3750/Demonic BDay Aftermath

Demonic BDay Aftermath
Date of Scene:	27 January 2018
Location:	Avengers Mansion, New York City
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Rogue, Scarlet Witch

---

Rogue has posed:
Late at night on the 24th, Rogue returned to the Avenger's mansion. She was rainsoaked and her clothing was tattered and burned. She made her way through the building and went upstairs into the first empty room she could find and shut the door behind her, leaving a trail of rain water behind her through the whole house.

Once inside the room she walked across it toward a chair that was facing a balcony doorway, she dropped her wet leather trenchcoat on the floor and then just collapsed into said chair and slumped down, knees together, feet apart, hands between her thighs with no gloves on them and her eyes closing. Rogue's dark and white hair is matted and wet, she'd been in the rain the whole way back to the mansion.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
She couldn't say what brought her to the mansion, but for some reason, Wanda found herself drawn there. Of late, there had been many draws upon her attention and her heart, and she had been left weary and confused. Perhaps, she thought, it was only that she had found simpler times at the Mansion. Or the commaraderie there had always lifted her spirits. Or maybe she merely wished the company of others, though if that were the case, one might argue that so late at night was not the time to find it there...

It's the footsteps that tell her there is more to her arrival. What pull there was, she still does not know, but there are those damp prints on the floor, glistening. Much like little beacons, telling her to follow them. And strangely, as she passes each, it fades and dries into the woodword as though it had never existed. As though each print had been waiting specifically for her arrival.

Then there, outside that door, the one Rogue has gone through, the footsteps stop, but for one that is trapped beneath the door itself, begging for Wanda to open the door and set it free.

She hovers outside, uncertain, eyes falling over and over to that wet mark upon the floor - the single remainder of the footsteps she has followed, and the dampness winks at her balefully. Accusingly. It is that which prompts her sofft knock upon the door - only as she touches the wood to knock, the door opens of its own volition, revealing the woman inside the room, back turned to her, and clearly in a position of defeat.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue had just turned 19 and the whirlwind of her life treating her like pure throwaway garbage was only just continuing to cruise along for her... or so she felt like at least.

Its been two days since she absorbed the demon out of the girl's body in front of the Natural History Museum, she'd done it by accident... but ultimately she would've done it anyway just to save the kid, because thats what this whole 'job' was aobut, right?

So in those two days, Rogue hadn't slept, eaten or drank anything, she was dehydrated and very much deflated and defeated.

Any knocking to the door would go with no response given, not even a twitch of an eyelash from the girl slumped in the chair facing the patio where a few lights from the backyard lights filter in through the sheer drapes over the panes of glass in the double doors leading outside.

She entirely appears to have passed out, or died! One of the two.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
She wouldn't normally be so forward.

Even though the door had opened - much ass if the latch had merely failed to engage - Wanda wouldn't normally presume to enter the room without permission. Except..

Except there is something not right here. She can feel it. Like a prickle in the air. The way that rainstorms tingle and smell long before they hit. Or how the faintness of ozone heralds thhe coming of a storm, leaving people and pets uneasy until those first cracks of thunder and brutal strikes of lightning. It's like that, only localized, and to the girl. The despondancy of her sits like a mantle upon her shoulders. And more.

The girl, not so much younger than Wanda herself, even if Wanda considers her that way - so young, and alone - is like an island in that storm. The eye of it. The reason for all things about her coallescing into that feeling that not all is well.

From the doorway perch, Wanda can tell she has not passed beyond the veil - there is nothing of that grey and blurred vision to reality here, but she can also tell the other is not well.

Unbidden, her steps carry her over the threshold. That act breaking the spell. There's a snap in the air that brushes across Wanda's face, setting strands of her hair adrift as though a breeze had passed over her, and then it is merely a weary woman slumped in a chair, in need of so many things, but first and foremost, in need of someone to care.

/That./ That Wanda knows explicitly, and the rest will fall into place after. The slightly older woman kneeling beside the slumped Rogue, reaching to take hands or face to check her status.

"Tsk," The sound soft beneath her breath. "What have you done to you?"

Rogue has posed:
It was still raining outside, too warm to be snow but too chilly to be a comfortable rain. Rogue had walked from the southern tip of the island all the way up to the upper east side where the Avengers Mansion was, she moved sort've on auto-pilot the whole way.

Rogue had no gloves on her hands and her upper body was dressed in a drenched green hoodie zipped up to her collarbone.

Just a moment before Wanda's hand would come in contact with the teenager's skin to check on her vitals, she'd stir. Rogue's eyes fluttered and she rose her head up, her stringy wet hair waving around her face. She looked confused, blinked several times and then realized the woman was reaching for her which made her gasp and recoil to other side of the chair.

