for new members. The twins soon joined. The years that followed have been a time of growth and change, of heroic deeds and failures, and for Wanda, a time of questions and seeking. Out from under her father's controlling hand, Wanda met her tutor, companion, and friend: the archsorceress Agatha Harkness, who felt in her a great capacity for the mystic arts, and took her on as a protege. Under her guidance, Wanda learned about her natural abilities and refined her grasp on the Mystic Arts. In this quest she found other truths, if not ones she had ever imagined or sought out: she discovered the dark influences on her soul, the touch of the Elder God Chthon. She discovered her unique place in the universe as a 'Nexus being' for their reality, a trait that seemed to draw danger to her as much as it might empower her. More recently, she reconciled with her father as he began to moderate his own ways of promoting mutant kind. She stepped into an important role in the mystic community as the pursuit for knowledge and experience brought her in contact with ever more practitioners. She rejects the darkness of her birth and genetic tampering, determined to make her own path, a good path. Despite her fated responsibility to the universe, she somehow still feels so alone in it. Such has prompted many mystic seekings, yet none could prepare her for the answer they finally revealed, the final of many revelations of her heritage: a brief glimpse of the spirit of her own mother, a woman who herself bore the mantle of the Scarlet Witch and claimed a long-standing mystic tradition. How such a history may fit with her father's tale she is unsure - yet it is a question she now must face.
|Personality=
'''Personality:'''
 
Wanda is a person of internal contradiction. She is a daughter of chaos in every sense of the word, but also the binding nexus for the world. She was born to evil, and aspires to live up to most benevolent prototypes of her craft, to be, in essence 'the Good Witch' personified. A passionate and loving woman with a strong moral compass and an openness toward others, she is strong... yet she is also fragile. Wanda is a classic INFJ personality, the "Advocate" of the MBTI, with a few twists. Behind her gentle manner, she holds a sharp intellectual streak that weaves around the idealistic notions that fuel her endless drive to better the world. Her deep-rooted beliefs and opinions give her an enormous wellspring of willpower to fall back upon when the going gets tough, and her difficult upbringing tempered her weaknesses. Wanda seeks balance in the world through creative and imaginative means, reading the scales of karma through her mutant gifts and magic, and she commits herself with absolute conviction to improving matters. She cares deeply for others' wellbeing, especially their feelings, and pays close attention to those relationships she chooses to cultivate. The passion of her convictions sometimes overwhelms her capacity to function on a day-to-day level, consuming her attention, and she relies on her close ties to help balance her. Her talent for connecting with others through compassion and the warm fire of charisma rather than overbearing zeal is a touchstone of her outgoing nature, but the damage done to her in the past makes it hard for Wanda to trust outsiders. She builds those bridges superficially and takes a much longer time to accept someone in her inner circle. Insight to others assists her with getting to the heart of a matter, aided in no small part by her ability to read connections between events, people, and places. Wanda has a strong streak of noblesse oblige manifested in doing the proper thing, and acting on her insights to the way things should be. Her decisiveness and inspiration can carry her far, and others with her. Her passion for a cause is inseperable as part of whom she is, and that sensitivity is probably her greatest downfall. She possesses a strong streak of protectiveness that comes in part with her position, one formed over the years. Wanda guards those around her with a shield stronger than adamantine, and no where is this more apparent than in her personal relationships. Those people she lets in hold her absolute love and loyalty. She'll move heaven and earth to allow them to thrive. Anything getting in her way will find her unyielding in her commitment to them.
|Abilities=
'''Chaos Magic:'''
 
Wanda's main power is the innate ability to manipulate and warp reality via altering underlying probabilities, a power rooted in her genetic makeup and enhanced by the influence of the demon Chthon, as well as her nature as the Nexus Being. At a basic level, she can manipulate these probabilities to create good or bad 'luck.' Without particular desire or mental guidance, these shifts manifest unpredictably. Yet by imagining particular outcomes, Wanda can bring specific unlikely scenarios into being with almost unlimited scope and variety. Indeed, by suitably focusing her will (with the degree and length of concentration required varying according to the task), she may make not only the unlikely, but the impossible occur, potentially on a massive scale and only truly limited by her own creativity (and her mental state). Cataloguing the breadth of this ability is difficult, although examples include: * physical destruction or repair, device disruption, etc. * molecular matter control, ie state changes and transmutation * energy control, disruption, amplification, transmutation or even creation * inertia control, ie telekinesis * power negation * cellular modification and natural healing * teleportation * potentially, even resurrection 
'''Divine Heritage:'''
 
Wanda's connection to Chthon, great a curse as it may be, also provides one to the more benevolent Elder Gods: to Oshtur and Gaea as her spiritual 'aunts,' to their own 'parent' the Demiurge (to whom she is something of a conduit), and to Oshtur's son Agamotto, and thus the Vishanti. These beings influence her study and practice of Mystic Arts. Wanda worships Oshtur and Gaea directly to counteract Chthon's influence. With this heritage, she can attempt invoke divine aid through incantations and rituals specifically meant to beseech the gods. With beseeching, the divinity determines the effect and scale based on their power. Wanda is merely the vessel and channel. (TP or staff approved power only.) 
'''Hex:'''
 
The 'Hex' is the most basic form of Wanda's innate Chaos Magic, and it was the primary form of her abilities when they first manifested. While only a narrow subset of her abilities, the Hex is important because of its ease and instinctive nature. While large-scale manipulation of reality requires concentration, will, and can vary in efficacy based upon her mental state, and traditional magic requires knowledge, concentration, and various incantation, Wanda's Hexes are almost second nature. Indeed, in her youth, she often activated them purely by accident, and while she has since learned far greater control, the ease of use remains. These basic Hexes are created with a gesture and within her range of sight, and can either be unseen or visible, depending on purpose and power. They take a limited number of typical forms: * Instant bad luck, altering probabilities to leverage instantaneous misfortune upon a target. Trips and falls, weapon jams and power failures, or spontaneous environmental hazards are common. Against inanimate targets, immediate failure is typical. Usually this ability leaves no visible sign. * Hex-bolts and blasts, invoking chaotic energy to effectively unravel her targets in a more direct form of attack. These readily destroy inanimate targets and can have devastating effect upon the living, though she is hesitant to use this lethal application except upon suitable (and powerful) foes. These are visible as bolts of scarlet energy. * Reflexive shields and wards, deflecting attacks or otherwise turning away danger from herself or her allies. These can be visible fields or manifest only in whatever effect, ie the turning away of a bullet mid-air. 
'''Iron Will:'''
 
No matter how great the potential, no mystic develops their full power without also building up their internal discipline and self-control. Wanda's magic proved inhibited until she learned to master herself sufficiently to gain control, applying those lessons with increasing complexity to balance her natural impulses and emotions. As driven and sensitive as she is, the Scarlet Witch must maintain a strong moral center for her own health. Strategic lessons, meditation, and exposure to a wide array of dangers on cosmic and astral battlefields have given her considerably more mental fortitude than the average caster. Her conviction are rooted firmly in her ideals, and in defense of those ideals, her heels dig in and she can be very difficult to assault mentally or physically. Her power responds to any emotional volatility, and at its peak, can have violent outcomes on the people and environment surrounding her. Her mental endurance is not endless, but she can endure a hell of a lot more than the average person while holding up a spell. 
'''Magic:'''
 
Though born to innate, some would call 'mutant' powers that grant her a potent influence upon reality as a whole, the Scarlet Witch is also heir to a lineage of more traditional magic through her Eastern European and Romani roots. The daughter of a line of witches of similar title, she has great innate talent in the mystic arts, a talent that has been nurtured into maturity under the tutelage of Agatha Harkness. In her career, she has studied and mastered a diverse variety of cultural styles and traditions hailing from every corner of the world, from ancient greece to celtic ireland, from the middle east to east asia. Yet she is strongest in those traditions that reflect the very word and title that define her, in those forms of Witchcraft that invoke the primal feminine energies of reality and a host of female Goddesses. These beings are her guides, and her bulwark against the influence of Chthon. In terms of ability, she is capable of casting almost any sort of spell that would be typical among other Mystic practitioners, and her repertoire includes a wide array of such incantations and invocations suitable to most situations she might encounter. Others she is more than capable of learning and casting with appropriate tomes or teachers. While her Witchcraft reflects the leanings of various cultural styles, across her whole suite of knowledge she may achieve almost any result (and in many case may overlap with her more innate ability). Thus her magic's most important applications are those more geared toward the realms mystic themselves, and toward their inhabitants: summoning, exorcism and banishment, astral projection and dimensional travel, divination, mental communication and illusion, and the raw manipulation of magical forces at a more meta level, such as counterspells and dispelling. 
'''Nexus Being:'''
 
The Scarlet Witch is the reality nexus being of this universe. All magical energies and presences meet in her, and she can tap a voluminous mystical wellspring of power to accomplish feats that no mere mortal or immortal ought to be able to do. She can vastly expand the range of a spell or perform seemingly impossible feats through concentrated will and tapping into a boundless ocean of energies. Fate and time shift a little around her with every action she takes, and she can have a profound impact on the world. Alternate realities can have other nexus beings, but they can never interact with one another. This status makes her an essential measure of how reality is doing. She embodies reality in a fundamental way, so her mental well-being becoming very unstable or chaotic is a sign that things are (or will soon be) going horrifically. Powerful beings watch over her as a matter of circumstance. 
'''Occultism:'''
 
Wanda is an expert on occult topics pertaining to magical lore, mystical entities, grimoires, magical traditions, and dimensions. She recognizes various arcane manifestations and can correctly identify mystical effects or items based on her experience. With time and the assistance of her library, few answers on major matters are likely to elude her for long. Her expertise is strongest in European traditions, extraplanar entities, summoning and banishment. 
'''Witch's Sight:'''
 
The Witch's Sight allows Wanda to see the unseen, perceiving the mystical and supernatural energies that underpin mundane reality. She can see invisible or otherwise concealed foes, detect mystic presences in her vicinity, pierce illusions, view the true form of shapeshifters, witness active magic in use and read auras. Many such observations are instinctive, visible to her with no greater difficulty than the normal visual spectrum. However, with concentration, she can draw on far greater levels of detail, deciphering such characteristics of another spell as to identify its nature, purpose and caster, or reading disruptions or snarls in the flow of magic to identify their source. Though her senses are not infallible and efforts can be taken to ward against them, her power, experience, and most of all her innate connection to reality itself makes it difficult if not impossible to foil her permanently.
|Skills=
'''Combat:'''
 
Due to training regimens undertaken with the Avengers, Wanda maintains herself in good physical condition. She has advanced training in defensive acrobatic techniques and free-running to keep up with her speedster brother. As an extension of certain mystic practices, she also studies some forms of martial arts, with a focus on evasive or blocking techniques, and bladed melee weapons with moderate skill. Particularly in concert with her probability-altering powers, she is capable of holding her own against physically superior opponents. She practices a regular yoga regimen to maintain the overall mental, physical, and spiritual wellness necessary to control her powers. 
'''Combined Casting:'''
 
The art of witchcraft often uses tandem or group casting to achieve lasting rituals among a coven of skilled practitioners. Wanda is an expert at casting in conjunction with another spellcaster, an effect that often bolsters the effect, broadening the power, or simply providing her own energy as a stabilizing force. 
'''Education:'''
 
Wanda received an uneven education from her mentors and personal pursuits in libraries, lectures, and seminars to make up for the deficiencies of her childhood. She possesses a postdoctoral expertise in statistics and probability modeling due to her innate need to calculate outcomes through her mutation. When it comes to history, she is exceptionally well-versed in ancient history through the present day, due in no small part to a mentor old even in the days of Atlantis. Wanda specializes in occult issues and European social history.Since joining the Avengers, she acquired a Masters degree in History from Columbia University. 
'''Languages:'''
 
There are fewer languages Wanda cannot speak or read than she can, thanks to an inherent enchantment. She knows a broad range of ancient languages, including Tibetan, Sanskrit, ancient Greek, demotic and hieratic Egyptian, Latin, and Romany. She's conversant in many central and eastern European languages, including German, Russian, Serbian, Croatian, Transian, and their sisters. Her Mandarin, Italian and French are enough to get by, and her English and Hindi are both almost passable as native. 
'''Meditation:'''
 
Meditation is to Wanda as baking is to the English. She finds it therapeutic and healing, a cathartic experience built into the necessity of her daily life. Mindfulness is essential for her mental wellbeing. Regular practice combined with yoga and breathing techniques allow her a clarity of mind and emotions on most days. 
'''Occultism:'''
 
Wanda is an expert on occult topics pertaining to magical lore, mystical entities, grimoires, magical traditions, and dimensions. She has a particular focus on extraplanar travel and entities, summoning and banishment, and related topics. She recognizes various arcane manifestations and can correctly identify mystical effects or items based on her experience. With time and the assistance of her library, few answers on major matters are likely to elude her for long. Mirroring the strength of her magical styles, her knowledge is greatest in regard to those magical traditions that fit the cultural pattern of 'Witchcraft,' in the sense of those that are female- or goddess- centric, rather than their more patriarchal counterparts. 
'''Survival:'''
 
Living on the run for long left her with a talent for surviving in rather harsh urban and natural environments. Wanda can read the weather, find shelter, and provide adequate food and water in any season in most mundane environments. She is difficult to track and competent at hiding herself from dogged pursuit. In some cases, she can use environmental advantages to help her defeat enemies with substantially stronger physical abilities.
|Resources=
'''Agatha:'''
 
Wanda's primary mentor in the Mystic Arts is Agatha Harkness, an ancient Sorceress of immense power. Recently the leader of a coven of Witches in New Salem, her true history dates to at least before the destruction of Atlantis some twelve thousand years ago. Although an enigmatic figure, to Wanda she is not only a teacher, but surrogate (grand)mother figure as well, acting as a guide and confidant throughout the younger witch's mystical journeys. The connection between the two is unique in its depth and strength. 
'''Avenger:'''
 
'Avengers Assemble' - they're words known throughout the world, and to many call to mind a team that represents the gold standard in heroism, matched only by the Justice League for its fame, list of heroic accomplishments, and the pedigree of its roster. While it would be an understatement to say that Pietro and Wanda don't *quite* enjoy the reputation of the team's founders, membership still has its benefits. Aside from powerful teammates to call on, the Avengers have many resources to offer in terms of bases, equipment, training facilities, and so on. They're also known for their ties to S.H.I.E.L.D., and thus a degree of official legitimacy that many heroes - particularly their mutant cousins - lack. 
'''Energy Wellspring:'''
 
As the Nexus Being, Wanda can potentially tap into vast pools of mystic energy flowing around the planet. In times of desperation, she has instinctively channeled this raw mana into her magic to produce expanded effects at the cost of increased volatility. With greater tutelage, she now knows how to control the flow and incorporate the energy into her spellcasting. This benefit prevents her from drawing on her own energy reserves or depleting them too quickly. The drawbacks to using the world's mystic energy lie primarily on other spellcasters manipulating the source (and hence her spell) and the energy's resistance to being used for corruptive, entropic or otherwise negative effects when it is naturally an expression of Gaia's creative, restorative impulses. 
'''Mystic Community:'''
 
Wanda Maximoff is a member in respected standing of the larger Mystic community. This network, both formal and informal, of Mages, Sorcerers, Witches and Warlocks, of spellcasters every stripe, provides access to a variety of resources. The most important of these may simply be information, for the practice of the Mystic Arts relies on knowledge above all else. While not all of the members of this group are purely allies, there is a mutual respect among their number and a shared understanding that cooperation may be necessary in the face of greater esoteric threats. 
'''Occult Trove:'''
 
Wanda is a mystic collector and connoisseur of arcane antiquities, grimoires, and artifacts. Her respectable, growing collection specialises in witchcraft and traditions of the Mystic Arts, focused on esoteric components needed for ritual spells and spellbooks. She's dedicated herself to recovering objects to keep them safe or out of the wrong hands. She maintains this trove in a few sealed and scattered locations to avoid its easy plundering. 
'''Witch Road:'''
 
