14004/Rock, Meet Hard Place

Rock, Meet Hard Place
Date of Scene:	02 December 2021
Location:	Two Bridges (Chinatown), Manhattan
Synopsis:	A seemingly random attack leads to freedom for one who's been a prisoner inside his own mind.
Cast of Characters:	Scarlet Witch, Vitali Svyatoslav, Askante, Kit Killovarras

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Scarlet Witch has posed:
The night is young yet. Not even midnight as of yet. Wanda Maximoff has just finished dinner and walks out of Peking Duck House. Only to find the streets have been quite deserted. She whistles a soft tune from her mother country as she walks. Her hands are tucked into the pockets of her scarlet overcoat. She wears black jeans and workboots beneath, which can be seen peaking out with every step.

The redhead doesn't look like she's in anything resembling a hurry. And she's quite alone. Then again, who in their right mind would bother the Scarlet Witch when she's happy and strolling. She doesn't seem to have a care in the world. Despite what the day's tabloids had said about her. That she betrayed her brother. Photos of her getting pizza with him, and then leaving him behind and vanishing. Leaving him to take care of the bill and the pizza both. Left him to meet up with a /man/, of all things! There are photos of that, too. Wanda kissing a guy, supposedly to have happened after she left Pietro behind the previous evening.

Of course, it's a tabloid print. Wanda had ignored it entirely, if she'd even seen it. Snow falls from overhead. Big, fat flakes. They're already gathering on the ground. Wanda doesn't seem to mind. In fact, she stops on the edges of the park and admires the view of snow covered trees within.

Vitali Svyatoslav has posed:
The streets are mostly deserted and yet not quite completely so. From the space between the Peking Duck House and the building next to it, Vitali waits. It's only after Wanda has passed by that he steps out in order to ghost his way after her. Heng Zhihao had seen the tabloid article, and she had read it and spent time in studying the pictures attached to it. Studying the woman in those pictures. Her mind is made up, and providing Vitali doesn't choose to interfere in any of the ways he has before, this woman will make a fair target for her purpose.

His hands rest before him, one hand paired to the other and both hands hidden from sight by the silk of his sleeves. His black hair is loose and free, studded with snowflakes that have landed there. To betray someone is bad enough, yet to betray family? That is something which takes it to a completely different level. How must her poor brother feel, in having been treated so? He dips his chin slightly, his dark gaze holding on her as he follows her.

This is where Vitali's magic becomes something that Heng Zhihao likes even more, for it means that she can attempt what she wishes from a bit of a distance. And that is exactly what she does. His right hand softly moves away from his left and, beneath the fall of the silk, there's a soft motion of his fingers as he speaks a murmured word of Mandarin. A thin rope of water snakes out to attempt to lash around one of Wanda's ankles, and if the attempt is successful then that rope will pull backwards.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Only someone not in their right mind would have taken that tabloid seriously. The picture of her kissing a man had actually been under the mistletoe the previous year, though that part had been conveniently left out. Anything for ratings. Alas, not all in this world are in their right minds. And sadly for Heng Zhihao, that one doesn't now that they've bitten off more than they can chew.

Wanda is not unaware of the person who'd been lurking in the shadows. She can feel the power, the magic, of that one. Sometimes, it's really handy being a witch. Never the less, she doesn't slow her steps, nor speed them up. She doesn't even look at that person. To all appearances, she ignores completely that Vitali is following her.

Wanda doesn't pull her hands from her pockets, but if one pays attention, the sullen glow of hellfire can be seen there. Through the black fabric of her jeans. Of course, from behind, it's hidden by the longcoat. She pulls her hand from her pocket as she feels the rope of water moving toward her. Her hand waves in the air.

Scarlet light latches onto the end of the water rope closest to her. Not only does the light latch on, but what appears to be hell fire /eats/ the water as it speeds up the rope. Towards Vitali. It leaves the rope, that scarlet power. It follows the line of power from the water, going straight at the Siberian like a bolt of crimson lightning.