"Don't!" Rogue said to Wanda, terrified of the woman touching her. She dida't know who Wanda was... for starters... but she also didn't want to absorb the poor woman, just like she had the girl down in Battery Park hours ago, whom she'd stayed with until an ambulance carted her away.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
The rain hadn't bothered Wanda. It rarely did. In fact, one might notice that she's not particularly garbed for the weather. She certainly has a jacket on, but it's not really what one would normally be wearing in late January for fend off cold, or freezing rain drizzle. In fact, but for a few wet tendrils of hair framing her face, there's relatively little about her that speaks she's been out in the rain at all.

That others in the mansion might know not to touch the girl is not a think that Wanda is privy too. She, herself, has not been long back in New York, and since her arrival has been dealing with matters of her father. All she knows, and sees, is a girl in distress, and the aching need to do something about it for the girl.

Of course, that reaction stills her hands. Not out of fear for what the other might do, but out of recognition that there is fear within Rogue. Fear that stems from her reaching to make that contact.

"It is okay, I mean no harm, yes?" She holds her hands palms out to Rogue, and offers a soft smile, one meant to be reassuring. "You are here where friends are. I am Wanda, and you are new, no? It is only that I wished to see you were well, and to offer comfort. Come, it is okay."

She holds her hands out for the girl to take within her own. "See? I do not bite."

Rogue has posed:
Fear was the right word, the teenager looked at Wanda with a wealth of said emotion clearly evident on her face.

Her green eyes went from Wanda's face down to the hands that the woman offered to help her stand up. "I do." She replied to the part about not biting, her voice was soft and whispery with a dry throat.

Its not that Rogue didn't want to touch people, she very much did in fact. Its that she couldn't.

Rogue's eyes went back up to Wanda's. "My skin is dangerous." She started to explain for the countless time since her mutation manifested itself five years ago. "It'll hurt ya." She said in her southern flavored words.

Now though, Rogue's eyes looked the woman up and down. "You're an Avenger?" She asked her, having not seen her around the Mansion as of yet in her short time here.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
There's a soft tinkle of laughter from Wanda at the assertion of 'I do', though it is given with a gentleness that may be surprising to the other. "You say that like you believe it." Though there is enough under the girl's words that Wanda nods, and sobers as she contemplates the matter. Understanding on some level that there is a disparity between what the girl wants and needs, and what it is she also believes she can not have.

Her assertion that 'It'll hurt ya' comes from that place of fear and walling off. Part and parcel of the air about her. Part of where that defeat lies, Wanda thinks, though it is not the whole story. That, too, Wanda knows. There is more to the story.

"Ah," she says softly, remaining in her kneel, though her hands are now placed upon her own knees. No need to pressure the girl. "For most, that would be true, I think. But there are some you may be surprised by. It may be I could be one. But we do not worry about it now. No? First we do the introductions. I am Wanda." Which she's already told her. Though now it comes with a twinkle of mirth in the older woman's eyes. "They tell me I am an Avenger. I am told I could live here if I wish. I think that counts, yes? Though I have been away for some time. There were things I needed to think about."

Her shoulders rise and fall as though that simple explanation covers all manners of why she was gone.

"And you? You are?"

Rogue has posed:
Rogue chalked Wanda's accent up to 'Russian' as most Americans would simplify it to, but she didn't really think about it that much further than that. She had a lot on her mind lately and she'd only been 'back' from a hellish captivity for a handful of hours now!

"I'm Rogue." The young teen replied to the older one. "A mutant... and yeah, that sounds like the same immensely detailed report I was given when they accepted me into the group too." Those words were laced with a dripping level of sarcasm that only a teenager could master so well.

"Look. I'm sorry if I'm bein' weird or if I woke you up or whatever... I just got home from the worst couple'a days I think I've had in, well... a week or so." Rogue glanced out the balcony exit and then back toward Wanda. "I'll clean up any messes I made in the house, I just need t'get some sleep first."

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Wanda's lips settle over a smallness of amusement.

"Ah. See? You've been given the tour." There is laughter in her voice as she scrunches up her face and minces words, much as she imagines things were explained to Rogue, "This is the mansion. There are the stairs. There are bedrooms up there. Don't drink milk straight from the cartoon. Welcome to the Avengers."

Of course it isn't all amusement, Wanda's hands folding into themselves upon her knelt lap. "So you did not get the best introduction here. They are mostly boys, no? Not so good at the welcoming. Perhaps because you are a pretty girl and they are boys. Simpler if they keep it to the personal, yes? Only they do not know there is personal and a rooming house."

She nods to herself, and settles back more ccomfortably.