Wanda can access a dimension called the "Witch Road," which is better thought of as a connective plane between multiple other areas, particularly the realms of various magical entities connected to different mystic traditions. It is generally accessible only to those of great mystical talent, and the character of the road itself warps to reflect both the powers being sought out and those who walk upon it. A dangerous place, it is filled with unique beings and guardians, although a skillful traveler (as Wanda is at least learning to become) can use it to reach conceptual destinations inaccessible to other methods, such at the abodes of the most powerful magical deities. Perceptions of time and space function differently on the road, which can have both helpful and troubling implications for those who tread upon it.
|Weaknesses=
'''Child of Chthon:'''
 
Chthon is one of the four Elder Gods, a degenerate infernalentity of chaos, darkness, and evil. Though banned from direct influence on Earth, it was able to taint the Maximoff twins with some portion of its essence. Wanda is its living vessel for the majority of this. Although potentially a source of great power, particularly in the Dark Arts and magic of chaos and darkness, Chthon's grip on Wanda poses an ever-present danger. A jealous parent-slash-master, its influence can potentially intercede to protect her, particularly from other forms of possession. It could also serve to empower her, although she would never dare draw upon such forces, or risk possession. Still, no matter what she does, Chthon's influence is with her, inescapable. 
'''Children:'''
 
Both the horrific conditions of her upbringing and a strong ethical stance prevent her from deliberately doing harm to children, typically those under 14. Wanda will put herself in harm's way or take a different tactic rather than inflict physical trauma on a child. The only time her moral code allows her to act differently would be a substantial threat with no other alternative or it's not actually a child (for example, a demon masquerading as a teenaged boy). 
'''Family:'''
 
Where it comes to Wanda's family, the easiest answer is... it's complicated. Originally raised among the Romani alongside her twin brother Pietro, she has subsequently had many of revelations about her heritage, some seemingly in conflict. Rescued and recruited by the mutant leader Magneto, he eventually revealed himself as their true father. Later, she was told that the High Evolutionary had kidnapped the twins at birth, experimenting upon them in and ultimately enhancing her abilities. And subsequently to these already major revelations, Wanda's mystic wanderings have uncovered that her mother was herself a former 'Scarlet Witch', an inherited, if discriminated against, tradition among their people. The truth of all these varied, and in some cases conflicting stories may lay somewhere inbetween it all. Her desire to know and understand herself is motivating force for Wanda, but also one of inner doubt and uncertainty. In any case, Wanda's heritage and family are greatly important matters to her. She cares deeply for her brother, even if their relationship has at times been uneven. Magneto, likewise, occupies a large place in her life. Not just a father figure, he stands as a leader, teacher, a symbol of strength, but also a representation of the dark side of her own conscience. And then there are her adopted families, the Avengers, her mentor Agatha and other mystic tutors, all of whom live large in her heart. These people are all sources of strength for her, but occasionally, they are sources of pain and worry as well. 
'''Stability:'''
 
Equilibrium of spirit and mind lie at the heart of Wanda's abilities. Without a stable foundation, her supernatural abilities suffer. Her mutation to harness potentials relies on clear focus to avoid volatile, sometimes destructive outcomes. When she is emotionally distressed or destabilized, her powers can badly fluctuate. Catastrophic outcomes follow her lashing out blindly, and no one wants that. No one. Similarly, as the reality nexus, Wanda is an excellent barometer for the state of the world. When things aren't going so good for reality, subtle signs show in her demeanor, appearance, and behaviour. Conversely when matters are particularly stable, she is equally grounded. 
'''Trouble Magnet:'''
 
Being a probability warping sorceress would be a problem enough in its own right. Now add a few layers -- Avenger, Agatha Harkness' pupil, priestess of the Earth, nexus, Doctor Strange's ally, daughter to a warlord -- and Wanda is inescapably caught in a web of intrigues. The spiders on that web are no means small or toothless. She attracts attention from demons and aliens right down to humans who would rather burn witches. Trouble travels in her wake and she is drawn to it, in part of her role and position. 
'''Twin:'''
 
While it's already been touched upon that Wanda has a weakness when it comes to her family, a special, separate note must be made on behalf of Pietro. Pietro is, for better or worse, her literal other half. They are twins and have been together their entire lives, suffering every trial and torment, every slim glimmer of hope together. For a time, they only had one another to rely on in a world that hated them, and while they've since discovered a larger family and opportunities for belonging, their bond is still the oldest and most important. There is absolutely nothing that could tear them apart, not forever. That said, the two are very much different people, polar opposites, even, in being supplementary halves. On the run, and in their early years with the Brotherhood, Pietro largely led and 'guided' Wanda, although often in a domineering way. For years, she followed him, accepted his treatment of her, and even defended his hot-headed arrogance to others. Suffice it to say, she's starting to outgrow that. While Wanda has matured, learned to stand on her own, his words *do* carry influence with her and clashes with her brother still take their toll. Naturally, any harm done to him is likely to both shake and enrage her, and such emotional catalysts can terribly destabilize Wanda's control over her powers... leading to dangerous results for basically everyone.
}}
<gallery>
Wanda_coat.jpg
</gallery>
[[Category:Mutant-OOC]][[Category:Mystic Arts-OOC]][[Category:Avengers]] [[Category:JL Dark]]

Stepford Cuckoos

2024-04-09T16:03:29Z

Kstar:

{{CharacterNew
|NameOnMUSH=Stepford Cuckoos
|Color=#333
|TextColor=#c1c1c1
|Char_id=1702
|Img=https://www.unitedheroesmush.com/images/1/11/Cuckoos.jpg
|FullName= Sophie, Phoebe, Irma, Celeste, and Esme Cuckoo
|Gender=Female
|Species=Mutant
|Theme=Marvel
|Chartype=FC
|Active=Active
|Occupation=Students
|Citizenship=US Citizens
|Residence=Xavier Institute
|Education=Some high school
|Groups=[[Xavier's School]], [[Brotherhood]], [[Mutant-OOC]]
|Quote=Irma, Sophie, Celeste, and Phoebe: "Esme! What is wrong with you?!"

Esme: "I... I can't..."

Irma, Sophie, Celeste, and Phoebe: "There is no 'I' Esme, there's only 'we', you're nothing!"
|PAge=22
|AAge=22
|DOB=11 August 2008
|Height=165 cm (5'5")
|Weight=47 kg (103 lb)
|Hair=Blonde
|Eyes=Blue
|Actor=Skyler Rose Samuels
|Song="We Are Family" by The Sister Sledge
|Profile=The Cuckoos are clones of Emma Frost who have been sent to the Xavier institute to infiltrate and gather the details of the place. They are fresh from their vats and aging tubes, as well as new to Xavier's school with deeper unknown sinister goals.
===Current Player Approved: Character Available for Application===
|Description=
'''Description:'''
 
Five girls, young, each one a carbon copy of the other and almost perfectly beautiful by today's standards, like works of art. The Cuckoos reflect maturity beyond their age. Despite the twinge of constant youthful curiosity in their eyes, the girls exude responsibility and sophistication, almost as if they come from nobility and good breeding stock. With figures of lithe dancers, they have the curves and shapes that often get an appraising eye or wicked and intent grin.

Silky blonde hair of spun gold, cut just above the shoulder line. The features of their face are fair, retaining a strong distinctive British heritage, as if they were crafted with the most artistic hands, yet there is nothing fragile or delicate about their beauty, more dangerous and possibly deadly. Then you come to the eyes, like gems of cut blue ice given life. harbouring an awareness and cold pierce that can send shivers down one's spine

Normal mode of dress consists of a classy but sexy uniform of a white dressy blouse, with a black school uniform blazer overtop, and a matching pencil skirt, giving them an almost business-like quality. Their legs are bare other than the white knee socks stretched tightly, displaying the lengthy athleticism and smooth skin, and their feet are adorned with a black pair of girl's loafers. Top it off with a tennis bracelet around their wrists, a sensible pair of silver earrings and an expensive looking black and white diamond choker around their necks.
|History=
'''History:'''
 
The history of the Cuckoos is a short one, in that they're technically not even a year old yet. The story of clones tend to have that lack of depth and yet they're so full of drama. Starting when Emma Frost was kidnapped by one Mister Sinister, the clone's piece of genetic sample was taken from the White Queen against her will and even her knowledge. Skip ahead and Sinister would have been coerced with a large sum of money and favor to sell the sample (At least a portion of it) and the buyer quickly went to work creating his greatest weapon. The Thousands of clones that will be used to take over the world! With the aging artificially sped up, the man sent out a quintuplet of his creations out into the world. He was overly careful to avoid having his own mind read by the group of girls. The five were given names, and identities and sent out in the world with a simple goal to infiltrate and report about how best to remove the X-Men from their 'father's' way in order to take over the world.
|Personality=
'''Personality:'''
 
After getting some time in the Xavier Institute, the girls, while still a hive mind, developed individual personality traits: Phoebe has demonstrated some aggressive behavior, Esme is power hungry and rather selfish, Sophie is heroic, and along with Esme they are both above the rest in terms of power and are able to lead the hivemind, Irma enjoys playing piano, and is the most romantic, Celeste was initially the most timid and affectionate of the Cuckoos, she is the third contender for the leader position and is generally defined by being more mature than the others. According to her sisters, Celeste has began to think she is better than them. Celeste has urged her sisters to watch something a bit more self-improving than Glee.

Collectively, For their age, the girls are pretty well put together. They lack a lot of the immaturity associated with girls their age. Like Emma, they have a very refined nature which is displayed in their usual mode of dress and the way they carry themselves. They can be cold, well-spoken and knowledgeable. They do what they have to do to get what they need to get done, regardless of feelings from others or circumstances with extreme results at times, giving them a questionable sense of ethics. Despite their vast powers, they rely primarily on cunning. They can be ruthless, but care deeply for their friends. The Cuckoos are supremely confident in their abilities, yet tend to underestimate their adversaries and allies alike. Perhaps their most defining personality trait is their desire to be in control, both of herself and their environment.
|Abilities=
'''Hive Mind:'''
 
The Stepford Cuckoos have a linked hive mind, which allows them to share thoughts and maintain a continuous telepathic connection. The link is strongest when the girls are in close physical proximity. This mental phalanx also allows for increased telepathic strength and shared intellect. The girls' powers are greater the sum of its parts. A stronger personality can take lead of the hive mind, but the girls still maintain their independence. 
'''Telepathy:''' The Cuckoos can read minds and project their thoughts to others with a range of roughly 200 meters. Though they individually possess their own telepathy, but their telepathic abilities are greater when the girls join together. The girls have stated that together they can block even very talented telepaths from reading their minds. Only able to use their mind altering within 50 meters and 10 meters respectively. Even at their young age, they're nearly on par with 'mother' only in sheer telepathic strength. They lack the finesse, precision and experience that Emma Frost possesses, yet they are capable of an array of telepathic skills:

'''Illusions:''' The Cuckoos can create realistic psychic illusions and cause people to experience events which are not actually occurring.

'''Mind Alteration:''' The Cuckoos are able to alter the minds of others by force of will. This can be restoring memories or transferring knowledge.

'''Telepathic Tracking:''' The Cuckoos' psionic senses enable them to detect and track other sentient beings by their unique psionic emanations or thought patterns. This ability is highly sensitive to proximity, but can be enhanced with the use of Cerebra.

'''Astral Projection:''' The Cuckoos are capable of sending astral projections, astral travel, and communicating with others astrally through their own will, or through contact with the thoughts and memories of others.

'''Paralysis:''' The Cuckoos are able to effect certain areas of the brain to induce temporary mental or physical paralysis.

'''Memory Erasure and Restoration:''' The Cuckoos can erase any awareness of particular memories or cause total amnesia. They can also restore memories.

'''Mental Triangulation:''' Due to their hive mind, the Cuckoos have the perspective of multiple directions and are able to triangulate on individuals' minds. 
 
'''Flawless Organic Diamond Form:''' Like their biological mother, the Cuckoos have the ability to transform themselves into a flexible, translucent, organic diamond-like substance while retaining mobility. In this form, their skin is as hard as real diamond. In this state, food and water are not needed for a undetermined amount of time. Their diamond form does require a conscious hold as however. Unlike Emma Frost, their diamond forms are completely flawless. Nothing can enter or escape from their core. However, maintaining this form for extended period of time reduces their emotional capabilities. While in their Diamond form, the girls have specific traits:
 '''Telepathic Immunity:''' Although they are immune to all psychic powers, they can not use their telepathy.

'''Superhuman Strength:''' In diamond form they can lift 2 tons.(maximum)

'''Superhuman Stamina:''' Their diamond form grants the ability to sustain peak exertion for up to a day.

'''Superhuman Durability:''' Their diamond form augments their skin, bone, and muscle to become stronger and harder than human. They're far more durable in this form, but capable of being shattered or broken by diamond objects or harder than such with enough or repeated force.

'''Compartmental Diamond Transformation:''' Unlike Emma, the Cuckoos can selectively transform discrete parts of their bodies.
|Skills=
'''Acting:'''
 
The Cuckoos are gifted and talented actresses, in that they not only divine the reactions that are expected of them, but they're able to pull them off nearly perfectly with their own flair. The girls have seen and gleamed a few reactions off people that they're able to recreate at any time, yet these motions and reactions still feel alien and false to the girls. 
'''Home Training:'''
 
Taught by cold, calculating and manipulative scientists, the girls are aware of their powers and have several ideas of what they can do with them, and not taught how to use them with hesitation. They will kill and assimilate knowledge like they were taught to. 
'''Scientifically Minded:'''
 
The girl's don't quite possess emotions like normal humans or mutants, they're too fresh in the world and thus they possess a Spock like, analytical mind allowing them to think and process information entirely without emotional inhibitors. This is due to their rather, sci-fi up bringing and birthing process. The girls are incredibly open minded as far as what's scientifically possible.
|Resources=
'''Cuckoos:'''
 
The Cuckoos can always rely on their sisters. The five are rarely ever apart, so they always are ready to help each other out in any situation, as there's safety in numbers and especially when those numbers have a connection beyond their physical groupings, but an incredibly powerful mental connection. That's to say nothing of the nearly one thousand dormant fellow clones back at the lab where they Cuckoos were originally grown. 
'''Nanocarriers:'''
 
The 'father' figure did install in them nano-machines that are capable of broadcasting, and recording through their bones and brainstems, meaning they possess within them, advanced scientific technology, built for spying and recording for their nameless 'father'. 
'''Unknown Benefactor:'''
 
The Cuckoos do have a 'father' in a nameless man that was the one that started the cloning process and instilled them their goals and purposes, and despite the head strong nature they all possess, they're welcome back to the 'facility' they come from though to return would be a slight admission of failure and that's something the Cuckoo's refuse to allow to occur. But the resources are there. 
'''Xavier's:'''
 
The girls have access to Xavier's for a room and a school offered phone (That the girls refuse) and the laptops and a few others items. Like vehicles and clothes and bathrooms and shampoo and conditioners.
|Weaknesses=
'''Born Yesterday:'''
 
The Cuckoos are beyond naïve, they're less than a year old despite their advanced physical appearances. They have to look into a person's mind in order to understand how they're supposed to respond to nearly any social situation. 
'''Cuckoos:'''
 
The clones are exactly that, clones. They're young, inexperienced, and actually quite impressionable, yet that goes with their powers as well. The hive mind ability is actually quite vulnerable to a fellow unknown telepath getting linked into the five's mental pentagram. They could disconnect the hive mind, or block access to it in any number of ways. Needless to say they're physically weak and quite easy to overpower in the physical realms. 
'''Emotionless:'''
 
The girls are technically orphans with no spiritual or even physical mother and father, they only had the biological mother and a man who taught them purpose and a few basic things to allow his 'scouts' and 'experiments' into the world as a test run. They don't have emotional teachings, or a maternal figure who taught them rights and wrongs, or a paternal figure to show them the paths of social situations or how to use their hearts AND their minds in unison. They're severely crippled in nearly all social aspects. 
'''Inexperienced:'''
 
The girls have been in this world a short time and as such, they haven't encountered other telepaths except for themselves and they've been told about their 'mother' so they don't have the mental barriers any telepath would quickly learn to have erected to protect their mind from not only attacks, but also strong enough thoughts. They have a sort of 'always on' mental reading, uncaring of others as they probe into others with reckless abandon. They also don't think about leaving mental residue or a sort of psychic signature in their probings or even reading that they do. 
'''New Telepaths:'''
 
They are not only knew to life, they're new to their bodies and new to their telepathy, and as such they don't know everything they CAN do with their powers, and yet on the flip side, they're afraid to be apart from each other, as it feels alien and dangerous to be alone and an individual. They feel their own weakness and it feels, unwhole. They can over do it on their powers, and initially they wont be afraid to look into people's minds and extract what they deem is important. 
'''Unknown Host:'''
 
The quintuplets, (As are the rest of the unawaken clones) are all infested with nano-bots in their bone marrow, making them nearly impossible to detect, and even harder to counter. The machines do not send a detectable signal, unless requested to by an outside source, meaning they are only active when they're ordered to. They provide GPS and various other forms of feedback to the unknown individuals running the cloning facility and weapons program they're a part of.
}}
<gallery>
</gallery>
[[Category:Mutant-OOC]] [[Category:Xavier's School]][[Category:Brotherhood]]

Stepford Cuckoos

2024-04-09T15:57:47Z

Kstar:

{{CharacterNew
|NameOnMUSH=Stepford Cuckoos
|Color=#333
|TextColor=#c1c1c1
|Char_id=1702
|Img=https://www.unitedheroesmush.com/index.php?title=File:Cuckoos.jpg
|FullName= Sophie, Phoebe, Irma, Celeste, and Esme Cuckoo
|Gender=Female
|Species=Mutant
|Theme=Marvel
|Chartype=FC
|Active=Active
|Occupation=Students
|Citizenship=US Citizens
|Residence=Xavier Institute
|Education=Some high school
|Groups=[[Xavier's School]], [[Brotherhood]], [[Mutant-OOC]]
|Quote=Irma, Sophie, Celeste, and Phoebe: "Esme! What is wrong with you?!"