Vitali Svyatoslav has posed:
Anything for ratings, and anything to get people to purchase the tabloid in order to read the full article promised on one of the inside pages. Or purchase access to it through the website. Either profit line suited such publications. There are those who take such words as truth, even though they are anything but, and Heng Zhihao is but one amongst many. The publication gives no indication of what the redheaded woman is capable of, and Heng Zhihao is not so versed in the world as to know either.

Vitali has no way of sensing the magic of others, and so Heng Zhihao is unaware of the fact that the redheaded woman is possessed of magic. Magic that she's about to wield. And that magic isn't noticed until it actually is wielded, until it's set upon the rope of water. Vitali stops, and one of his eyebrows quirks up out of surprise as that hellfire light starts to eat its way along the rope. That... that has never happened before! Not in all of the fights that Vitali or the interloping spirit have ever been in.

There's a slight flick of the fingers of his right hand, and a shield of water is instead created to go from head to toe in height, the fingers of his right hand slightly extended and spread. His left hand moves slightly, and there's a layer of ice that forms on the outside of the water. Neither Vitali nor Heng Zhihao have experience in dealing with energy or magic the likes of this.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Ratings mean money. Money makes people happy. Or so they think. But there are things in this world at are far more important than money. Some things are better left alone. Wanda is one of those things. Not that the one attacking her knew that to start with. She moves her hands outward, ever so slightly, and forward toward Vitali's shape, there within the water encased in ice.

Wanda stalks toward her, her eyes taking on a sullen scarlet glow that is the same color as the power visible around her hands. "You should not have done that," she says, her voice flat and showing sign of a person who's merciful. Wanda's brother is the merciful one. Wanda is far more likely to be vengeful when crossed.

The scarlet power doesn't slow. It passes straight through the ice and water shields, melting a fist sized hole into each of them, the edges melted like candle wax. The power strikes him square in the chest. It's hard enough to send him flying, and seriously bruised, but little more than that. Bones are unlikely to be broken. Not from the impact of the power, and not from any landing if he is flung back.

Vitali Svyatoslav has posed:
There are a lot of things in life that can give happiness. In Vitali's opinion, money is assuredly not one of them. There are so many more things in life that are more important than money. Yet Vitali has led a simple sort of life, even after coming here from his native Siberia. There was no way for him -- or by extension, for Heng Zhihao -- to know that this one ought not be crossed and ought be left alone. Vitali has only met her once before, and that was briefly.

There's a brief and quick glance towards Wanda's hands before his attention lifts to her features, noticing the reflection of power there in her eyes. "You should not have done what you did, either," he says, the words touched by a mild Chinese accent rather tha Vitali's own Russian one. In that moment, there is the belief that the shield will hold -- it always has before, so why should it not?

There is a moment of disbelief when the power passes through the shield, melting it nigh as though it's not even there. And there's a brief flicker of surprise that comes to his dark eyes. Yet the expression doesn't linger, for that's when the power strikes him and sends him hurtling backwards. He is, assuredly, flung back from the strike, for he has nary a thing to defend himself against it. The landing is a bit on the rough side, skidding a bit and tumbling before he manages to tuck into it. That will definitely leave bruises, providing he lives through the rest of the trouble that Heng Zhihao has gotten him into. He moves a bit, experimentally, testing for broken bones and finding none, and it takes him a moment to rise to his feet after that.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
While money can certainly help with attaining happiness, in the end, it's people that bring happiness. Not money or objects. As Vitali speaks, Wanda's head tilts a hair to the side. Her long red hair on that side slides forward over her shoulder. "What is it I'm supposed to have done?" Not that it's going to matter to Wanda either way. That shield has always held before, yes. But that was before it met Wanda's power. At least she's not trying to kill him immediately. Pietro would be disappointed if she did. So she doesn't.

Not yet, at least. Later? Perhaps.

Wanda continues to stalk forward, toward the man climing to his feet. "What ever I have or have not done, what gives you the right to judge me? What gives you the right to decide I'm guilty? What gives you the right to punish me?" As she speaks, she stalks ever closer to the man. Her scarlet power hasn't diminished at all, remaining a sullen ruddy flicker of light in the otherwise dark alleyway.

