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After the escape of the bad guys, there's… stuff to do. And all Billy can think of is: I gotta get out of here! He needs some air. There's a level of crazy going on, and besides, this is the GUBERMINT and everyone knows you can't trust the GUBERMINT, don't you know? So he makes his way out, and pulls his hood up over his head, eyeing the guards a bit warily. He could just teleport out, but… then they'd know he can do that. So he's heading outside at a steady pace. Teddy is left to tend to Fitz and whoever is still not kidnapped. In the back of his head the thoughts race: what the ever flippin heck is she doing in a gubermint base?!
*
Let the agents sprawled on the floor and the crawling men in black emerging like ants too late from the open cracks and holes in the wall. They who rush to rescue scientists and fallen coworkers get little assistance out of Wanda, who instead hastens her way through the wreckage after the other spellcaster in their midst. What fear she has for identity revealed seems limited, and reasons abound why this should be the case. Not the least is her file stowed away in someone's archive around here, the extraction from Berlin, the shattered remnants of identity deliberately battered into non-existence by herself, her brother.
"Move," she hisses at one of the guards trying to obstruct her, and when he refuses, the challenge is made flat. "They could be dead. You do nothing helpful. Go." All the anger gives her voice edges, and though the resilient combat training of SHIELD operatives protects them from intimidation, it doesn't when documents - like a badge, or a name - get bandied about. Soon enough getting out of the government base's way consumes her thoughts.
*
Billy comes up to the last guards, and they hold up a hand, and seem to be making some trouble for him. Apparently they think he needs to be debriefed or something based on the chaos that went on inside. Annoyed, Billy waves his hands and shakes his head, "Look, I was here for Fitz, I'm not part of your shindig and I need some fresh air. I don't know anything those already in don't know and if someone wants to get in contact with me they can go poke Fitz and tell him, he knows how to talk to me—" indirectly, at least. The annoyance the boy-reality-witch is feeling starts increasing exponentially. Don'tturnthemintoafrog. Don'tturnthemintoafrog.
*
The roll of her footsteps has a stiffness that wasn't present before. Wanda may wield healing hexes upon her beloved and friends freely but she does not go to such lengths to repair her own wounds and aches. Each is a badge, a scar, a reminder of mortality, or failures in the grey dimness of life. Her bedimmed amber-brown eyes flash upon seeing the familiar shape of Billy facing the final guards, and her usual precise nature takes a leaf from the Book of the Vishanti. Confront head-on what one must, guarding those who must. "The business is classified." There might be the magic statement. "He is a civilian." Emphasis on the latter. "Any questions you ask to Agent Danvers or Agent Morse. Or else this breaks SHIELD laws, yes? I know you do your job. I can speak for him, if you need someone to blame." Because that's how structures of power work, and she's the glass cannon held by the thinnest chains at this rate.
*
Billy turns to stare at Wanda for a moment, eyes wide, wondering where this second head of hers grew out of. But the guards seem to accept her words, so he escapes into the Outside, immediately turning and walking backwards— always away from creepy government base— so he can look at her. "What in the name of the burning bush were you doing in a secret government base?" he asks the obvious question. Also, the obvious question that SHE could very well be asking HIM, right about now. Lifting a hand up he tightens his scarf around his neck, more to be warm then to use it as half a mask.
*
The second head might be the face he doesn't know: the one who lived by her wits for three years in occupied East Berlin, splitting meals with her brother, never knowing what lay on the cusp of the future. It's the spy behind the mystic, the sister who learned the deceit to get by. Have no doubt, Pietro's skill and facility at charming people exceeds hers as much as Tommy eclipses Billy as a fast-talker. Some things never change. Though shifting masks comes easily enough as she slides through the guards, walking at a pace burning with confidence and purpose. Eventually that will fade out, turning into her habitual stalk. "You never talk to your uncle? Not enough," she corrects herself, knowing the answer no doubt. "He might tell you a truth. I am 'uniquely situated.'"