Esme: "I... I can't..."

Irma, Sophie, Celeste, and Phoebe: "There is no 'I' Esme, there's only 'we', you're nothing!"
|PAge=22
|AAge=22
|DOB=11 August 2008
|Height=165 cm (5'5")
|Weight=47 kg (103 lb)
|Hair=Blonde
|Eyes=Blue
|Actor=Skyler Rose Samuels
|Song="We Are Family" by The Sister Sledge
|Profile=The Cuckoos are clones of Emma Frost who have been sent to the Xavier institute to infiltrate and gather the details of the place. They are fresh from their vats and aging tubes, as well as new to Xavier's school with deeper unknown sinister goals.
===Current Player Approved: Character Available for Application===
|Description=
'''Description:'''
 
Five girls, young, each one a carbon copy of the other and almost perfectly beautiful by today's standards, like works of art. The Cuckoos reflect maturity beyond their age. Despite the twinge of constant youthful curiosity in their eyes, the girls exude responsibility and sophistication, almost as if they come from nobility and good breeding stock. With figures of lithe dancers, they have the curves and shapes that often get an appraising eye or wicked and intent grin.

Silky blonde hair of spun gold, cut just above the shoulder line. The features of their face are fair, retaining a strong distinctive British heritage, as if they were crafted with the most artistic hands, yet there is nothing fragile or delicate about their beauty, more dangerous and possibly deadly. Then you come to the eyes, like gems of cut blue ice given life. harbouring an awareness and cold pierce that can send shivers down one's spine

Normal mode of dress consists of a classy but sexy uniform of a white dressy blouse, with a black school uniform blazer overtop, and a matching pencil skirt, giving them an almost business-like quality. Their legs are bare other than the white knee socks stretched tightly, displaying the lengthy athleticism and smooth skin, and their feet are adorned with a black pair of girl's loafers. Top it off with a tennis bracelet around their wrists, a sensible pair of silver earrings and an expensive looking black and white diamond choker around their necks.
|History=
'''History:'''
 
The history of the Cuckoos is a short one, in that they're technically not even a year old yet. The story of clones tend to have that lack of depth and yet they're so full of drama. Starting when Emma Frost was kidnapped by one Mister Sinister, the clone's piece of genetic sample was taken from the White Queen against her will and even her knowledge. Skip ahead and Sinister would have been coerced with a large sum of money and favor to sell the sample (At least a portion of it) and the buyer quickly went to work creating his greatest weapon. The Thousands of clones that will be used to take over the world! With the aging artificially sped up, the man sent out a quintuplet of his creations out into the world. He was overly careful to avoid having his own mind read by the group of girls. The five were given names, and identities and sent out in the world with a simple goal to infiltrate and report about how best to remove the X-Men from their 'father's' way in order to take over the world.
|Personality=
'''Personality:'''
 
After getting some time in the Xavier Institute, the girls, while still a hive mind, developed individual personality traits: Phoebe has demonstrated some aggressive behavior, Esme is power hungry and rather selfish, Sophie is heroic, and along with Esme they are both above the rest in terms of power and are able to lead the hivemind, Irma enjoys playing piano, and is the most romantic, Celeste was initially the most timid and affectionate of the Cuckoos, she is the third contender for the leader position and is generally defined by being more mature than the others. According to her sisters, Celeste has began to think she is better than them. Celeste has urged her sisters to watch something a bit more self-improving than Glee.

Collectively, For their age, the girls are pretty well put together. They lack a lot of the immaturity associated with girls their age. Like Emma, they have a very refined nature which is displayed in their usual mode of dress and the way they carry themselves. They can be cold, well-spoken and knowledgeable. They do what they have to do to get what they need to get done, regardless of feelings from others or circumstances with extreme results at times, giving them a questionable sense of ethics. Despite their vast powers, they rely primarily on cunning. They can be ruthless, but care deeply for their friends. The Cuckoos are supremely confident in their abilities, yet tend to underestimate their adversaries and allies alike. Perhaps their most defining personality trait is their desire to be in control, both of herself and their environment.
|Abilities=
'''Hive Mind:'''
 
The Stepford Cuckoos have a linked hive mind, which allows them to share thoughts and maintain a continuous telepathic connection. The link is strongest when the girls are in close physical proximity. This mental phalanx also allows for increased telepathic strength and shared intellect. The girls' powers are greater the sum of its parts. A stronger personality can take lead of the hive mind, but the girls still maintain their independence. 
'''Telepathy:''' The Cuckoos can read minds and project their thoughts to others with a range of roughly 200 meters. Though they individually possess their own telepathy, but their telepathic abilities are greater when the girls join together. The girls have stated that together they can block even very talented telepaths from reading their minds. Only able to use their mind altering within 50 meters and 10 meters respectively. Even at their young age, they're nearly on par with 'mother' only in sheer telepathic strength. They lack the finesse, precision and experience that Emma Frost possesses, yet they are capable of an array of telepathic skills:

'''Illusions:''' The Cuckoos can create realistic psychic illusions and cause people to experience events which are not actually occurring.

'''Mind Alteration:''' The Cuckoos are able to alter the minds of others by force of will. This can be restoring memories or transferring knowledge.

'''Telepathic Tracking:''' The Cuckoos' psionic senses enable them to detect and track other sentient beings by their unique psionic emanations or thought patterns. This ability is highly sensitive to proximity, but can be enhanced with the use of Cerebra.

'''Astral Projection:''' The Cuckoos are capable of sending astral projections, astral travel, and communicating with others astrally through their own will, or through contact with the thoughts and memories of others.

'''Paralysis:''' The Cuckoos are able to effect certain areas of the brain to induce temporary mental or physical paralysis.

'''Memory Erasure and Restoration:''' The Cuckoos can erase any awareness of particular memories or cause total amnesia. They can also restore memories.

'''Mental Triangulation:''' Due to their hive mind, the Cuckoos have the perspective of multiple directions and are able to triangulate on individuals' minds. 
 
'''Flawless Organic Diamond Form:''' Like their biological mother, the Cuckoos have the ability to transform themselves into a flexible, translucent, organic diamond-like substance while retaining mobility. In this form, their skin is as hard as real diamond. In this state, food and water are not needed for a undetermined amount of time. Their diamond form does require a conscious hold as however. Unlike Emma Frost, their diamond forms are completely flawless. Nothing can enter or escape from their core. However, maintaining this form for extended period of time reduces their emotional capabilities. While in their Diamond form, the girls have specific traits:
 '''Telepathic Immunity:''' Although they are immune to all psychic powers, they can not use their telepathy.

'''Superhuman Strength:''' In diamond form they can lift 2 tons.(maximum)

'''Superhuman Stamina:''' Their diamond form grants the ability to sustain peak exertion for up to a day.

'''Superhuman Durability:''' Their diamond form augments their skin, bone, and muscle to become stronger and harder than human. They're far more durable in this form, but capable of being shattered or broken by diamond objects or harder than such with enough or repeated force.

'''Compartmental Diamond Transformation:''' Unlike Emma, the Cuckoos can selectively transform discrete parts of their bodies.
|Skills=
'''Acting:'''
 
The Cuckoos are gifted and talented actresses, in that they not only divine the reactions that are expected of them, but they're able to pull them off nearly perfectly with their own flair. The girls have seen and gleamed a few reactions off people that they're able to recreate at any time, yet these motions and reactions still feel alien and false to the girls. 
'''Home Training:'''
 
Taught by cold, calculating and manipulative scientists, the girls are aware of their powers and have several ideas of what they can do with them, and not taught how to use them with hesitation. They will kill and assimilate knowledge like they were taught to. 
'''Scientifically Minded:'''
 
The girl's don't quite possess emotions like normal humans or mutants, they're too fresh in the world and thus they possess a Spock like, analytical mind allowing them to think and process information entirely without emotional inhibitors. This is due to their rather, sci-fi up bringing and birthing process. The girls are incredibly open minded as far as what's scientifically possible.
|Resources=
'''Cuckoos:'''
 
The Cuckoos can always rely on their sisters. The five are rarely ever apart, so they always are ready to help each other out in any situation, as there's safety in numbers and especially when those numbers have a connection beyond their physical groupings, but an incredibly powerful mental connection. That's to say nothing of the nearly one thousand dormant fellow clones back at the lab where they Cuckoos were originally grown. 
'''Nanocarriers:'''
 
The 'father' figure did install in them nano-machines that are capable of broadcasting, and recording through their bones and brainstems, meaning they possess within them, advanced scientific technology, built for spying and recording for their nameless 'father'. 
'''Unknown Benefactor:'''
 
The Cuckoos do have a 'father' in a nameless man that was the one that started the cloning process and instilled them their goals and purposes, and despite the head strong nature they all possess, they're welcome back to the 'facility' they come from though to return would be a slight admission of failure and that's something the Cuckoo's refuse to allow to occur. But the resources are there. 
'''Xavier's:'''
 
The girls have access to Xavier's for a room and a school offered phone (That the girls refuse) and the laptops and a few others items. Like vehicles and clothes and bathrooms and shampoo and conditioners.
|Weaknesses=
'''Born Yesterday:'''
 
The Cuckoos are beyond naïve, they're less than a year old despite their advanced physical appearances. They have to look into a person's mind in order to understand how they're supposed to respond to nearly any social situation. 
'''Cuckoos:'''
 
The clones are exactly that, clones. They're young, inexperienced, and actually quite impressionable, yet that goes with their powers as well. The hive mind ability is actually quite vulnerable to a fellow unknown telepath getting linked into the five's mental pentagram. They could disconnect the hive mind, or block access to it in any number of ways. Needless to say they're physically weak and quite easy to overpower in the physical realms. 
'''Emotionless:'''
 
The girls are technically orphans with no spiritual or even physical mother and father, they only had the biological mother and a man who taught them purpose and a few basic things to allow his 'scouts' and 'experiments' into the world as a test run. They don't have emotional teachings, or a maternal figure who taught them rights and wrongs, or a paternal figure to show them the paths of social situations or how to use their hearts AND their minds in unison. They're severely crippled in nearly all social aspects. 
'''Inexperienced:'''
 
The girls have been in this world a short time and as such, they haven't encountered other telepaths except for themselves and they've been told about their 'mother' so they don't have the mental barriers any telepath would quickly learn to have erected to protect their mind from not only attacks, but also strong enough thoughts. They have a sort of 'always on' mental reading, uncaring of others as they probe into others with reckless abandon. They also don't think about leaving mental residue or a sort of psychic signature in their probings or even reading that they do. 
'''New Telepaths:'''
 
They are not only knew to life, they're new to their bodies and new to their telepathy, and as such they don't know everything they CAN do with their powers, and yet on the flip side, they're afraid to be apart from each other, as it feels alien and dangerous to be alone and an individual. They feel their own weakness and it feels, unwhole. They can over do it on their powers, and initially they wont be afraid to look into people's minds and extract what they deem is important. 
'''Unknown Host:'''
 
The quintuplets, (As are the rest of the unawaken clones) are all infested with nano-bots in their bone marrow, making them nearly impossible to detect, and even harder to counter. The machines do not send a detectable signal, unless requested to by an outside source, meaning they are only active when they're ordered to. They provide GPS and various other forms of feedback to the unknown individuals running the cloning facility and weapons program they're a part of.
}}
<gallery>
</gallery>
[[Category:Mutant-OOC]] [[Category:Xavier's School]][[Category:Brotherhood]]

Stepford Cuckoos

2024-04-09T15:56:24Z

Kstar:

{{CharacterNew
|NameOnMUSH=Stepford Cuckoos
|Color=#333
|TextColor=#c1c1c1
|Char_id=1702
|Img=File:Cuckoos.jpg
|FullName= Sophie, Phoebe, Irma, Celeste, and Esme Cuckoo
|Gender=Female
|Species=Mutant
|Theme=Marvel
|Chartype=FC
|Active=Active
|Occupation=Students
|Citizenship=US Citizens
|Residence=Xavier Institute
|Education=Some high school
|Groups=[[Xavier's School]], [[Brotherhood]], [[Mutant-OOC]]
|Quote=Irma, Sophie, Celeste, and Phoebe: "Esme! What is wrong with you?!"

Esme: "I... I can't..."

Irma, Sophie, Celeste, and Phoebe: "There is no 'I' Esme, there's only 'we', you're nothing!"
|PAge=22
|AAge=22
|DOB=11 August 2008
|Height=165 cm (5'5")
|Weight=47 kg (103 lb)
|Hair=Blonde
|Eyes=Blue
|Actor=Skyler Rose Samuels
|Song="We Are Family" by The Sister Sledge
|Profile=The Cuckoos are clones of Emma Frost who have been sent to the Xavier institute to infiltrate and gather the details of the place. They are fresh from their vats and aging tubes, as well as new to Xavier's school with deeper unknown sinister goals.
===Current Player Approved: Character Available for Application===
|Description=
'''Description:'''
 
Five girls, young, each one a carbon copy of the other and almost perfectly beautiful by today's standards, like works of art. The Cuckoos reflect maturity beyond their age. Despite the twinge of constant youthful curiosity in their eyes, the girls exude responsibility and sophistication, almost as if they come from nobility and good breeding stock. With figures of lithe dancers, they have the curves and shapes that often get an appraising eye or wicked and intent grin.

Silky blonde hair of spun gold, cut just above the shoulder line. The features of their face are fair, retaining a strong distinctive British heritage, as if they were crafted with the most artistic hands, yet there is nothing fragile or delicate about their beauty, more dangerous and possibly deadly. Then you come to the eyes, like gems of cut blue ice given life. harbouring an awareness and cold pierce that can send shivers down one's spine

Normal mode of dress consists of a classy but sexy uniform of a white dressy blouse, with a black school uniform blazer overtop, and a matching pencil skirt, giving them an almost business-like quality. Their legs are bare other than the white knee socks stretched tightly, displaying the lengthy athleticism and smooth skin, and their feet are adorned with a black pair of girl's loafers. Top it off with a tennis bracelet around their wrists, a sensible pair of silver earrings and an expensive looking black and white diamond choker around their necks.
|History=
'''History:'''
 
The history of the Cuckoos is a short one, in that they're technically not even a year old yet. The story of clones tend to have that lack of depth and yet they're so full of drama. Starting when Emma Frost was kidnapped by one Mister Sinister, the clone's piece of genetic sample was taken from the White Queen against her will and even her knowledge. Skip ahead and Sinister would have been coerced with a large sum of money and favor to sell the sample (At least a portion of it) and the buyer quickly went to work creating his greatest weapon. The Thousands of clones that will be used to take over the world! With the aging artificially sped up, the man sent out a quintuplet of his creations out into the world. He was overly careful to avoid having his own mind read by the group of girls. The five were given names, and identities and sent out in the world with a simple goal to infiltrate and report about how best to remove the X-Men from their 'father's' way in order to take over the world.
|Personality=
'''Personality:'''
 
After getting some time in the Xavier Institute, the girls, while still a hive mind, developed individual personality traits: Phoebe has demonstrated some aggressive behavior, Esme is power hungry and rather selfish, Sophie is heroic, and along with Esme they are both above the rest in terms of power and are able to lead the hivemind, Irma enjoys playing piano, and is the most romantic, Celeste was initially the most timid and affectionate of the Cuckoos, she is the third contender for the leader position and is generally defined by being more mature than the others. According to her sisters, Celeste has began to think she is better than them. Celeste has urged her sisters to watch something a bit more self-improving than Glee.