Askante has posed:
This has been bothering the Daemon of Primal Fear for some time. Askante is in fact often troubled by a conscience, part and parcel of being what it is an how it came to be; protecting humanity, sometimes from its own folly. Certainly, that extends to protecting the living from the dead, as they can be quite a danger to the continuation of life. So it had debated whether others would remove the interloper and fussed at its thoughts for a long while, observing from afar. But still the dead woman remains in the mind of the man that was kind to it, when it was in trauma. This will not do.

In the underneath, the world of the dead, everything is grey an muted, colours do not seem to be true. Close to the world of the living, it mirrors the real to an extent, except... /it/ can see all the dead souls, some who do not know that they are dead, some that simply watch their living relatives, others that are just trying to find their way onward. But to it, the sight of Vitali is a black and reddish beacon in this otherwise understated world. It can see the 'shadow' of the living on the other side, but proceeds toward the battle in the park with skittering steps, fingers of its long limbs rattling. It's /possible/ that Heng Zhihao would sense something disturbing approaching, but whilst she's up to the eyeballs and all into the soul of Vitali, is there anything much she can truly do about it?

"I am sorry for what I must do. But this cannot carry on. If you will not let go, you will draw the eye of those that watch the cross-roads... and the one that you ride will suffer for it. You should not be here." It says this, even as it pounces onto the back of Vitali's form in the shadows, grabbing on with all four arms to -rip- the dead from the living. This is liable in the REAL world, to cause some interesting things to happen to Vitali, as the shape of shadow and fears in the periphery vision, with something in its four arms, /begins/ to coalesce...

Kit Killovarras has posed:
Even if this area isn't his typical territory, there's something to be said for how easily the yeen can get around without being seen. He's almost perfected his ability to remain undetected by normal standards, though his magic still often gives him away to other mages. Tonight? Tonight he was on the rooftops, watching the streets for someone very specific and now? Now it seems he's found them. He had no intent tonight to interact with the possessed Siberian, but with a fight started and the sudden manifestations occurring? He's weighing the options for the moment.

For now though, he observes, his dark clothing helping him to remain - for the most part - unseen from where he watches things unfold.

Vitali Svyatoslav has posed:
"You know what you have done. What should have been done instead of what was," Vitali says, one of his eyebrows slightly lifting. "You would not have earned this one's attention otherwise. You should not have betrayed him. Do you care for him so little that you would treat your own blood in such a manner?" he asks, faintly tilting his head to one side. The physical body aches, and there will be a host of bruises later, but Heng Zhihao is not about to let such a thing stop her from her purpose. "The right has been earned, by experience and by time. Your guilt was made public for all to see and witness, and judged thus," he says, as thought that explains all that must be explained.

Whether or not Heng Zhihao can sense that something which approaches is unclear. She is well and truly distracted with the Scarlet Witch that she faces, for the redheaded woman has turned out to be of a considerable power that was unexpected. There is a moment in which Heng Zhihao seeks to reclaim Vitali's magic to use, for her concentration had been broken at some point during the tumble that had followed Wanda's attack. Yet it would seem that such is not to be. There is the stalker in the darkness who pounces in that moment, to lay a claim upon the interloping spirit.

There are shadows that become darkness, stark and empty and holding nothingness within them. For a moment, Vitali seems unable to draw a breath. He stumbles a bit in place, and he falls to his knees, one of his hands moving to support some of his weight there. There are flickering images, near and yet not, a flurry of lightning, a flash of fire, a liberal amount of blood splattered across crystal-white snow and ice. Glistening tears track down Vitali's cheeks, and though he's able to draw breath, it's ragged and uneven.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Alas, the interloper has, for the moment, brought great danger to at least one of the living. In the form of Wanda Maximoff. Who is right in the middle of being highly irritated and no little vengeful. Distracted as she is, though she likely knows another mage is nearby, she pays that fact no mind at all.

Her attention is drawn back to Vitali, however, with the words. "Treat my own blood in what manner? Stop speaking in riddles and just tell me. I have no patience for games." She rolls her eyes heavenward at the continuing prattle about rights and experience and time. And Wanda still has no idea what it is she's been judged to be guilty /for/.