"I do not think you weird, though I wish to hear about this worst couple of days. And perhaps to see if we can fix that, no? As for the house.." Wanda waves a negligent hand. "It is done. It only waited for me to arrive and show me where you were. Not even a stray leaf upon the floor." Her smile gentles. "You left very sad footsteps. But first, sleep? You wish I should leave, or do I wait here for you, and keep you company? I can think here as well as somewhere else. And if you will not allow me to give you the hug you so sorely need, then we will call that a hug and make it so."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue showed as strong of a smile to Wanda as she could muster, it was just a weak little thing but it showed some life inside of the girl's dirt streaked face and rainy soaked hair. "Thank you." She said to her. "For helpin me out with this stuff, its appreciated. And yeah, this place seems like kind've a ghost town most'a the time, but I just chalk that up t'ya'll havin' busy lives."

Rogue shook her head then. "I just, I tried t'help some girl outsidea the History Museum over by Central Park. She got attacked by 'something' and I tried t'save her. Ended up just pulling the spirit outta the girl and inta me. Cause thats my lot in this life."

She looked into Wanda's eyes then. "Thats what happens when folks touch my skin... their lives leave them, and go inta me. Whatever powers they have, mutant or otherwise... their thoughts and personalities, all get sucked outta their bodies and transfer inta mine. Leavin'em out cold on the ground."

Rogue glanced over her shoulder. "Thats where I just came from. Got some help gettin' that demon outta me, then some girl touched me while I was unconscious afterward, now she's stuck in a damn hospital and I got... her inside'a me now. I can feel her, she's strong, very strong..."

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Wanda takes the words in, and more. All that there is about the girl in front of her, said and unsaid, plus what she can imagine of the happening spoken of.

"I see," she says softly, reaching up to pull a tendril of hair forward, and chew upon the tips. A leftover from childhood anxieties. A thing she's been reaching for more often of late while attempting to deal with her conflicted feelings over her father and recent happenings.

"Well, I do not pretend to know or understand it all, but I think we can manage some things, you and I. If I know what it is I do not wish to happen, I can make it so, yes? It is a.. how do you say it? A null? You need a null, yes, to not have it all be in you. Though, hrm. That is a tricky thing. We will think on it." She nods slowly as the other obvious though occurs, a thought that clearly does not sit so well with the woman, and yet, it's just as clear that she feels an obligation to share it. "It is also that perhaps we could make you.. less you when you wish to be other? Perhaps a little secret we could share. It is a thing I can do, but.."

And here Wanda sighs, and drops her hands back into her lap. "It is a difficult thing. Too easy to use now and be for good, only next time, to say this is only a little more than that. And then it is all sliding down hills of pebbles and sand to justify it."

She does not flinch from Rogue's gaze, though. "You are not a bad person. You should hear that. We do not always know the reasons for what we are, but you are not bad. That you look to me and worry tells me that. But this girl inside you, is there a need from you? A way we can.." Her features scrunch some as she searches for the words she wants. "..how do you say, make her go away? To leave you?"

Rogue has posed:
Rogue showed a soft and faint smile while she laid back in the chair and crossed her arms over her stomach causing the damp fabric of that dark green hoodie to rumple-up even more than it already was.

"The length at which folks stay inside'a my thoughts and mind is dependent on how long my touch with'em lingers. Most will be gone in a few days, but some have stayed longer. One stayed permanently... That was Carol, Captain Marvel. Thankfully she's forgiven me though and we seem t'be on pretty girl terms now."

Rogue nodded her head to Wanda. "You must have some pretty wicked powers yourself, Miss, if you can offer stuff like that to a whackjob like me... But you're sweet, so I appreciate all your kindness."

A heavy sigh then. "I just turned ninteen, I was gonna go out and get drunk and flirt it up in a bar somewhere." She has fake IDs, shhhhh! "Ah well..."

Scarlet Witch has posed:
"You will have to be explaining this to me properly some time, no? How it is they stay with you. Like Carol, how she is in your head and her own, or perhaps it is not like that? It is that sometimes I could speak to a mind." Wanda smiles somewhat crookedly, showing just the tips of her teeth through that smile. "I have a brother, Pietro. He is not so much like me, but also very the same. I have shared thoughts with him, only I do not think we are the same, you and I, in how we do it. And I would not want him in my head all the time. He is.." She frowns slightly. "He tries. He tries hard to be better, but it is not so easy for him."

Rogue's damp clothing is taken in, Wanda's head canting as she considers the things. It would be such a simple matter..