Collectively, For their age, the girls are pretty well put together. They lack a lot of the immaturity associated with girls their age. Like Emma, they have a very refined nature which is displayed in their usual mode of dress and the way they carry themselves. They can be cold, well-spoken and knowledgeable. They do what they have to do to get what they need to get done, regardless of feelings from others or circumstances with extreme results at times, giving them a questionable sense of ethics. Despite their vast powers, they rely primarily on cunning. They can be ruthless, but care deeply for their friends. The Cuckoos are supremely confident in their abilities, yet tend to underestimate their adversaries and allies alike. Perhaps their most defining personality trait is their desire to be in control, both of herself and their environment.
|Abilities=
'''Hive Mind:'''
 
The Stepford Cuckoos have a linked hive mind, which allows them to share thoughts and maintain a continuous telepathic connection. The link is strongest when the girls are in close physical proximity. This mental phalanx also allows for increased telepathic strength and shared intellect. The girls' powers are greater the sum of its parts. A stronger personality can take lead of the hive mind, but the girls still maintain their independence. 
'''Telepathy:''' The Cuckoos can read minds and project their thoughts to others with a range of roughly 200 meters. Though they individually possess their own telepathy, but their telepathic abilities are greater when the girls join together. The girls have stated that together they can block even very talented telepaths from reading their minds. Only able to use their mind altering within 50 meters and 10 meters respectively. Even at their young age, they're nearly on par with 'mother' only in sheer telepathic strength. They lack the finesse, precision and experience that Emma Frost possesses, yet they are capable of an array of telepathic skills:

'''Illusions:''' The Cuckoos can create realistic psychic illusions and cause people to experience events which are not actually occurring.

'''Mind Alteration:''' The Cuckoos are able to alter the minds of others by force of will. This can be restoring memories or transferring knowledge.

'''Telepathic Tracking:''' The Cuckoos' psionic senses enable them to detect and track other sentient beings by their unique psionic emanations or thought patterns. This ability is highly sensitive to proximity, but can be enhanced with the use of Cerebra.

'''Astral Projection:''' The Cuckoos are capable of sending astral projections, astral travel, and communicating with others astrally through their own will, or through contact with the thoughts and memories of others.

'''Paralysis:''' The Cuckoos are able to effect certain areas of the brain to induce temporary mental or physical paralysis.

'''Memory Erasure and Restoration:''' The Cuckoos can erase any awareness of particular memories or cause total amnesia. They can also restore memories.

'''Mental Triangulation:''' Due to their hive mind, the Cuckoos have the perspective of multiple directions and are able to triangulate on individuals' minds. 
 
'''Flawless Organic Diamond Form:''' Like their biological mother, the Cuckoos have the ability to transform themselves into a flexible, translucent, organic diamond-like substance while retaining mobility. In this form, their skin is as hard as real diamond. In this state, food and water are not needed for a undetermined amount of time. Their diamond form does require a conscious hold as however. Unlike Emma Frost, their diamond forms are completely flawless. Nothing can enter or escape from their core. However, maintaining this form for extended period of time reduces their emotional capabilities. While in their Diamond form, the girls have specific traits:
 '''Telepathic Immunity:''' Although they are immune to all psychic powers, they can not use their telepathy.

'''Superhuman Strength:''' In diamond form they can lift 2 tons.(maximum)

'''Superhuman Stamina:''' Their diamond form grants the ability to sustain peak exertion for up to a day.

'''Superhuman Durability:''' Their diamond form augments their skin, bone, and muscle to become stronger and harder than human. They're far more durable in this form, but capable of being shattered or broken by diamond objects or harder than such with enough or repeated force.

'''Compartmental Diamond Transformation:''' Unlike Emma, the Cuckoos can selectively transform discrete parts of their bodies.
|Skills=
'''Acting:'''
 
The Cuckoos are gifted and talented actresses, in that they not only divine the reactions that are expected of them, but they're able to pull them off nearly perfectly with their own flair. The girls have seen and gleamed a few reactions off people that they're able to recreate at any time, yet these motions and reactions still feel alien and false to the girls. 
'''Home Training:'''
 
Taught by cold, calculating and manipulative scientists, the girls are aware of their powers and have several ideas of what they can do with them, and not taught how to use them with hesitation. They will kill and assimilate knowledge like they were taught to. 
'''Scientifically Minded:'''
 
The girl's don't quite possess emotions like normal humans or mutants, they're too fresh in the world and thus they possess a Spock like, analytical mind allowing them to think and process information entirely without emotional inhibitors. This is due to their rather, sci-fi up bringing and birthing process. The girls are incredibly open minded as far as what's scientifically possible.
|Resources=
'''Cuckoos:'''
 
The Cuckoos can always rely on their sisters. The five are rarely ever apart, so they always are ready to help each other out in any situation, as there's safety in numbers and especially when those numbers have a connection beyond their physical groupings, but an incredibly powerful mental connection. That's to say nothing of the nearly one thousand dormant fellow clones back at the lab where they Cuckoos were originally grown. 
'''Nanocarriers:'''
 
The 'father' figure did install in them nano-machines that are capable of broadcasting, and recording through their bones and brainstems, meaning they possess within them, advanced scientific technology, built for spying and recording for their nameless 'father'. 
'''Unknown Benefactor:'''
 
The Cuckoos do have a 'father' in a nameless man that was the one that started the cloning process and instilled them their goals and purposes, and despite the head strong nature they all possess, they're welcome back to the 'facility' they come from though to return would be a slight admission of failure and that's something the Cuckoo's refuse to allow to occur. But the resources are there. 
'''Xavier's:'''
 
The girls have access to Xavier's for a room and a school offered phone (That the girls refuse) and the laptops and a few others items. Like vehicles and clothes and bathrooms and shampoo and conditioners.
|Weaknesses=
'''Born Yesterday:'''
 
The Cuckoos are beyond naïve, they're less than a year old despite their advanced physical appearances. They have to look into a person's mind in order to understand how they're supposed to respond to nearly any social situation. 
'''Cuckoos:'''
 
The clones are exactly that, clones. They're young, inexperienced, and actually quite impressionable, yet that goes with their powers as well. The hive mind ability is actually quite vulnerable to a fellow unknown telepath getting linked into the five's mental pentagram. They could disconnect the hive mind, or block access to it in any number of ways. Needless to say they're physically weak and quite easy to overpower in the physical realms. 
'''Emotionless:'''
 
The girls are technically orphans with no spiritual or even physical mother and father, they only had the biological mother and a man who taught them purpose and a few basic things to allow his 'scouts' and 'experiments' into the world as a test run. They don't have emotional teachings, or a maternal figure who taught them rights and wrongs, or a paternal figure to show them the paths of social situations or how to use their hearts AND their minds in unison. They're severely crippled in nearly all social aspects. 
'''Inexperienced:'''
 
The girls have been in this world a short time and as such, they haven't encountered other telepaths except for themselves and they've been told about their 'mother' so they don't have the mental barriers any telepath would quickly learn to have erected to protect their mind from not only attacks, but also strong enough thoughts. They have a sort of 'always on' mental reading, uncaring of others as they probe into others with reckless abandon. They also don't think about leaving mental residue or a sort of psychic signature in their probings or even reading that they do. 
'''New Telepaths:'''
 
They are not only knew to life, they're new to their bodies and new to their telepathy, and as such they don't know everything they CAN do with their powers, and yet on the flip side, they're afraid to be apart from each other, as it feels alien and dangerous to be alone and an individual. They feel their own weakness and it feels, unwhole. They can over do it on their powers, and initially they wont be afraid to look into people's minds and extract what they deem is important. 
'''Unknown Host:'''
 
The quintuplets, (As are the rest of the unawaken clones) are all infested with nano-bots in their bone marrow, making them nearly impossible to detect, and even harder to counter. The machines do not send a detectable signal, unless requested to by an outside source, meaning they are only active when they're ordered to. They provide GPS and various other forms of feedback to the unknown individuals running the cloning facility and weapons program they're a part of.
}}
<gallery>
</gallery>
[[Category:Mutant-OOC]] [[Category:Xavier's School]][[Category:Brotherhood]]

Stepford Cuckoos

2024-04-09T15:55:43Z

Kstar:

{{CharacterNew
|NameOnMUSH=Stepford Cuckoos
|Color=#333
|TextColor=#c1c1c1
|Char_id=1702
|Img=Cuckoos.jpg
|FullName= Sophie, Phoebe, Irma, Celeste, and Esme Cuckoo
|Gender=Female
|Species=Mutant
|Theme=Marvel
|Chartype=FC
|Active=Active
|Occupation=Students
|Citizenship=US Citizens
|Residence=Xavier Institute
|Education=Some high school
|Groups=[[Xavier's School]], [[Brotherhood]], [[Mutant-OOC]]
|Quote=Irma, Sophie, Celeste, and Phoebe: "Esme! What is wrong with you?!"

Esme: "I... I can't..."

Irma, Sophie, Celeste, and Phoebe: "There is no 'I' Esme, there's only 'we', you're nothing!"
|PAge=22
|AAge=22
|DOB=11 August 2008
|Height=165 cm (5'5")
|Weight=47 kg (103 lb)
|Hair=Blonde
|Eyes=Blue
|Actor=Skyler Rose Samuels
|Song="We Are Family" by The Sister Sledge
|Profile=The Cuckoos are clones of Emma Frost who have been sent to the Xavier institute to infiltrate and gather the details of the place. They are fresh from their vats and aging tubes, as well as new to Xavier's school with deeper unknown sinister goals.
===Current Player Approved: Character Available for Application===
|Description=
'''Description:'''
 
Five girls, young, each one a carbon copy of the other and almost perfectly beautiful by today's standards, like works of art. The Cuckoos reflect maturity beyond their age. Despite the twinge of constant youthful curiosity in their eyes, the girls exude responsibility and sophistication, almost as if they come from nobility and good breeding stock. With figures of lithe dancers, they have the curves and shapes that often get an appraising eye or wicked and intent grin.

Silky blonde hair of spun gold, cut just above the shoulder line. The features of their face are fair, retaining a strong distinctive British heritage, as if they were crafted with the most artistic hands, yet there is nothing fragile or delicate about their beauty, more dangerous and possibly deadly. Then you come to the eyes, like gems of cut blue ice given life. harbouring an awareness and cold pierce that can send shivers down one's spine

Normal mode of dress consists of a classy but sexy uniform of a white dressy blouse, with a black school uniform blazer overtop, and a matching pencil skirt, giving them an almost business-like quality. Their legs are bare other than the white knee socks stretched tightly, displaying the lengthy athleticism and smooth skin, and their feet are adorned with a black pair of girl's loafers. Top it off with a tennis bracelet around their wrists, a sensible pair of silver earrings and an expensive looking black and white diamond choker around their necks.
|History=
'''History:'''
 
The history of the Cuckoos is a short one, in that they're technically not even a year old yet. The story of clones tend to have that lack of depth and yet they're so full of drama. Starting when Emma Frost was kidnapped by one Mister Sinister, the clone's piece of genetic sample was taken from the White Queen against her will and even her knowledge. Skip ahead and Sinister would have been coerced with a large sum of money and favor to sell the sample (At least a portion of it) and the buyer quickly went to work creating his greatest weapon. The Thousands of clones that will be used to take over the world! With the aging artificially sped up, the man sent out a quintuplet of his creations out into the world. He was overly careful to avoid having his own mind read by the group of girls. The five were given names, and identities and sent out in the world with a simple goal to infiltrate and report about how best to remove the X-Men from their 'father's' way in order to take over the world.
|Personality=
'''Personality:'''
 
After getting some time in the Xavier Institute, the girls, while still a hive mind, developed individual personality traits: Phoebe has demonstrated some aggressive behavior, Esme is power hungry and rather selfish, Sophie is heroic, and along with Esme they are both above the rest in terms of power and are able to lead the hivemind, Irma enjoys playing piano, and is the most romantic, Celeste was initially the most timid and affectionate of the Cuckoos, she is the third contender for the leader position and is generally defined by being more mature than the others. According to her sisters, Celeste has began to think she is better than them. Celeste has urged her sisters to watch something a bit more self-improving than Glee.

Collectively, For their age, the girls are pretty well put together. They lack a lot of the immaturity associated with girls their age. Like Emma, they have a very refined nature which is displayed in their usual mode of dress and the way they carry themselves. They can be cold, well-spoken and knowledgeable. They do what they have to do to get what they need to get done, regardless of feelings from others or circumstances with extreme results at times, giving them a questionable sense of ethics. Despite their vast powers, they rely primarily on cunning. They can be ruthless, but care deeply for their friends. The Cuckoos are supremely confident in their abilities, yet tend to underestimate their adversaries and allies alike. Perhaps their most defining personality trait is their desire to be in control, both of herself and their environment.
|Abilities=
'''Hive Mind:'''
 
The Stepford Cuckoos have a linked hive mind, which allows them to share thoughts and maintain a continuous telepathic connection. The link is strongest when the girls are in close physical proximity. This mental phalanx also allows for increased telepathic strength and shared intellect. The girls' powers are greater the sum of its parts. A stronger personality can take lead of the hive mind, but the girls still maintain their independence. 
'''Telepathy:''' The Cuckoos can read minds and project their thoughts to others with a range of roughly 200 meters. Though they individually possess their own telepathy, but their telepathic abilities are greater when the girls join together. The girls have stated that together they can block even very talented telepaths from reading their minds. Only able to use their mind altering within 50 meters and 10 meters respectively. Even at their young age, they're nearly on par with 'mother' only in sheer telepathic strength. They lack the finesse, precision and experience that Emma Frost possesses, yet they are capable of an array of telepathic skills:

'''Illusions:''' The Cuckoos can create realistic psychic illusions and cause people to experience events which are not actually occurring.

'''Mind Alteration:''' The Cuckoos are able to alter the minds of others by force of will. This can be restoring memories or transferring knowledge.

'''Telepathic Tracking:''' The Cuckoos' psionic senses enable them to detect and track other sentient beings by their unique psionic emanations or thought patterns. This ability is highly sensitive to proximity, but can be enhanced with the use of Cerebra.

'''Astral Projection:''' The Cuckoos are capable of sending astral projections, astral travel, and communicating with others astrally through their own will, or through contact with the thoughts and memories of others.

'''Paralysis:''' The Cuckoos are able to effect certain areas of the brain to induce temporary mental or physical paralysis.

'''Memory Erasure and Restoration:''' The Cuckoos can erase any awareness of particular memories or cause total amnesia. They can also restore memories.

'''Mental Triangulation:''' Due to their hive mind, the Cuckoos have the perspective of multiple directions and are able to triangulate on individuals' minds. 
 
'''Flawless Organic Diamond Form:''' Like their biological mother, the Cuckoos have the ability to transform themselves into a flexible, translucent, organic diamond-like substance while retaining mobility. In this form, their skin is as hard as real diamond. In this state, food and water are not needed for a undetermined amount of time. Their diamond form does require a conscious hold as however. Unlike Emma Frost, their diamond forms are completely flawless. Nothing can enter or escape from their core. However, maintaining this form for extended period of time reduces their emotional capabilities. While in their Diamond form, the girls have specific traits:
 '''Telepathic Immunity:''' Although they are immune to all psychic powers, they can not use their telepathy.

'''Superhuman Strength:''' In diamond form they can lift 2 tons.(maximum)

'''Superhuman Stamina:''' Their diamond form grants the ability to sustain peak exertion for up to a day.

'''Superhuman Durability:''' Their diamond form augments their skin, bone, and muscle to become stronger and harder than human. They're far more durable in this form, but capable of being shattered or broken by diamond objects or harder than such with enough or repeated force.