However, the approach of the thing that lands on the man's back brings her pause. Not only does she see it, she also sees it rip something from him. This gives her futher pause, one red brow rising upward. She raises that brow further at him when he falls to his knees, but her eyes readily turn to watch what it is that happens to ... "A spirit? No wonder you act as you do. Hey," she says, looking to the thing that is Askante. "Don't kill it yet. I want to know what it was talking about. Who did I betray? And how?"

Askante has posed:
A little more, a little further and as Wanda speaks to it, the shape of the four armed Daemon materializes with the form of Heng Zhihao in its scaled arms; it holds tight, it might be noted, claws of its feet dug into the floor of the alley where it can gain purchase and tail lashing to keep its balance. Once she recovers her senses a mite, holding on will be all that it can muster. But there is the ghost girl, appearing as she should appear, made manifest in the world of the living by contact with a being that can walk the worlds between.

"Be swift, or do as you must as hastily as possible. I do not know how long I can hold on." it informs with a soft hiss. The shadows and the things within them, having shown fears, prickle at the spine. Askante is after all, rather agitated and the nature of it is bleeding out.

Kit Killovarras has posed:
The creature is silent as a whisper when he moves, managing to get himself down from the roof by way of a fire escape, though not in the typical method. It's a jump here, a caught rail there and quicker than one might expect, the yeen is crouched down near Vitali, checking him over quietly, trying to find an injury he would need to mend, but it's only bruises.

The yeen is wearing his normal hoodie, dark jeans and even his steel-cage muzzle. It's from the pocket of his hoodie that he produces a small bottle of pills marked 'hydro' and hands them to the Siberian, then turns his attention to the ghost in Askante's grasp.

"I did warn you..." he finally says, breaking his silence as he eyes the spirit made manifest by the Daemon. "I may not have had the authority to remove you... But there are indeed those who do..." He'll watch the ghost for a moment, then look past it to Askante to offer them a little smile before his attention goes back to Vitali, leaning close to the man and if he's allowed, will even give him a gentle hug as he starts to hum a tune just barely loud enough to be heard.

The melody is something ancient, it's quiet and slow and everything about it is meant to calm the nerves and while there is no magic in it, there is always something significant about an old lullaby that has a way of stifling some of the worst fears if the listener allows.

Vitali Svyatoslav has posed:
The interloper has been trying to accomplish a particular purpose that has been thwarted at nearly every step. This was the first moment when there had been a sliver of hope that she might accomplish something towards her goal. And though it hadn't been the usual suspects intervening on her efforts, it had still been broken. It is a frustrating thing! So close, and yet... so out of reach, as well. Not that she'd had any hope of winning a fight against Wanda, whether Heng Zhihao was willing to admit it or otherwise.

Vitali manages only a little nod at Wanda's question about a spirit. It's why he's been acting the way he has been, why he's dressed the way he is. Why he hasn't been himself. He looks down at the ground for a long moment, blinking a few times. It feels... strange, after so long of not being himself. "YA ne byl soboy ... davno. Net, pozhaluysta ... ne unichtozhay yeye," he says quietly, hesitantly. He closes his eyes for a long moment, doing little more than simply breathing and trying to get that back to normal. "Tvoy brat. On tot, kogo, po yeye mneniyu, ty predal. Gazeta? Byla fotografiya," he adds, giving a small shake of his head. He doesn't want to know these things, but he knows these things. She lived within him, in his body, he would be hard pressed not to know.

The spirit shows some fight against Askante's hold, but there is something quickly learned about not being able to escape. The spirit is a Chinese woman, with long black hair that shows signs of grey peppering through it. She wears a traditional style of women's hanfu from some three hundred years ago.

The physical pains are distracting to him, and there is nothing that Vitali can do for them. His healing is only for others, not for himself. He becomes aware of being checked over, yet still his gaze is downcast. To the ground. He doesn't do anything with the bottle of pills that's offered to him, for he doesn't understand what they are, which brings a confused wrinkle to his brow. His eyes close when Kit returns to him, to give him a hug that he doesn't struggle against and to hum to him. He doesn't fight what the music is intended to do, either, and as the effect of it eases some of those fears, and his breathing becomes more normal. "Thank you," he says quietly, this time in English.