"Mmm, That is the thing, no? What a person can do, and what they should. I do not think many understand all that I am capable of. Sometimes it is that it frightens me what I could do. I am barely touching what I know of my potential and each time I do, it grows bigger. It is like I fill the space, and then the space grows, waiting for me to fill it again." She is, almost quite literally, the mystical representation of how reality expands. Her description of herself eerily apt, even if she is not *quite* that aware of the truth of it. Universes expand. So, too, Wanda.

"Such a sigh," Wanda murmurs. "Is it too late, then, that we should not celebrate? Of course, we would need to dry your clothes. And maybe perhaps decide we wish to be more.. uh.. how do you say it? The flirting? The sexy? It is not a thing I do so often, but we could. Maybe find the men to buy us a drink. That is the way is it done, yes?"

Rogue has posed:
Rogue gave a lopsided grin at this and she exhaled to the first part. "Its not so much that I have a livin' version'a them inside'a my mind. Its more like I just... see their old memories and feel their personality tryin' t'sway my own t'act more like them and less like me? If that makes any sense."

She cleared her throat then and shuffled a little in the seat she was still occupying. "Lots'a stories, if you ever are interested..."

Rogue then listened to Wanda's rundown of her powers and she softly shook her head from right to left. "Glad I woke up before ya went'n checked my pulse. I already got the powers of some kinda weather warden in me now... I don't wanna add ontop'a that whatever it is you just described." A little smile was given then. "Sounds scary, but, like... exciting too? I don't know. I'm beat tired... have'ta do my drinking and bars and such this weekend maybe."

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Wanda nods, her features back to a softness of understanding. "So, not quite inside your head as a person. But still so personal. It must be hard for you. And I see why others would find it very difficult to know you had that."

There's a soft cluck of a sound from her, as she pats her hands on her knees with some finality. "We will make it so, yes? This weekend. You and I. We will go to the bars and we will enjoy your birthday and find all the people to buy us the drinks. And then we will be all the coy, that we do not wish the dance or to go home with. Only to have the fun there. Sounds good?"

She nods, then, and affirms, "There was a time I was very frightened of what I am. I do not always understand why it should be so, all that I can do. But it is good that you do not hold me in your head. I think the power would not be the worst of it. There are memories, though, that should not belong in anyone's head, not even mine."

Another of those pats her her knees. "But enough of that! Shall I leave you to sleep? Or do I watch over you and keep the dreams away so that you can rest? It would be a small thing to do, and I think I do like you. We will call it a birthday present."

Rogue has posed:
"Yeah, thats how it is, mostly at least." She'd say to the first part and then Rogue grinned at the bar words and gave a dip of her chin in a decisive nod. "That sounds like a good time." She told the other. "I'm pretty sure that the two'a us could clean up most bar scenes and leave'em all in dirt. I bet we wouldn't even pay for one drink."

"If I can help you with any'a what you're goin' through, please let me know. NO idea what I could do, but hey... gotta help each other out if we're team mates, right?"

The southern teenager would move to stand up then and she sighed softly. "I think I'll be alright, I'm gonna hop in the shower and then I think I'll probably pass right out until tomorrow afternoon or so." She grinned at Wanda. "Maybe longer..."

Scarlet Witch has posed:
Wanda rises with a grace and an ease that is unconscious, the movement fluid. Almost ethereal in a way.

"Then that is what we shall do. We shall make it a night where we do not pay for a thing, except for with smiles. I would like to see so many smiles upon your face."

She offers one of her own to back that.

"And I will leave you then, to have your shower and to sleep. I think I shall remain here at the mansion, at least until tomorrow, in case you change your mind. We will not hug today. But some day, when you trust, we will do that. I will show you how we can do that, and it will be something just between us. But it is not a thing we shall take lightly, so it is yours to ask for. A second birthday gift, yes? But now, you go. You make ready for sleeping, and I will find a book to read."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue moved to get her jacket off of the ground and she took it to hang it up on the edge of the dresser while Wanda spoke. She looked back over at her then and grinned. "Sounds like some good times to be had then, Wanda." She says back to the other.

"Thanks for checking in on me too, I honestly wasn't sure if anyone had even noticed I was gone or not. I mean, Carol would... at some point. But she's so busy that its hard t'track her down, and I hate t'bother her all the time with my dramatic crap."

Rogue cleared her throat and gave the other a nod. "I got no problems with hugs, its everyone else who looks at me like I'm the Grim Reaper and the bringer'a death."

The southern gal stepped toward the entrane to the restroom. "Lookin' forward t'gettin t'know ya better though, Team Mate." She showed another little grin for the other then.

Scarlet Witch has posed:
There's a broad and toothy grin back from Wanda, who pauses at the door. "You are nothing like the Grim Reaper. I have seen him. Much better fashion sense." And with a wink, she leaves, the door closing behind her, the latch engaging with a firmness that suggests it had never disengaged in the first place.