'''Compartmental Diamond Transformation:''' Unlike Emma, the Cuckoos can selectively transform discrete parts of their bodies.
|Skills=
'''Acting:'''
 
The Cuckoos are gifted and talented actresses, in that they not only divine the reactions that are expected of them, but they're able to pull them off nearly perfectly with their own flair. The girls have seen and gleamed a few reactions off people that they're able to recreate at any time, yet these motions and reactions still feel alien and false to the girls. 
'''Home Training:'''
 
Taught by cold, calculating and manipulative scientists, the girls are aware of their powers and have several ideas of what they can do with them, and not taught how to use them with hesitation. They will kill and assimilate knowledge like they were taught to. 
'''Scientifically Minded:'''
 
The girl's don't quite possess emotions like normal humans or mutants, they're too fresh in the world and thus they possess a Spock like, analytical mind allowing them to think and process information entirely without emotional inhibitors. This is due to their rather, sci-fi up bringing and birthing process. The girls are incredibly open minded as far as what's scientifically possible.
|Resources=
'''Cuckoos:'''
 
The Cuckoos can always rely on their sisters. The five are rarely ever apart, so they always are ready to help each other out in any situation, as there's safety in numbers and especially when those numbers have a connection beyond their physical groupings, but an incredibly powerful mental connection. That's to say nothing of the nearly one thousand dormant fellow clones back at the lab where they Cuckoos were originally grown. 
'''Nanocarriers:'''
 
The 'father' figure did install in them nano-machines that are capable of broadcasting, and recording through their bones and brainstems, meaning they possess within them, advanced scientific technology, built for spying and recording for their nameless 'father'. 
'''Unknown Benefactor:'''
 
The Cuckoos do have a 'father' in a nameless man that was the one that started the cloning process and instilled them their goals and purposes, and despite the head strong nature they all possess, they're welcome back to the 'facility' they come from though to return would be a slight admission of failure and that's something the Cuckoo's refuse to allow to occur. But the resources are there. 
'''Xavier's:'''
 
The girls have access to Xavier's for a room and a school offered phone (That the girls refuse) and the laptops and a few others items. Like vehicles and clothes and bathrooms and shampoo and conditioners.
|Weaknesses=
'''Born Yesterday:'''
 
The Cuckoos are beyond naïve, they're less than a year old despite their advanced physical appearances. They have to look into a person's mind in order to understand how they're supposed to respond to nearly any social situation. 
'''Cuckoos:'''
 
The clones are exactly that, clones. They're young, inexperienced, and actually quite impressionable, yet that goes with their powers as well. The hive mind ability is actually quite vulnerable to a fellow unknown telepath getting linked into the five's mental pentagram. They could disconnect the hive mind, or block access to it in any number of ways. Needless to say they're physically weak and quite easy to overpower in the physical realms. 
'''Emotionless:'''
 
The girls are technically orphans with no spiritual or even physical mother and father, they only had the biological mother and a man who taught them purpose and a few basic things to allow his 'scouts' and 'experiments' into the world as a test run. They don't have emotional teachings, or a maternal figure who taught them rights and wrongs, or a paternal figure to show them the paths of social situations or how to use their hearts AND their minds in unison. They're severely crippled in nearly all social aspects. 
'''Inexperienced:'''
 
The girls have been in this world a short time and as such, they haven't encountered other telepaths except for themselves and they've been told about their 'mother' so they don't have the mental barriers any telepath would quickly learn to have erected to protect their mind from not only attacks, but also strong enough thoughts. They have a sort of 'always on' mental reading, uncaring of others as they probe into others with reckless abandon. They also don't think about leaving mental residue or a sort of psychic signature in their probings or even reading that they do. 
'''New Telepaths:'''
 
They are not only knew to life, they're new to their bodies and new to their telepathy, and as such they don't know everything they CAN do with their powers, and yet on the flip side, they're afraid to be apart from each other, as it feels alien and dangerous to be alone and an individual. They feel their own weakness and it feels, unwhole. They can over do it on their powers, and initially they wont be afraid to look into people's minds and extract what they deem is important. 
'''Unknown Host:'''
 
The quintuplets, (As are the rest of the unawaken clones) are all infested with nano-bots in their bone marrow, making them nearly impossible to detect, and even harder to counter. The machines do not send a detectable signal, unless requested to by an outside source, meaning they are only active when they're ordered to. They provide GPS and various other forms of feedback to the unknown individuals running the cloning facility and weapons program they're a part of.
}}
<gallery>
</gallery>
[[Category:Mutant-OOC]] [[Category:Xavier's School]][[Category:Brotherhood]]

Stepford Cuckoos

2024-04-09T15:54:15Z

Kstar:

{{CharacterNew
|NameOnMUSH=Stepford Cuckoos
|Color=#333
|TextColor=#c1c1c1
|Char_id=1702
|Img=https://www.unitedheroesmush.com/images/c/ce/Cuckoos.jpg
|FullName= Sophie, Phoebe, Irma, Celeste, and Esme Cuckoo
|Gender=Female
|Species=Mutant
|Theme=Marvel
|Chartype=FC
|Active=Active
|Occupation=Students
|Citizenship=US Citizens
|Residence=Xavier Institute
|Education=Some high school
|Groups=[[Xavier's School]], [[Brotherhood]], [[Mutant-OOC]]
|Quote=Irma, Sophie, Celeste, and Phoebe: "Esme! What is wrong with you?!"

Esme: "I... I can't..."

Irma, Sophie, Celeste, and Phoebe: "There is no 'I' Esme, there's only 'we', you're nothing!"
|PAge=22
|AAge=22
|DOB=11 August 2008
|Height=165 cm (5'5")
|Weight=47 kg (103 lb)
|Hair=Blonde
|Eyes=Blue
|Actor=Skyler Rose Samuels
|Song="We Are Family" by The Sister Sledge
|Profile=The Cuckoos are clones of Emma Frost who have been sent to the Xavier institute to infiltrate and gather the details of the place. They are fresh from their vats and aging tubes, as well as new to Xavier's school with deeper unknown sinister goals.
===Current Player Approved: Character Available for Application===
|Description=
'''Description:'''
 
Five girls, young, each one a carbon copy of the other and almost perfectly beautiful by today's standards, like works of art. The Cuckoos reflect maturity beyond their age. Despite the twinge of constant youthful curiosity in their eyes, the girls exude responsibility and sophistication, almost as if they come from nobility and good breeding stock. With figures of lithe dancers, they have the curves and shapes that often get an appraising eye or wicked and intent grin.

Silky blonde hair of spun gold, cut just above the shoulder line. The features of their face are fair, retaining a strong distinctive British heritage, as if they were crafted with the most artistic hands, yet there is nothing fragile or delicate about their beauty, more dangerous and possibly deadly. Then you come to the eyes, like gems of cut blue ice given life. harbouring an awareness and cold pierce that can send shivers down one's spine

Normal mode of dress consists of a classy but sexy uniform of a white dressy blouse, with a black school uniform blazer overtop, and a matching pencil skirt, giving them an almost business-like quality. Their legs are bare other than the white knee socks stretched tightly, displaying the lengthy athleticism and smooth skin, and their feet are adorned with a black pair of girl's loafers. Top it off with a tennis bracelet around their wrists, a sensible pair of silver earrings and an expensive looking black and white diamond choker around their necks.
|History=
'''History:'''
 
The history of the Cuckoos is a short one, in that they're technically not even a year old yet. The story of clones tend to have that lack of depth and yet they're so full of drama. Starting when Emma Frost was kidnapped by one Mister Sinister, the clone's piece of genetic sample was taken from the White Queen against her will and even her knowledge. Skip ahead and Sinister would have been coerced with a large sum of money and favor to sell the sample (At least a portion of it) and the buyer quickly went to work creating his greatest weapon. The Thousands of clones that will be used to take over the world! With the aging artificially sped up, the man sent out a quintuplet of his creations out into the world. He was overly careful to avoid having his own mind read by the group of girls. The five were given names, and identities and sent out in the world with a simple goal to infiltrate and report about how best to remove the X-Men from their 'father's' way in order to take over the world.
|Personality=
'''Personality:'''
 
After getting some time in the Xavier Institute, the girls, while still a hive mind, developed individual personality traits: Phoebe has demonstrated some aggressive behavior, Esme is power hungry and rather selfish, Sophie is heroic, and along with Esme they are both above the rest in terms of power and are able to lead the hivemind, Irma enjoys playing piano, and is the most romantic, Celeste was initially the most timid and affectionate of the Cuckoos, she is the third contender for the leader position and is generally defined by being more mature than the others. According to her sisters, Celeste has began to think she is better than them. Celeste has urged her sisters to watch something a bit more self-improving than Glee.

Collectively, For their age, the girls are pretty well put together. They lack a lot of the immaturity associated with girls their age. Like Emma, they have a very refined nature which is displayed in their usual mode of dress and the way they carry themselves. They can be cold, well-spoken and knowledgeable. They do what they have to do to get what they need to get done, regardless of feelings from others or circumstances with extreme results at times, giving them a questionable sense of ethics. Despite their vast powers, they rely primarily on cunning. They can be ruthless, but care deeply for their friends. The Cuckoos are supremely confident in their abilities, yet tend to underestimate their adversaries and allies alike. Perhaps their most defining personality trait is their desire to be in control, both of herself and their environment.
|Abilities=
'''Hive Mind:'''
 
The Stepford Cuckoos have a linked hive mind, which allows them to share thoughts and maintain a continuous telepathic connection. The link is strongest when the girls are in close physical proximity. This mental phalanx also allows for increased telepathic strength and shared intellect. The girls' powers are greater the sum of its parts. A stronger personality can take lead of the hive mind, but the girls still maintain their independence. 
'''Telepathy:''' The Cuckoos can read minds and project their thoughts to others with a range of roughly 200 meters. Though they individually possess their own telepathy, but their telepathic abilities are greater when the girls join together. The girls have stated that together they can block even very talented telepaths from reading their minds. Only able to use their mind altering within 50 meters and 10 meters respectively. Even at their young age, they're nearly on par with 'mother' only in sheer telepathic strength. They lack the finesse, precision and experience that Emma Frost possesses, yet they are capable of an array of telepathic skills:

'''Illusions:''' The Cuckoos can create realistic psychic illusions and cause people to experience events which are not actually occurring.

'''Mind Alteration:''' The Cuckoos are able to alter the minds of others by force of will. This can be restoring memories or transferring knowledge.

'''Telepathic Tracking:''' The Cuckoos' psionic senses enable them to detect and track other sentient beings by their unique psionic emanations or thought patterns. This ability is highly sensitive to proximity, but can be enhanced with the use of Cerebra.

'''Astral Projection:''' The Cuckoos are capable of sending astral projections, astral travel, and communicating with others astrally through their own will, or through contact with the thoughts and memories of others.

'''Paralysis:''' The Cuckoos are able to effect certain areas of the brain to induce temporary mental or physical paralysis.

'''Memory Erasure and Restoration:''' The Cuckoos can erase any awareness of particular memories or cause total amnesia. They can also restore memories.

'''Mental Triangulation:''' Due to their hive mind, the Cuckoos have the perspective of multiple directions and are able to triangulate on individuals' minds. 
 
'''Flawless Organic Diamond Form:''' Like their biological mother, the Cuckoos have the ability to transform themselves into a flexible, translucent, organic diamond-like substance while retaining mobility. In this form, their skin is as hard as real diamond. In this state, food and water are not needed for a undetermined amount of time. Their diamond form does require a conscious hold as however. Unlike Emma Frost, their diamond forms are completely flawless. Nothing can enter or escape from their core. However, maintaining this form for extended period of time reduces their emotional capabilities. While in their Diamond form, the girls have specific traits:
 '''Telepathic Immunity:''' Although they are immune to all psychic powers, they can not use their telepathy.

'''Superhuman Strength:''' In diamond form they can lift 2 tons.(maximum)

'''Superhuman Stamina:''' Their diamond form grants the ability to sustain peak exertion for up to a day.

'''Superhuman Durability:''' Their diamond form augments their skin, bone, and muscle to become stronger and harder than human. They're far more durable in this form, but capable of being shattered or broken by diamond objects or harder than such with enough or repeated force.

'''Compartmental Diamond Transformation:''' Unlike Emma, the Cuckoos can selectively transform discrete parts of their bodies.
|Skills=
'''Acting:'''
 
The Cuckoos are gifted and talented actresses, in that they not only divine the reactions that are expected of them, but they're able to pull them off nearly perfectly with their own flair. The girls have seen and gleamed a few reactions off people that they're able to recreate at any time, yet these motions and reactions still feel alien and false to the girls. 
'''Home Training:'''
 
Taught by cold, calculating and manipulative scientists, the girls are aware of their powers and have several ideas of what they can do with them, and not taught how to use them with hesitation. They will kill and assimilate knowledge like they were taught to. 
'''Scientifically Minded:'''
 
The girl's don't quite possess emotions like normal humans or mutants, they're too fresh in the world and thus they possess a Spock like, analytical mind allowing them to think and process information entirely without emotional inhibitors. This is due to their rather, sci-fi up bringing and birthing process. The girls are incredibly open minded as far as what's scientifically possible.
|Resources=
'''Cuckoos:'''
 
The Cuckoos can always rely on their sisters. The five are rarely ever apart, so they always are ready to help each other out in any situation, as there's safety in numbers and especially when those numbers have a connection beyond their physical groupings, but an incredibly powerful mental connection. That's to say nothing of the nearly one thousand dormant fellow clones back at the lab where they Cuckoos were originally grown. 
'''Nanocarriers:'''
 
The 'father' figure did install in them nano-machines that are capable of broadcasting, and recording through their bones and brainstems, meaning they possess within them, advanced scientific technology, built for spying and recording for their nameless 'father'. 
'''Unknown Benefactor:'''
 
The Cuckoos do have a 'father' in a nameless man that was the one that started the cloning process and instilled them their goals and purposes, and despite the head strong nature they all possess, they're welcome back to the 'facility' they come from though to return would be a slight admission of failure and that's something the Cuckoo's refuse to allow to occur. But the resources are there. 
'''Xavier's:'''
 
The girls have access to Xavier's for a room and a school offered phone (That the girls refuse) and the laptops and a few others items. Like vehicles and clothes and bathrooms and shampoo and conditioners.
|Weaknesses=
'''Born Yesterday:'''
 
The Cuckoos are beyond naïve, they're less than a year old despite their advanced physical appearances. They have to look into a person's mind in order to understand how they're supposed to respond to nearly any social situation. 
'''Cuckoos:'''
 
The clones are exactly that, clones. They're young, inexperienced, and actually quite impressionable, yet that goes with their powers as well. The hive mind ability is actually quite vulnerable to a fellow unknown telepath getting linked into the five's mental pentagram. They could disconnect the hive mind, or block access to it in any number of ways. Needless to say they're physically weak and quite easy to overpower in the physical realms. 
'''Emotionless:'''
 
The girls are technically orphans with no spiritual or even physical mother and father, they only had the biological mother and a man who taught them purpose and a few basic things to allow his 'scouts' and 'experiments' into the world as a test run. They don't have emotional teachings, or a maternal figure who taught them rights and wrongs, or a paternal figure to show them the paths of social situations or how to use their hearts AND their minds in unison. They're severely crippled in nearly all social aspects. 
'''Inexperienced:'''
 
The girls have been in this world a short time and as such, they haven't encountered other telepaths except for themselves and they've been told about their 'mother' so they don't have the mental barriers any telepath would quickly learn to have erected to protect their mind from not only attacks, but also strong enough thoughts. They have a sort of 'always on' mental reading, uncaring of others as they probe into others with reckless abandon. They also don't think about leaving mental residue or a sort of psychic signature in their probings or even reading that they do. 
'''New Telepaths:'''
 
They are not only knew to life, they're new to their bodies and new to their telepathy, and as such they don't know everything they CAN do with their powers, and yet on the flip side, they're afraid to be apart from each other, as it feels alien and dangerous to be alone and an individual. They feel their own weakness and it feels, unwhole. They can over do it on their powers, and initially they wont be afraid to look into people's minds and extract what they deem is important. 
'''Unknown Host:'''
 
The quintuplets, (As are the rest of the unawaken clones) are all infested with nano-bots in their bone marrow, making them nearly impossible to detect, and even harder to counter. The machines do not send a detectable signal, unless requested to by an outside source, meaning they are only active when they're ordered to. They provide GPS and various other forms of feedback to the unknown individuals running the cloning facility and weapons program they're a part of.
}}
<gallery>
</gallery>
[[Category:Mutant-OOC]] [[Category:Xavier's School]][[Category:Brotherhood]]

File:Cuckoos.jpg

2024-04-09T15:53:45Z

Kstar:

Stepford Cuckoos

2024-04-09T15:47:34Z

Kstar:

{{CharacterNew
|NameOnMUSH=Stepford Cuckoos
|Color=#333
|TextColor=#c1c1c1
|Char_id=1702
|Img=https://www.unitedheroesmush.com/images/c/ce/CuckoosPic.jpg
|FullName= Sophie, Phoebe, Irma, Celeste, and Esme Cuckoo
|Gender=Female
|Species=Mutant
|Theme=Marvel
|Chartype=FC
|Active=Active
|Occupation=Students
|Citizenship=US Citizens
|Residence=Xavier Institute
|Education=Some high school
|Groups=[[Xavier's School]], [[Brotherhood]], [[Mutant-OOC]]
|Quote=Irma, Sophie, Celeste, and Phoebe: "Esme! What is wrong with you?!"