Translation 1: I have not been myself for... a long time. No, please... do not destroy her.

Translation 2: Your brother. He is the one she believes you to have betrayed. A newspaper? There was a picture.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Wanda Maximoff grunts softly and looks to the spirit. These next few seconds, it would seem, will be crucial. She looks to the other mage as he approaches, and speaks to the ghost. Curious. Her jade eyes look to Vitali, then to the spirit. Those eyes narrow and she paces closer to Askante. "You know, it doesn't matter what she was talking about. Let me relieve you of your burden."

Vitali no longer gets even a glance. She had only met him the once, so wouldn't have known anything was out of place in any case. And his words? Bring zero hesitation from the Scarlet Witch. Wanda's power flickers, and changes, going from sullen scarlet to bright scarlet. It shoots toward the spirit, striking her full on just as it had Vitali. Only this time, it's not merely a trickle of her power. This time, she means to destroy what that power touches.

Askante has posed:
Askante isn't cruel, but sometimes, it is not all that kind, either. There's a pragmatism that comes with being what it is, because the job is neverending. "You should have known peace," it whispers to the Heng's ear, listening to Vitali's words with a narrowing of black eyes at the siberian. Humans are occasionally very strange beings, unquantifiably peculiar and prone to doing exactly what you don't expect of them at the weirdest of times. "You are very, very strange," it informs, then in the split second when the magic from Wanda changes colour, it has a choice to make, to hold on (Yes) or to release (no) -- mercy or oblivion. PErhaps those are one and the same thing. Perhaps release is actually the torment.

Pissing off the scarlet witch is probably not a wise idea at any time, but the man that this ghost rode wished her mercy and somehow the thought of that red energy and the words suggest there would be no kindness given. And it therefore... lets go of Heng, which means she is not tethered to the real world, sending her spirit back to the other side.

Of course, this might not actually matter. It's the Scarlet Witch. What's a wall between worlds to her?

Kit Killovarras has posed:
It's a split second, a choice made in a single moment in time and for a split second, it's like a dam breaks and something tears open right behind Kit. It's less than the beat of a heart from the moment Wanda starts to cast her spell, to the time that Kit casts his, a clawed paw suddenly flinging wide in an arch, hurling four blades at the witch!

The moment the spell is cast, the hyena's eyes flare with brilliant violet light, that same energy crackling around him, across his fur and even creeping along the ground beneath him for a few inches. He's visibly drawing on something much, much more than his body should ever be capable of doing.

Normally his blades are sharp, possibly even lethal if they hit right, but these ones are more controlled. Less like a blunted knife and more like the swing of a baseball bat, meant to bludgeon rather than kill. It should be enough to get anyones attention and if the witch looks back? She'll see a small, controlled rift pouring energy from half a dozen dimensions or more into a young mage whose teeth are bared and whose fur is raised, glaring at her and growling out, "How dare you.."

Vitali Svyatoslav has posed:
The Siberian remains on his knees there on the ground. The pills in the bottle make a soft rattle as he places it on the ground, and then he lifts his hand to lightly brush his fingers over his cheeks. Brushing away the tears that are there. He still looks down to the ground, leaning forward a bit on his other hand. In being himself again, he is unsteady, for he hasn't had full control of himself in months. He doesn't make any effort to try to stop Wanda from striking out at Heng Zhihao.

There is nothing the spirit can do to stop Wanda either. She had been torn from the body that she had been inhabiting, where she had been comfortable. "We should all know peace," Heng Zhihao says quietly, choosing to make her own voice heard. Wanda's magic starts to strike her, but then she is released, and in being released, there is a peace that can be found. She is no longer tethered to her prison, for that was somehow broken, and so she is able to cross to the other side. To the Spirit World. And there is what seems to be a sense of tranquility left behind from that. This is what she had wanted all along, above all other things. Perhaps in her next life, the evil of her will not carry forward.