Esme: "I... I can't..."

Irma, Sophie, Celeste, and Phoebe: "There is no 'I' Esme, there's only 'we', you're nothing!"
|PAge=22
|AAge=22
|DOB=11 August 2008
|Height=165 cm (5'5")
|Weight=47 kg (103 lb)
|Hair=Blonde
|Eyes=Blue
|Actor=Skyler Rose Samuels
|Song="We Are Family" by The Sister Sledge
|Profile=The Cuckoos are clones of Emma Frost who have been sent to the Xavier institute to infiltrate and gather the details of the place. They are fresh from their vats and aging tubes, as well as new to Xavier's school with deeper unknown sinister goals.
===Current Player Approved: Character Available for Application===
|Description=
'''Description:'''
 
Five girls, young, each one a carbon copy of the other and almost perfectly beautiful by today's standards, like works of art. The Cuckoos reflect maturity beyond their age. Despite the twinge of constant youthful curiosity in their eyes, the girls exude responsibility and sophistication, almost as if they come from nobility and good breeding stock. With figures of lithe dancers, they have the curves and shapes that often get an appraising eye or wicked and intent grin.

Silky blonde hair of spun gold, cut just above the shoulder line. The features of their face are fair, retaining a strong distinctive British heritage, as if they were crafted with the most artistic hands, yet there is nothing fragile or delicate about their beauty, more dangerous and possibly deadly. Then you come to the eyes, like gems of cut blue ice given life. harbouring an awareness and cold pierce that can send shivers down one's spine

Normal mode of dress consists of a classy but sexy uniform of a white dressy blouse, with a black school uniform blazer overtop, and a matching pencil skirt, giving them an almost business-like quality. Their legs are bare other than the white knee socks stretched tightly, displaying the lengthy athleticism and smooth skin, and their feet are adorned with a black pair of girl's loafers. Top it off with a tennis bracelet around their wrists, a sensible pair of silver earrings and an expensive looking black and white diamond choker around their necks.
|History=
'''History:'''
 
The history of the Cuckoos is a short one, in that they're technically not even a year old yet. The story of clones tend to have that lack of depth and yet they're so full of drama. Starting when Emma Frost was kidnapped by one Mister Sinister, the clone's piece of genetic sample was taken from the White Queen against her will and even her knowledge. Skip ahead and Sinister would have been coerced with a large sum of money and favor to sell the sample (At least a portion of it) and the buyer quickly went to work creating his greatest weapon. The Thousands of clones that will be used to take over the world! With the aging artificially sped up, the man sent out a quintuplet of his creations out into the world. He was overly careful to avoid having his own mind read by the group of girls. The five were given names, and identities and sent out in the world with a simple goal to infiltrate and report about how best to remove the X-Men from their 'father's' way in order to take over the world.
|Personality=
'''Personality:'''
 
After getting some time in the Xavier Institute, the girls, while still a hive mind, developed individual personality traits: Phoebe has demonstrated some aggressive behavior, Esme is power hungry and rather selfish, Sophie is heroic, and along with Esme they are both above the rest in terms of power and are able to lead the hivemind, Irma enjoys playing piano, and is the most romantic, Celeste was initially the most timid and affectionate of the Cuckoos, she is the third contender for the leader position and is generally defined by being more mature than the others. According to her sisters, Celeste has began to think she is better than them. Celeste has urged her sisters to watch something a bit more self-improving than Glee.

Collectively, For their age, the girls are pretty well put together. They lack a lot of the immaturity associated with girls their age. Like Emma, they have a very refined nature which is displayed in their usual mode of dress and the way they carry themselves. They can be cold, well-spoken and knowledgeable. They do what they have to do to get what they need to get done, regardless of feelings from others or circumstances with extreme results at times, giving them a questionable sense of ethics. Despite their vast powers, they rely primarily on cunning. They can be ruthless, but care deeply for their friends. The Cuckoos are supremely confident in their abilities, yet tend to underestimate their adversaries and allies alike. Perhaps their most defining personality trait is their desire to be in control, both of herself and their environment.
|Abilities=
'''Hive Mind:'''
 
The Stepford Cuckoos have a linked hive mind, which allows them to share thoughts and maintain a continuous telepathic connection. The link is strongest when the girls are in close physical proximity. This mental phalanx also allows for increased telepathic strength and shared intellect. The girls' powers are greater the sum of its parts. A stronger personality can take lead of the hive mind, but the girls still maintain their independence. 
'''Telepathy:''' The Cuckoos can read minds and project their thoughts to others with a range of roughly 200 meters. Though they individually possess their own telepathy, but their telepathic abilities are greater when the girls join together. The girls have stated that together they can block even very talented telepaths from reading their minds. Only able to use their mind altering within 50 meters and 10 meters respectively. Even at their young age, they're nearly on par with 'mother' only in sheer telepathic strength. They lack the finesse, precision and experience that Emma Frost possesses, yet they are capable of an array of telepathic skills:

'''Illusions:''' The Cuckoos can create realistic psychic illusions and cause people to experience events which are not actually occurring.

'''Mind Alteration:''' The Cuckoos are able to alter the minds of others by force of will. This can be restoring memories or transferring knowledge.

'''Telepathic Tracking:''' The Cuckoos' psionic senses enable them to detect and track other sentient beings by their unique psionic emanations or thought patterns. This ability is highly sensitive to proximity, but can be enhanced with the use of Cerebra.

'''Astral Projection:''' The Cuckoos are capable of sending astral projections, astral travel, and communicating with others astrally through their own will, or through contact with the thoughts and memories of others.

'''Paralysis:''' The Cuckoos are able to effect certain areas of the brain to induce temporary mental or physical paralysis.

'''Memory Erasure and Restoration:''' The Cuckoos can erase any awareness of particular memories or cause total amnesia. They can also restore memories.

'''Mental Triangulation:''' Due to their hive mind, the Cuckoos have the perspective of multiple directions and are able to triangulate on individuals' minds. 
 
'''Flawless Organic Diamond Form:''' Like their biological mother, the Cuckoos have the ability to transform themselves into a flexible, translucent, organic diamond-like substance while retaining mobility. In this form, their skin is as hard as real diamond. In this state, food and water are not needed for a undetermined amount of time. Their diamond form does require a conscious hold as however. Unlike Emma Frost, their diamond forms are completely flawless. Nothing can enter or escape from their core. However, maintaining this form for extended period of time reduces their emotional capabilities. While in their Diamond form, the girls have specific traits:
 '''Telepathic Immunity:''' Although they are immune to all psychic powers, they can not use their telepathy.

'''Superhuman Strength:''' In diamond form they can lift 2 tons.(maximum)

'''Superhuman Stamina:''' Their diamond form grants the ability to sustain peak exertion for up to a day.

'''Superhuman Durability:''' Their diamond form augments their skin, bone, and muscle to become stronger and harder than human. They're far more durable in this form, but capable of being shattered or broken by diamond objects or harder than such with enough or repeated force.

'''Compartmental Diamond Transformation:''' Unlike Emma, the Cuckoos can selectively transform discrete parts of their bodies.
|Skills=
'''Acting:'''
 
The Cuckoos are gifted and talented actresses, in that they not only divine the reactions that are expected of them, but they're able to pull them off nearly perfectly with their own flair. The girls have seen and gleamed a few reactions off people that they're able to recreate at any time, yet these motions and reactions still feel alien and false to the girls. 
'''Home Training:'''
 
Taught by cold, calculating and manipulative scientists, the girls are aware of their powers and have several ideas of what they can do with them, and not taught how to use them with hesitation. They will kill and assimilate knowledge like they were taught to. 
'''Scientifically Minded:'''
 
The girl's don't quite possess emotions like normal humans or mutants, they're too fresh in the world and thus they possess a Spock like, analytical mind allowing them to think and process information entirely without emotional inhibitors. This is due to their rather, sci-fi up bringing and birthing process. The girls are incredibly open minded as far as what's scientifically possible.
|Resources=
'''Cuckoos:'''
 
The Cuckoos can always rely on their sisters. The five are rarely ever apart, so they always are ready to help each other out in any situation, as there's safety in numbers and especially when those numbers have a connection beyond their physical groupings, but an incredibly powerful mental connection. That's to say nothing of the nearly one thousand dormant fellow clones back at the lab where they Cuckoos were originally grown. 
'''Nanocarriers:'''
 
The 'father' figure did install in them nano-machines that are capable of broadcasting, and recording through their bones and brainstems, meaning they possess within them, advanced scientific technology, built for spying and recording for their nameless 'father'. 
'''Unknown Benefactor:'''
 
The Cuckoos do have a 'father' in a nameless man that was the one that started the cloning process and instilled them their goals and purposes, and despite the head strong nature they all possess, they're welcome back to the 'facility' they come from though to return would be a slight admission of failure and that's something the Cuckoo's refuse to allow to occur. But the resources are there. 
'''Xavier's:'''
 
The girls have access to Xavier's for a room and a school offered phone (That the girls refuse) and the laptops and a few others items. Like vehicles and clothes and bathrooms and shampoo and conditioners.
|Weaknesses=
'''Born Yesterday:'''
 
The Cuckoos are beyond naïve, they're less than a year old despite their advanced physical appearances. They have to look into a person's mind in order to understand how they're supposed to respond to nearly any social situation. 
'''Cuckoos:'''
 
The clones are exactly that, clones. They're young, inexperienced, and actually quite impressionable, yet that goes with their powers as well. The hive mind ability is actually quite vulnerable to a fellow unknown telepath getting linked into the five's mental pentagram. They could disconnect the hive mind, or block access to it in any number of ways. Needless to say they're physically weak and quite easy to overpower in the physical realms. 
'''Emotionless:'''
 
The girls are technically orphans with no spiritual or even physical mother and father, they only had the biological mother and a man who taught them purpose and a few basic things to allow his 'scouts' and 'experiments' into the world as a test run. They don't have emotional teachings, or a maternal figure who taught them rights and wrongs, or a paternal figure to show them the paths of social situations or how to use their hearts AND their minds in unison. They're severely crippled in nearly all social aspects. 
'''Inexperienced:'''
 
The girls have been in this world a short time and as such, they haven't encountered other telepaths except for themselves and they've been told about their 'mother' so they don't have the mental barriers any telepath would quickly learn to have erected to protect their mind from not only attacks, but also strong enough thoughts. They have a sort of 'always on' mental reading, uncaring of others as they probe into others with reckless abandon. They also don't think about leaving mental residue or a sort of psychic signature in their probings or even reading that they do. 
'''New Telepaths:'''
 
They are not only knew to life, they're new to their bodies and new to their telepathy, and as such they don't know everything they CAN do with their powers, and yet on the flip side, they're afraid to be apart from each other, as it feels alien and dangerous to be alone and an individual. They feel their own weakness and it feels, unwhole. They can over do it on their powers, and initially they wont be afraid to look into people's minds and extract what they deem is important. 
'''Unknown Host:'''
 
The quintuplets, (As are the rest of the unawaken clones) are all infested with nano-bots in their bone marrow, making them nearly impossible to detect, and even harder to counter. The machines do not send a detectable signal, unless requested to by an outside source, meaning they are only active when they're ordered to. They provide GPS and various other forms of feedback to the unknown individuals running the cloning facility and weapons program they're a part of.
}}
<gallery>
</gallery>
[[Category:Mutant-OOC]] [[Category:Xavier's School]][[Category:Brotherhood]]

Stepford Cuckoos

2024-04-09T15:46:07Z

Kstar:

{{CharacterNew
|NameOnMUSH=Stepford Cuckoos
|Color=#333
|TextColor=#c1c1c1
|Char_id=1702
|Img=https://www.unitedheroesmush.com/images/c/ce/CuckoosPic.jpg
|FullName= Sophie, Phoebe, Irma, Celeste, and Esme Cuckoo
|Gender=Female
|Species=Mutant
|Theme=Marvel
|Chartype=FC
|Active=Active
|Occupation=Students
|Citizenship=US Citizens
|Residence=Xavier Institute
|Education=Some high school
|Groups=[[Xavier's School]], [[Brotherhood]], [[Mutant-OOC]]
|Quote=Irma, Sophie, Celeste, and Phoebe: "Esme! What is wrong with you?!"

Esme: "I... I can't..."

Irma, Sophie, Celeste, and Phoebe: "There is no 'I' Esme, there's only 'we', you're nothing!"
|PAge=22
|AAge=22
|DOB=11 August 2008
|Height=165 cm (5'5")
|Weight=47 kg (103 lb)
|Hair=Blonde
|Eyes=Blue
|Actor=Skyler Rose Samuels
|Song="We Are Family" by The Sister Sledge
|Profile=The Cuckoos are clones of Emma Frost who have been sent to the Xavier institute to infiltrate and gather the details of the place. They are fresh from their vats and aging tubes, as well as new to Xavier's school with deeper unknown sinister goals.
===Current Player Approved: Character Available for Application===
|Description=
'''Description:'''
 
Five girls, young, each one a carbon copy of the other and almost perfectly beautiful by today's standards, like works of art. The Cuckoos reflect maturity beyond their age. Despite the twinge of constant youthful curiosity in their eyes, the girls exude responsibility and sophistication, almost as if they come from nobility and good breeding stock. With figures of lithe dancers, they have the curves and shapes that often get an appraising eye or wicked and intent grin.

Silky blonde hair of spun gold, cut just above the shoulder line. The features of their face are fair, retaining a strong distinctive British heritage, as if they were crafted with the most artistic hands, yet there is nothing fragile or delicate about their beauty, more dangerous and possibly deadly. Then you come to the eyes, like gems of cut blue ice given life. harbouring an awareness and cold pierce that can send shivers down one's spine

Normal mode of dress consists of a classy but sexy uniform of a white dressy blouse, with a black school uniform blazer overtop, and a matching pencil skirt, giving them an almost business-like quality. Their legs are bare other than the white knee socks stretched tightly, displaying the lengthy athleticism and smooth skin, and their feet are adorned with a black pair of girl's loafers. Top it off with a tennis bracelet around their wrists, a sensible pair of silver earrings and an expensive looking black and white diamond choker around their necks.
|History=
'''History:'''
 
The history of the Cuckoos is a short one, in that they're technically not even a year old yet. The story of clones tend to have that lack of depth and yet they're so full of drama. Starting when Emma Frost was kidnapped by one Mister Sinister, the clone's piece of genetic sample was taken from the White Queen against her will and even her knowledge. Skip ahead and Sinister would have been coerced with a large sum of money and favor to sell the sample (At least a portion of it) and the buyer quickly went to work creating his greatest weapon. The Thousands of clones that will be used to take over the world! With the aging artificially sped up, the man sent out a quintuplet of his creations out into the world. He was overly careful to avoid having his own mind read by the group of girls. The five were given names, and identities and sent out in the world with a simple goal to infiltrate and report about how best to remove the X-Men from their 'father's' way in order to take over the world.
|Personality=
'''Personality:'''
 
After getting some time in the Xavier Institute, the girls, while still a hive mind, developed individual personality traits: Phoebe has demonstrated some aggressive behavior, Esme is power hungry and rather selfish, Sophie is heroic, and along with Esme they are both above the rest in terms of power and are able to lead the hivemind, Irma enjoys playing piano, and is the most romantic, Celeste was initially the most timid and affectionate of the Cuckoos, she is the third contender for the leader position and is generally defined by being more mature than the others. According to her sisters, Celeste has began to think she is better than them. Celeste has urged her sisters to watch something a bit more self-improving than Glee.