This, the fact that she is gone, is something that Vitali can sense. Something that he can feel. And there is a long moment in which he is quiet. Then he gives a small shake of his head. "Enough. There has been more than enough violence caused by Heng Zhihao," Vitali says, a touch firmly. He should know, he's had her memories to prod at these past months, with more success than what she had in attempting the same to him. "Let there not be more. Please. She is gone. Let it end with her passage," he adds. He lifts his gaze, looking to Kit first, then over towards Wanda and Askante. "I am a shaman, a Voice of Spirits. She would not allow me to be her Voice. She would not Hear me," he adds, his Russian accent still present but softer than what it had been. He pushes himself up a bit, and he brings his hands to rest upon the dark silk of his robes on his thighs, his rump resting on his heels. He is, at least, sitting up, weary and bruised though he is.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
In truth, Wanda Maximoff isn't overly emotionally invested in destroying the spirit. Mostly, she's venting wrath. Mostly at the audacity of the spirit for meddling where she has no right to interfere. Only minutely at had been done to Vitali. Minutely, for he's still a human, but one she's not overly familiar with. And so, when the spirit is moved across the wall and into the spirit world, and Wanda's magic streaks past and then splutters out, all that happens is a slightly irritated huff of breath that she missed.

Wanda glances to the entity that had moved the spirit and considers it, then looks to Vitali. Only to be distracted by the other mage flinging things at her. They get closer, and closer, and then stop abruptly with a muted clang. Scarlet power flares up around them, where each impacts. Each hangs there for a moment's hesitation, and then falls to land upon the pavement beneath their feet with that unmistakeable clang that metal makes when striking a hard object.

She turns only her head to glance at the other mage. She flicks the fingers of her left hand and a lick of flames from her own scarlet power rolls up. Rolls up? Until it looks like a rolled up newspaper. That power lashes out!

....

And aims to swat him right atop his fuzzy aardwolf snout. "Bad puppy. You shouldn't attempt to bite more than you can chew."

Askante has posed:
Askante looks to the side as the spirit moves on. Perhaps it can sense that there's a flash of peace, because it sighs in the wake of the action and stands COMPLETELY still as all the magic flies past, over or to the side of it. Moving at this particular juncture would have been bad. With slow motion, it flicks open one side of its coat as a gunslinger might have once done, so that it can pull out a stick of jerky from its pants pocket, ferrying it similarly slowly to its mouth, to chew on, like it was sassafrass grass. "There are some, Vitali of the Siberakh, that just will not listen, no matter how loudly you scream at them. I am sorry if what I did hurt you, but it was necessary, in the end."

It looks back at Wanda as she looks at it consideringly and waves the fingers of one of its hands at her, lower arms afterwards crossing beneath the others, hugging its lean chest. It nods at her.

Kit Killovarras has posed:
The 'puppy' remark and the rolled up energy newspaper get a sudden snarl from the yeen, something that is remarkably unlike him normally, but at very least he doesn't launch another attack. After a moment, his fur lowers and his lip falls again, once again hiding his teeth.

He'll give a glance to Vitali and nod, finally letting out a sigh as he mutters, "Some are either too stupid or too stubborn to listen. It's a sad truth, but at very least they can be dealt with if we're lucky." He gives a little shrug, then tilts his head and asks, "You'll be ok?"

Vitali Svyatoslav has posed:
When there comes those muted clangs of sound, the Siberian lifts his gaze to bring it to Wanda. Watching, as Kit's magic is blocked and stopped. There is no magic that he holds in these moments, and none that he seeks to reach for, either. He knows well that his magic is no match for Wanda's, even if he had wanted to interfere in any way with it. He doesn't even try to get to his feet, as of yet. It's more than just a physical weariness in him, given the time he's spent fighting against the spirit that had been occupying him. There's a flicker of curiosity as he notices that lick of her power roll up -- a thing that might give him ideas for his own magic, all things considered -- and his gaze follows the lash of it to Kit's snout. One of his eyebrows nudges a touch upwards at the words that go along with the gesture, to which he remains quiet.

His attention turns to Askante at the gesture that brings out that stick of jerky, and he gives a small nod. "Da," he says softly. "It is a hard lesson to learn. There is always the need to try. Many days, many nights... I tried. She was... I do not know the word, in English. Tyuremshchik. This, first. Perhaps she thought I wished to trick her. I do not know," he adds, giving a small shake of his head. "It is not needing an apology. I could not make her leave me, to push her spirit out. What you did, it was necessary. I am grateful. Thank you," he says, the words sincere and respectful. He's quiet for a moment, his brow furrowing slightly. "I should have been more careful," he says, quieter, his gaze lowering. He feels guilty over the fact that it had happened to start with.

There's a small nod then, to Kit, though it's a moment before he lifts his gaze to the yeen. "Stubborn, was Heng Zhihao. An old spirit," he says softly. He lifts his left hand, rubbing a little bit at the side of his neck with his fingers before his hand lowers back to his lap. "Da, I will be okay. In time," he adds, a bit of a smile touching at the corners of his lips.

Translation 1: Jailer

Scarlet Witch has posed:
The bit of magic rolled into the newspaper shape is lifted again at that sudden snarl. Almost as though saying, 'go ahead, try me, see what happens.' Wanda lets the sullen red of that bit of magic fade once the other mage stops snarling and doesn't attack. Her attention then turns briefly to Askante, and from the creature to Vitali.

After studying the Siberian for a long moment, she turns to walk toward him. Her right hand lifts, and her fingertip touches the center of his forehead. A spark of scarlet power goes from her finger and into his forehead. A fraction of her own power, but for Vitali, it might just revitalize him back to the point he was before his captivity. Perhaps.

Wanda pulls her finger back and studies the man for a few moments longer. "I am sorry for reacting as I did. Had I looked, I might have realized it wasn't you who attacked me. Do be more careful in the future, hm?" Wanda steps away and turns to continue walking in the direction she'd been going before she'd been attacked by Vitali's unwanted guest.

Askante has posed:
"And that was why I did not like to let her be," Askante nods quietly, judging the situation mostly safe and generally resolved, it looks at Kit and gives the Yeen a nod, then lifts its stetson and begins to head off, looking about with care not to cross paths in the wrong way with others.

Kit Killovarras has posed:
Kit nods to Vitali and sighs, "I figured she was an old spirit when I first spoke to her." he says with a nod, then gives a little shrug and adds, "but she's gone now, with any luck she'll stay gone." Then the yeen offers a little smile to the Siberan. "good to know you'll be alright. Let me know if you need anything."

Askante gets a little smile and a wave from the yeen as they start off, though he doesn't say anything for the moment. Eventually he'll set off as well, rubbing at thenside of his head and muttering something about a headache.

Vitali Svyatoslav has posed:
As Wanda approaches him, Vitali turns his gaze to her, watching her. He has, thanks to Heng Zhihao picking a fight with her, had a taste of what Wanda's power can do. Yet he doesn't move from where he kneels there on the ground. Vitali glances briefly towards that red-sparked fingertip of hers, then lifts his gaze to her once again. He doesn't try to stop her from touching him, and his hands remain resting on his legs. His dark eyes widen at that transfer of power, for it is an unexpected thing for him to be granted. "Thank you, for such a generous gift," he says softly, his tone respectful. It helps, in a lot of ways.

"It is not your fault. You reacted understandably. You were attacked and it is natural to think of defending and striking back," Vitali says softly, giving a small nod to her. And he manages a little smile before he gives a small nod to her. "Yes. I will be more careful, I promise. I am sorry for causing trouble, to all of you," he adds. And to more than just them, as well. Except it wasn't really him that had caused the trouble but rather Heng Zhihao. He looks to Askante, and then he gives a small nod to it. He rests for a moment or so longer, and then he gets to his feet. He's steadier, and he seems a bit better, at least.

He looks to Kit and gives a small nod of agreement. "Yes. She was old, though I do not know her years. She is gone and has moved on. I think she will not be back. I do not think that she has reason to return. I will let you know. Thank you," he says softly, inclining his head towards the yeen. Now that he is himself again, and only himself, he can finally reach out through the bond he has with Soraya. His eagle. It is finally safe for her to return to him.