Collectively, For their age, the girls are pretty well put together. They lack a lot of the immaturity associated with girls their age. Like Emma, they have a very refined nature which is displayed in their usual mode of dress and the way they carry themselves. They can be cold, well-spoken and knowledgeable. They do what they have to do to get what they need to get done, regardless of feelings from others or circumstances with extreme results at times, giving them a questionable sense of ethics. Despite their vast powers, they rely primarily on cunning. They can be ruthless, but care deeply for their friends. The Cuckoos are supremely confident in their abilities, yet tend to underestimate their adversaries and allies alike. Perhaps their most defining personality trait is their desire to be in control, both of herself and their environment.
|Abilities=
'''Hive Mind:'''
 
The Stepford Cuckoos have a linked hive mind, which allows them to share thoughts and maintain a continuous telepathic connection. The link is strongest when the girls are in close physical proximity. This mental phalanx also allows for increased telepathic strength and shared intellect. The girls' powers are greater the sum of its parts. A stronger personality can take lead of the hive mind, but the girls still maintain their independence. 
'''Telepathy:'''
 
'''Telepathy:''' The Cuckoos can read minds and project their thoughts to others with a range of roughly 200 meters. Though they individually possess their own telepathy, but their telepathic abilities are greater when the girls join together. The girls have stated that together they can block even very talented telepaths from reading their minds. Only able to use their mind altering within 50 meters and 10 meters respectively. Even at their young age, they're nearly on par with 'mother' only in sheer telepathic strength. They lack the finesse, precision and experience that Emma Frost possesses, yet they are capable of an array of telepathic skills:

'''Illusions:''' The Cuckoos can create realistic psychic illusions and cause people to experience events which are not actually occurring.

'''Mind Alteration:''' The Cuckoos are able to alter the minds of others by force of will. This can be restoring memories or transferring knowledge.

'''Telepathic Tracking:''' The Cuckoos' psionic senses enable them to detect and track other sentient beings by their unique psionic emanations or thought patterns. This ability is highly sensitive to proximity, but can be enhanced with the use of Cerebra.

'''Astral Projection:''' The Cuckoos are capable of sending astral projections, astral travel, and communicating with others astrally through their own will, or through contact with the thoughts and memories of others.

'''Paralysis:''' The Cuckoos are able to effect certain areas of the brain to induce temporary mental or physical paralysis.

'''Memory Erasure and Restoration:''' The Cuckoos can erase any awareness of particular memories or cause total amnesia. They can also restore memories.

'''Mental Triangulation:''' Due to their hive mind, the Cuckoos have the perspective of multiple directions and are able to triangulate on individuals' minds. 
'''Flawless Diamond Form:'''
 
'''Flawless Organic Diamond Form:''' Like their biological mother, the Cuckoos have the ability to transform themselves into a flexible, translucent, organic diamond-like substance while retaining mobility. In this form, their skin is as hard as real diamond. In this state, food and water are not needed for a undetermined amount of time. Their diamond form does require a conscious hold as however. Unlike Emma Frost, their diamond forms are completely flawless. Nothing can enter or escape from their core. However, maintaining this form for extended period of time reduces their emotional capabilities. While in their Diamond form, the girls have specific traits:
 '''Telepathic Immunity:''' Although they are immune to all psychic powers, they can not use their telepathy.

'''Superhuman Strength:''' In diamond form they can lift 2 tons.(maximum)

'''Superhuman Stamina:''' Their diamond form grants the ability to sustain peak exertion for up to a day.

'''Superhuman Durability:''' Their diamond form augments their skin, bone, and muscle to become stronger and harder than human. They're far more durable in this form, but capable of being shattered or broken by diamond objects or harder than such with enough or repeated force.

'''Compartmental Diamond Transformation:''' Unlike Emma, the Cuckoos can selectively transform discrete parts of their bodies.
|Skills=
'''Acting:'''
 
The Cuckoos are gifted and talented actresses, in that they not only divine the reactions that are expected of them, but they're able to pull them off nearly perfectly with their own flair. The girls have seen and gleamed a few reactions off people that they're able to recreate at any time, yet these motions and reactions still feel alien and false to the girls. 
'''Home Training:'''
 
Taught by cold, calculating and manipulative scientists, the girls are aware of their powers and have several ideas of what they can do with them, and not taught how to use them with hesitation. They will kill and assimilate knowledge like they were taught to. 
'''Scientifically Minded:'''
 
The girl's don't quite possess emotions like normal humans or mutants, they're too fresh in the world and thus they possess a Spock like, analytical mind allowing them to think and process information entirely without emotional inhibitors. This is due to their rather, sci-fi up bringing and birthing process. The girls are incredibly open minded as far as what's scientifically possible.
|Resources=
'''Cuckoos:'''
 
The Cuckoos can always rely on their sisters. The five are rarely ever apart, so they always are ready to help each other out in any situation, as there's safety in numbers and especially when those numbers have a connection beyond their physical groupings, but an incredibly powerful mental connection. That's to say nothing of the nearly one thousand dormant fellow clones back at the lab where they Cuckoos were originally grown. 
'''Nanocarriers:'''
 
The 'father' figure did install in them nano-machines that are capable of broadcasting, and recording through their bones and brainstems, meaning they possess within them, advanced scientific technology, built for spying and recording for their nameless 'father'. 
'''Unknown Benefactor:'''
 
The Cuckoos do have a 'father' in a nameless man that was the one that started the cloning process and instilled them their goals and purposes, and despite the head strong nature they all possess, they're welcome back to the 'facility' they come from though to return would be a slight admission of failure and that's something the Cuckoo's refuse to allow to occur. But the resources are there. 
'''Xavier's:'''
 
The girls have access to Xavier's for a room and a school offered phone (That the girls refuse) and the laptops and a few others items. Like vehicles and clothes and bathrooms and shampoo and conditioners.
|Weaknesses=
'''Born Yesterday:'''
 
The Cuckoos are beyond naïve, they're less than a year old despite their advanced physical appearances. They have to look into a person's mind in order to understand how they're supposed to respond to nearly any social situation. 
'''Cuckoos:'''
 
The clones are exactly that, clones. They're young, inexperienced, and actually quite impressionable, yet that goes with their powers as well. The hive mind ability is actually quite vulnerable to a fellow unknown telepath getting linked into the five's mental pentagram. They could disconnect the hive mind, or block access to it in any number of ways. Needless to say they're physically weak and quite easy to overpower in the physical realms. 
'''Emotionless:'''
 
The girls are technically orphans with no spiritual or even physical mother and father, they only had the biological mother and a man who taught them purpose and a few basic things to allow his 'scouts' and 'experiments' into the world as a test run. They don't have emotional teachings, or a maternal figure who taught them rights and wrongs, or a paternal figure to show them the paths of social situations or how to use their hearts AND their minds in unison. They're severely crippled in nearly all social aspects. 
'''Inexperienced:'''
 
The girls have been in this world a short time and as such, they haven't encountered other telepaths except for themselves and they've been told about their 'mother' so they don't have the mental barriers any telepath would quickly learn to have erected to protect their mind from not only attacks, but also strong enough thoughts. They have a sort of 'always on' mental reading, uncaring of others as they probe into others with reckless abandon. They also don't think about leaving mental residue or a sort of psychic signature in their probings or even reading that they do. 
'''New Telepaths:'''
 
They are not only knew to life, they're new to their bodies and new to their telepathy, and as such they don't know everything they CAN do with their powers, and yet on the flip side, they're afraid to be apart from each other, as it feels alien and dangerous to be alone and an individual. They feel their own weakness and it feels, unwhole. They can over do it on their powers, and initially they wont be afraid to look into people's minds and extract what they deem is important. 
'''Unknown Host:'''
 
The quintuplets, (As are the rest of the unawaken clones) are all infested with nano-bots in their bone marrow, making them nearly impossible to detect, and even harder to counter. The machines do not send a detectable signal, unless requested to by an outside source, meaning they are only active when they're ordered to. They provide GPS and various other forms of feedback to the unknown individuals running the cloning facility and weapons program they're a part of.
}}
<gallery>
</gallery>
[[Category:Mutant-OOC]] [[Category:Xavier's School]][[Category:Brotherhood]]

Stepford Cuckoos

2024-04-09T15:44:06Z

Kstar:

{{CharacterNew
|NameOnMUSH=Stepford Cuckoos
|Color=#333
|TextColor=#c1c1c1
|Char_id=1702
|Img=https://www.unitedheroesmush.com/images/c/ce/CuckoosPic.jpg
|FullName= Sophie, Phoebe, Irma, Celeste, and Esme Cuckoo
|Gender=Female
|Species=Mutant
|Theme=Marvel
|Chartype=FC
|Active=Active
|Occupation=Students
|Citizenship=US Citizens
|Residence=Xavier Institute
|Education=Some high school
|Groups=[[Xavier's School]], [[Brotherhood]], [[Mutant-OOC]]
|Quote=Irma, Sophie, Celeste, and Phoebe: "Esme! What is wrong with you?!"

Esme: "I... I can't..."

Irma, Sophie, Celeste, and Phoebe: "There is no 'I' Esme, there's only 'we', you're nothing!"
|PAge=22
|AAge=22
|DOB=11 August 2008
|Height=165 cm (5'5")
|Weight=47 kg (103 lb)
|Hair=Blonde
|Eyes=Blue
|Actor=Skyler Rose Samuels
|Song="We Are Family" by The Sister Sledge
|Profile=The Cuckoos are clones of Emma Frost who have been sent to the Xavier institute to infiltrate and gather the details of the place. They are fresh from their vats and aging tubes, as well as new to Xavier's school with deeper unknown sinister goals.
===Current Player Approved: Character Available for Application===
|Description=
'''Description:'''
 
Five girls, young, each one a carbon copy of the other and almost perfectly beautiful by today's standards, like works of art. The Cuckoos reflect maturity beyond their age. Despite the twinge of constant youthful curiosity in their eyes, the girls exude responsibility and sophistication, almost as if they come from nobility and good breeding stock. With figures of lithe dancers, they have the curves and shapes that often get an appraising eye or wicked and intent grin.

Silky blonde hair of spun gold, cut just above the shoulder line. The features of their face are fair, retaining a strong distinctive British heritage, as if they were crafted with the most artistic hands, yet there is nothing fragile or delicate about their beauty, more dangerous and possibly deadly. Then you come to the eyes, like gems of cut blue ice given life. harbouring an awareness and cold pierce that can send shivers down one's spine

Normal mode of dress consists of a classy but sexy uniform of a white dressy blouse, with a black school uniform blazer overtop, and a matching pencil skirt, giving them an almost business-like quality. Their legs are bare other than the white knee socks stretched tightly, displaying the lengthy athleticism and smooth skin, and their feet are adorned with a black pair of girl's loafers. Top it off with a tennis bracelet around their wrists, a sensible pair of silver earrings and an expensive looking black and white diamond choker around their necks.
|History=
'''History:'''
 
The history of the Cuckoos is a short one, in that they're technically not even a year old yet. The story of clones tend to have that lack of depth and yet they're so full of drama. Starting when Emma Frost was kidnapped by one Mister Sinister, the clone's piece of genetic sample was taken from the White Queen against her will and even her knowledge. Skip ahead and Sinister would have been coerced with a large sum of money and favor to sell the sample (At least a portion of it) and the buyer quickly went to work creating his greatest weapon. The Thousands of clones that will be used to take over the world! With the aging artificially sped up, the man sent out a quintuplet of his creations out into the world. He was overly careful to avoid having his own mind read by the group of girls. The five were given names, and identities and sent out in the world with a simple goal to infiltrate and report about how best to remove the X-Men from their 'father's' way in order to take over the world.
|Personality=
'''Personality:'''
 
After getting some time in the Xavier Institute, the girls, while still a hive mind, developed individual personality traits: Phoebe has demonstrated some aggressive behavior, Esme is power hungry and rather selfish, Sophie is heroic, and along with Esme they are both above the rest in terms of power and are able to lead the hivemind, Irma enjoys playing piano, and is the most romantic, Celeste was initially the most timid and affectionate of the Cuckoos, she is the third contender for the leader position and is generally defined by being more mature than the others. According to her sisters, Celeste has began to think she is better than them. Celeste has urged her sisters to watch something a bit more self-improving than Glee.

Collectively, For their age, the girls are pretty well put together. They lack a lot of the immaturity associated with girls their age. Like Emma, they have a very refined nature which is displayed in their usual mode of dress and the way they carry themselves. They can be cold, well-spoken and knowledgeable. They do what they have to do to get what they need to get done, regardless of feelings from others or circumstances with extreme results at times, giving them a questionable sense of ethics. Despite their vast powers, they rely primarily on cunning. They can be ruthless, but care deeply for their friends. The Cuckoos are supremely confident in their abilities, yet tend to underestimate their adversaries and allies alike. Perhaps their most defining personality trait is their desire to be in control, both of herself and their environment.
|Abilities=
'''Hive Mind:'''
 
The Stepford Cuckoos have a linked hive mind, which allows them to share thoughts and maintain a continuous telepathic connection. The link is strongest when the girls are in close physical proximity. This mental phalanx also allows for increased telepathic strength and shared intellect. The girls' powers are greater the sum of its parts. A stronger personality can take lead of the hive mind, but the girls still maintain their independence. 
'''Telepaths:'''
 
Telepathy: The Cuckoos can read minds and project their thoughts to others with a range of roughly 200 meters. Though they individually possess their own telepathy, but their telepathic abilities are greater when the girls join together. The girls have stated that together they can block even very talented telepaths from reading their minds. Only able to use their mind altering within 50 meters and 10 meters respectively. Even at their young age, they're nearly on par with 'mother' only in sheer telepathic strength. They lack the finesse, precision and experience that Emma Frost possesses, yet they are capable of an array of telepathic skills:

'''Illusions:''' The Cuckoos can create realistic psychic illusions and cause people to experience events which are not actually occurring.

'''Mind Alteration:''' The Cuckoos are able to alter the minds of others by force of will. This can be restoring memories or transferring knowledge.

'''Telepathic Tracking:''' The Cuckoos' psionic senses enable them to detect and track other sentient beings by their unique psionic emanations or thought patterns. This ability is highly sensitive to proximity, but can be enhanced with the use of Cerebra.

'''Astral Projection:''' The Cuckoos are capable of sending astral projections, astral travel, and communicating with others astrally through their own will, or through contact with the thoughts and memories of others.

'''Paralysis:''' The Cuckoos are able to effect certain areas of the brain to induce temporary mental or physical paralysis.

'''Memory Erasure and Restoration:''' The Cuckoos can erase any awareness of particular memories or cause total amnesia. They can also restore memories.

'''Mental Triangulation:''' Due to their hive mind, the Cuckoos have the perspective of multiple directions and are able to triangulate on individuals' minds. 
'''Flawless Diamond Form:'''
 
Flawless Organic Diamond Form: Like their biological mother, the Cuckoos have the ability to transform themselves into a flexible, translucent, organic diamond-like substance while retaining mobility. In this form, their skin is as hard as real diamond. In this state, food and water are not needed for a undetermined amount of time. Their diamond form does require a conscious hold as however. Unlike Emma Frost, their diamond forms are completely flawless. Nothing can enter or escape from their core. However, maintaining this form for extended period of time reduces their emotional capabilities. While in their Diamond form, the girls have specific traits:
 Telepathic Immunity: Although they are immune to all psychic powers, they can not use their telepathy.

'''Superhuman Strength:''' In diamond form they can lift 2 tons.(maximum)

'''Superhuman Stamina:''' Their diamond form grants the ability to sustain peak exertion for up to a day.

'''Superhuman Durability:''' Their diamond form augments their skin, bone, and muscle to become stronger and harder than human. They're far more durable in this form, but capable of being shattered or broken by diamond objects or harder than such with enough or repeated force.

'''Compartmental Diamond Transformation:''' Unlike Emma, the Cuckoos can selectively transform discrete parts of their bodies.
|Skills=
'''Acting:'''
 
The Cuckoos are gifted and talented actresses, in that they not only divine the reactions that are expected of them, but they're able to pull them off nearly perfectly with their own flair. The girls have seen and gleamed a few reactions off people that they're able to recreate at any time, yet these motions and reactions still feel alien and false to the girls. 
'''Home Training:'''
 
Taught by cold, calculating and manipulative scientists, the girls are aware of their powers and have several ideas of what they can do with them, and not taught how to use them with hesitation. They will kill and assimilate knowledge like they were taught to. 
'''Scientifically Minded:'''
 
The girl's don't quite possess emotions like normal humans or mutants, they're too fresh in the world and thus they possess a Spock like, analytical mind allowing them to think and process information entirely without emotional inhibitors. This is due to their rather, sci-fi up bringing and birthing process. The girls are incredibly open minded as far as what's scientifically possible.
|Resources=
'''Cuckoos:'''
 
The Cuckoos can always rely on their sisters. The five are rarely ever apart, so they always are ready to help each other out in any situation, as there's safety in numbers and especially when those numbers have a connection beyond their physical groupings, but an incredibly powerful mental connection. That's to say nothing of the nearly one thousand dormant fellow clones back at the lab where they Cuckoos were originally grown. 
'''Nanocarriers:'''
 
The 'father' figure did install in them nano-machines that are capable of broadcasting, and recording through their bones and brainstems, meaning they possess within them, advanced scientific technology, built for spying and recording for their nameless 'father'. 
'''Unknown Benefactor:'''
 
The Cuckoos do have a 'father' in a nameless man that was the one that started the cloning process and instilled them their goals and purposes, and despite the head strong nature they all possess, they're welcome back to the 'facility' they come from though to return would be a slight admission of failure and that's something the Cuckoo's refuse to allow to occur. But the resources are there. 
'''Xavier's:'''
 
The girls have access to Xavier's for a room and a school offered phone (That the girls refuse) and the laptops and a few others items. Like vehicles and clothes and bathrooms and shampoo and conditioners.
|Weaknesses=
'''Born Yesterday:'''
 
The Cuckoos are beyond naïve, they're less than a year old despite their advanced physical appearances. They have to look into a person's mind in order to understand how they're supposed to respond to nearly any social situation. 
'''Cuckoos:'''
 
The clones are exactly that, clones. They're young, inexperienced, and actually quite impressionable, yet that goes with their powers as well. The hive mind ability is actually quite vulnerable to a fellow unknown telepath getting linked into the five's mental pentagram. They could disconnect the hive mind, or block access to it in any number of ways. Needless to say they're physically weak and quite easy to overpower in the physical realms. 
'''Emotionless:'''
 
The girls are technically orphans with no spiritual or even physical mother and father, they only had the biological mother and a man who taught them purpose and a few basic things to allow his 'scouts' and 'experiments' into the world as a test run. They don't have emotional teachings, or a maternal figure who taught them rights and wrongs, or a paternal figure to show them the paths of social situations or how to use their hearts AND their minds in unison. They're severely crippled in nearly all social aspects. 
'''Inexperienced:'''
 
The girls have been in this world a short time and as such, they haven't encountered other telepaths except for themselves and they've been told about their 'mother' so they don't have the mental barriers any telepath would quickly learn to have erected to protect their mind from not only attacks, but also strong enough thoughts. They have a sort of 'always on' mental reading, uncaring of others as they probe into others with reckless abandon. They also don't think about leaving mental residue or a sort of psychic signature in their probings or even reading that they do. 
'''New Telepaths:'''
 
They are not only knew to life, they're new to their bodies and new to their telepathy, and as such they don't know everything they CAN do with their powers, and yet on the flip side, they're afraid to be apart from each other, as it feels alien and dangerous to be alone and an individual. They feel their own weakness and it feels, unwhole. They can over do it on their powers, and initially they wont be afraid to look into people's minds and extract what they deem is important. 
'''Unknown Host:'''
 
The quintuplets, (As are the rest of the unawaken clones) are all infested with nano-bots in their bone marrow, making them nearly impossible to detect, and even harder to counter. The machines do not send a detectable signal, unless requested to by an outside source, meaning they are only active when they're ordered to. They provide GPS and various other forms of feedback to the unknown individuals running the cloning facility and weapons program they're a part of.
}}
<gallery>
</gallery>
[[Category:Mutant-OOC]] [[Category:Xavier's School]][[Category:Brotherhood]]

Stepford Cuckoos

2024-04-09T15:34:07Z

Kstar:

{{CharacterNew
|NameOnMUSH=Stepford Cuckoos
|Color=#333
|TextColor=#c1c1c1
|Char_id=1702
|Img=https://www.unitedheroesmush.com/images/c/ce/CuckoosPic.jpg
|FullName= Sophie, Phoebe, Irma, Celeste, and Esme Cuckoo
|Gender=Female
|Species=Mutant
|Theme=Marvel
|Chartype=FC
|Active=Dropped
|Occupation=Students
|Citizenship=US Citizens
|Residence=Xavier Institute
|Education=Some high school
|Groups=[[Xavier's School]], [[Brotherhood]], [[Mutant-OOC]]
|Quote="What did you do, Irma?" "I cut my hair! Let go!" "How could you?!"
|PAge=22
|AAge=22
|DOB=11 August 2008
|Height=165 cm (5'5")
|Weight=47 kg (103 lb)
|Hair=Blonde
|Eyes=Blue
|Actor=Elle Evans
|Song="One" by Three Dog Night
|Profile=The Cuckoos are clones of Emma Frost who have been sent to the Xavier institute to infiltrate and gather the details of the place. They are fresh from their vats and aging tubes, as well as new to Xavier's school with deeper unknown sinister goals.
===Current Player Approved: Character Available for Application===
|Description=
'''Description:'''
 
Five girls, young, each one a carbon copy of the other and almost perfectly beautiful by today's standards, like works of art. The Cuckoos reflect maturity beyond their age. Despite the twinge of constant youthful curiosity in their eyes, the girls exude responsibility and sophistication, almost as if they come from nobility and good breeding stock. With figures of lithe dancers, they have the curves and shapes that often get an appraising eye or wicked and intent grin.

Silky blonde hair of spun gold, cut just above the shoulder line. The features of their face are fair, retaining a strong distinctive British heritage, as if they were crafted with the most artistic hands, yet there is nothing fragile or delicate about their beauty, more dangerous and possibly deadly. Then you come to the eyes, like gems of cut blue ice given life. harbouring an awareness and cold pierce that can send shivers down one's spine

Normal mode of dress consists of a classy but sexy uniform of a white dressy blouse, with a black school uniform blazer overtop, and a matching pencil skirt, giving them an almost business-like quality. Their legs are bare other than the white knee socks stretched tightly, displaying the lengthy athleticism and smooth skin, and their feet are adorned with a black pair of girl's loafers. Top it off with a tennis bracelet around their wrists, a sensible pair of silver earrings and an expensive looking black and white diamond choker around their necks.
|History=
'''History:'''
 
The history of the Cuckoos is a short one, in that they're technically not even a year old yet. The story of clones tend to have that lack of depth and yet they're so full of drama. Starting when Emma Frost was kidnapped by one Mister Sinister, the clone's piece of genetic sample was taken from the White Queen against her will and even her knowledge. Skip ahead and Sinister would have been coerced with a large sum of money and favor to sell the sample (At least a portion of it) and the buyer quickly went to work creating his greatest weapon. The Thousands of clones that will be used to take over the world! With the aging artificially sped up, the man sent out a quintuplet of his creations out into the world. He was overly careful to avoid having his own mind read by the group of girls. The five were given names, and identities and sent out in the world with a simple goal to infiltrate and report about how best to remove the X-Men from their 'father's' way in order to take over the world.
|Personality=
'''Personality:'''
 
After getting some time in the Xavier Institute, the girls, while still a hive mind, developed individual personality traits: Phoebe has demonstrated some aggressive behavior, Esme is power hungry and rather selfish, Sophie is heroic, and along with Esme they are both above the rest in terms of power and are able to lead the hivemind, Irma enjoys playing piano, and is the most romantic, Celeste was initially the most timid and affectionate of the Cuckoos, she is the third contender for the leader position and is generally defined by being more mature than the others. According to her sisters, Celeste has began to think she is better than them. Celeste has urged her sisters to watch something a bit more self-improving than Glee.

Collectively, For their age, the girls are pretty well put together. They lack a lot of the immaturity associated with girls their age. Like Emma, they have a very refined nature which is displayed in their usual mode of dress and the way they carry themselves. They can be cold, well-spoken and knowledgeable. They do what they have to do to get what they need to get done, regardless of feelings from others or circumstances with extreme results at times, giving them a questionable sense of ethics. Despite their vast powers, they rely primarily on cunning. They can be ruthless, but care deeply for their friends. The Cuckoos are supremely confident in their abilities, yet tend to underestimate their adversaries and allies alike. Perhaps their most defining personality trait is their desire to be in control, both of herself and their environment.
|Abilities=
'''Hive Mind:'''
 
The Stepford Cuckoos have a linked hive mind, which allows them to share thoughts and maintain a continuous telepathic connection. The link is strongest when the girls are in close physical proximity. This mental phalanx also allows for increased telepathic strength and shared intellect. The girls' powers are greater the sum of its parts. A stronger personality can take lead of the hive mind, but the girls still maintain their independence. 
'''Telepaths:'''
 
Telepathy: The Cuckoos can read minds and project their thoughts to others with a range of roughly 200 meters. Though they individually possess their own telepathy, but their telepathic abilities are greater when the girls join together. The girls have stated that together they can block even very talented telepaths from reading their minds. Only able to use their mind altering within 50 meters and 10 meters respectively. Even at their young age, they're nearly on par with 'mother' only in sheer telepathic strength. They lack the finesse, precision and experience that Emma Frost possesses, yet they are capable of an array of telepathic skills:

-Illusions: The Cuckoos can create realistic psychic illusions and cause people to experience events which are not actually occurring.

-Mind Alteration: The Cuckoos are able to alter the minds of others by force of will. This can be restoring memories or transferring knowledge.

-Telepathic Tracking: The Cuckoos' psionic senses enable them to detect and track other sentient beings by their unique psionic emanations or thought patterns. This ability is highly sensitive to proximity, but can be enhanced with the use of Cerebra.

-Astral Projection: The Cuckoos are capable of sending astral projections, astral travel, and communicating with others astrally through their own will, or through contact with the thoughts and memories of others.

-Paralysis: The Cuckoos are able to effect certain areas of the brain to induce temporary mental or physical paralysis.

-Memory Erasure and Restoration: The Cuckoos can erase any awareness of particular memories or cause total amnesia. They can also restore memories.

-Mental Triangulation: Due to their hive mind, the Cuckoos have the perspective of multiple directions and are able to triangulate on individuals' minds.
'''Flawless Diamond Form:'''
 
Flawless Organic Diamond Form: Like their biological mother, the Cuckoos have the ability to transform themselves into a flexible, translucent, organic diamond-like substance while retaining mobility. In this form, their skin is as hard as real diamond. In this state, food and water are not needed for a undetermined amount of time. Their diamond form does require a conscious hold as however. Unlike Emma Frost, their diamond forms are completely flawless. Nothing can enter or escape from their core. However, maintaining this form for extended period of time reduces their emotional capabilities. While in their Diamond form, the girls have specific traits:
 Telepathic Immunity: Although they are immune to all psychic powers, they can not use their telepathy. Superhuman Strength: In diamond form they can lift 2 tons.(maximum)

Superhuman Stamina: Their diamond form grants the ability to sustain peak exertion for up to a day.

Superhuman Durability: Their diamond form augments their skin, bone, and muscle to become stronger and harder than human. They're far more durable in this form, but capable of being shattered or broken by diamond objects or harder than such with enough or repeated force.

Compartmental Diamond Transformation: Unlike Emma, the Cuckoos can selectively transform discrete parts of their bodies.
|Skills=
'''Acting:'''
 
The Cuckoos are gifted and talented actresses, in that they not only divine the reactions that are expected of them, but they're able to pull them off nearly perfectly with their own flair. The girls have seen and gleamed a few reactions off people that they're able to recreate at any time, yet these motions and reactions still feel alien and false to the girls. 
'''Home Training:'''
 
Taught by cold, calculating and manipulative scientists, the girls are aware of their powers and have several ideas of what they can do with them, and not taught how to use them with hesitation. They will kill and assimilate knowledge like they were taught to. 
'''Scientifically Minded:'''
 
The girl's don't quite possess emotions like normal humans or mutants, they're too fresh in the world and thus they possess a Spock like, analytical mind allowing them to think and process information entirely without emotional inhibitors. This is due to their rather, sci-fi up bringing and birthing process. The girls are incredibly open minded as far as what's scientifically possible.
|Resources=
'''Cuckoos:'''
 
The Cuckoos can always rely on their sisters. The five are rarely ever apart, so they always are ready to help each other out in any situation, as there's safety in numbers and especially when those numbers have a connection beyond their physical groupings, but an incredibly powerful mental connection. That's to say nothing of the nearly one thousand dormant fellow clones back at the lab where they Cuckoos were originally grown. 
'''Nanocarriers:'''
 
The 'father' figure did install in them nano-machines that are capable of broadcasting, and recording through their bones and brainstems, meaning they possess within them, advanced scientific technology, built for spying and recording for their nameless 'father'. 
'''Unknown Benefactor:'''
 
The Cuckoos do have a 'father' in a nameless man that was the one that started the cloning process and instilled them their goals and purposes, and despite the head strong nature they all possess, they're welcome back to the 'facility' they come from though to return would be a slight admission of failure and that's something the Cuckoo's refuse to allow to occur. But the resources are there. 
'''Xavier's:'''
 
The girls have access to Xavier's for a room and a school offered phone (That the girls refuse) and the laptops and a few others items. Like vehicles and clothes and bathrooms and shampoo and conditioners.
|Weaknesses=
'''Born Yesterday:'''
 
The Cuckoos are beyond naïve, they're less than a year old despite their advanced physical appearances. They have to look into a person's mind in order to understand how they're supposed to respond to nearly any social situation. 
'''Cuckoos:'''
 
The clones are exactly that, clones. They're young, inexperienced, and actually quite impressionable, yet that goes with their powers as well. The hive mind ability is actually quite vulnerable to a fellow unknown telepath getting linked into the five's mental pentagram. They could disconnect the hive mind, or block access to it in any number of ways. Needless to say they're physically weak and quite easy to overpower in the physical realms. 
'''Emotionless:'''
 
The girls are technically orphans with no spiritual or even physical mother and father, they only had the biological mother and a man who taught them purpose and a few basic things to allow his 'scouts' and 'experiments' into the world as a test run. They don't have emotional teachings, or a maternal figure who taught them rights and wrongs, or a paternal figure to show them the paths of social situations or how to use their hearts AND their minds in unison. They're severely crippled in nearly all social aspects. 
'''Inexperienced:'''
 
The girls have been in this world a short time and as such, they haven't encountered other telepaths except for themselves and they've been told about their 'mother' so they don't have the mental barriers any telepath would quickly learn to have erected to protect their mind from not only attacks, but also strong enough thoughts. They have a sort of 'always on' mental reading, uncaring of others as they probe into others with reckless abandon. They also don't think about leaving mental residue or a sort of psychic signature in their probings or even reading that they do. 
'''New Telepaths:'''
 
They are not only knew to life, they're new to their bodies and new to their telepathy, and as such they don't know everything they CAN do with their powers, and yet on the flip side, they're afraid to be apart from each other, as it feels alien and dangerous to be alone and an individual. They feel their own weakness and it feels, unwhole. They can over do it on their powers, and initially they wont be afraid to look into people's minds and extract what they deem is important. 
'''Unknown Host:'''
 
The quintuplets, (As are the rest of the unawaken clones) are all infested with nano-bots in their bone marrow, making them nearly impossible to detect, and even harder to counter. The machines do not send a detectable signal, unless requested to by an outside source, meaning they are only active when they're ordered to. They provide GPS and various other forms of feedback to the unknown individuals running the cloning facility and weapons program they're a part of.
}}
<gallery>
</gallery>
[[Category:Mutant-OOC]] [[Category:Xavier's School]][[Category:Brotherhood]]