*
Squinting at Wanda a moment, this whole 'walking backwards' has him stumbling, but its only for a quarter of a second before he's floating and righting himself again. Though he's not walking anymore, just floating a couple inches above the ground. He floats easier then he can walk. "Apparently not." he says, dryly, "And here I am trying to talk Teddy into stop trusting the scary government agency and more importantly to get them to destroy the blood sample they took of him— and there YOU are, right in the middle of them!" He huffs, and laughs, and rubs his hands over his face.
*
"Do you think I trust an agency that had an alien leading it, creating a large prison with purpose to hold powerful people like you or your father or the young man with you?" Yes, she has a good idea of what's up with green skin, at the very least. Wanda's tone is soft and contained, emotions eroded from it. A necessity hold onto the control that slipped free in a moment of danger, cushioning the damage done to her, though the storm of possibilities still traces her aura in visible shocks of scarlet sparks. The usual amaranth is there, but shot by dazzling twinkles that move in such stormy perturbations, they might be hypnotic under the Sight. "Would you like a group that uses a power source they do not understand at all, as a power for their building? No. I think this is a new kind of stupid. I begged them to stop. They would not listen. So it is I do what I can to protect the rest of you right now."
*
Billy eyes Wanda for a moment, tilting his head, "You know before I knew you and Stephen I never really saw magic. I saw… things. But you have this glowy thing that's like alive that I've only really picked up on seriously recently." That said, he inclines his head again, thoughtful, "But, weren't those decisions made while this Director lady was kidnapped?" wonders Billy, his brow furrowing, a little confused. He's not really 'up' with what SHIELD is, or is doing, "But… like. I was there to meet Fitz again. He and Teddy— he turns green when he shifts to like hide his disguise, he's a mutant—" the lie on his lips is poorly concealed, Billy isn't super good at lying, ".. have this like plan. I think its the craziest thing I've ever heard, but since Teddy can shapeshift and they're trying to kidnap this… certain scientist? He's gonna imitate her, then get kidnapped, taken to Alien Base, then… uh." He shrugs, making a vague sorta way, "I … find him. One way or another. I have three different methods I'm going to try. So far I am pretty sure one of them will work but my… hoodoo is not precisely predictable. I THINK but am not ENTIRELY CERTAIN that the rescue team to go save Teddy and rescue the Director lady will amount to more then a scientist, a giant green shapeshifter and me."
*
Her nimbus lies far closer to her body than it normally does, an emanation that swishes in rapid rotation, rather as the magnetosphere or polar aurorae whip around the gas giants. "It is called many things. Aura is most common. Life energy, a state of soul and mind. I see it almost always." That's right, seeing in the magical spectrum isn't dangerous or anything. Should Wanda ever seem distracted, blame perception issues. "Those decisions may be older. Newer. Time is not easy, and I am not happy by these developments. Carter brought us out. Safely." There is a debt. A witch almost always pays her debt. Her nose wrinkles slightly and then she falls silent to hear the plan, her eyes narrowing in thought or direct lack of certainty she is hearing Billy speak sense.
"The rescue team needs more than a heavily pregnant Director. A scientist…" Her breath exhales. "I trust the shapeshifter, yes? That may work. Your magic? Yes, if you are not made silent or shot or bound in some way? But…"
*
"Aura, huh? I see like formulae, mathematical symbols, different color spectrums that pulse and change like graphs and simulations running through a program, and the math changes, but its sorta like flowing over your skin and radiating around you. If I study the algorithms enough I can get an idea of what I think it means." Billy seems thoughtful about it, "Well, the Director is the target to rescue, not the team rescuing. There was some talk of the Fantastic Four, but I dunno, that's what I was gonna try to ask Fitz about. His problem is he's not sure who he can trust in SHIELD, who has been replace, who hasn't. Teddy… he can take care of himself." He wrinkles his nose, "I know I tend to wave my hands around when I do things but I don't actually need to, it just feels right. Binding wouldn't be much good against me. Shooting is more effective but that's what having a bulletproof friend is for." A quick, dimpled grin, but it does fade thoughtfully, "I don't actually know if my shields can stand up to a bullet. See some of this stuff is hard to know until I try it but letting someone aim a gun at me is not high on my TODO list."
*
A nod follows. "You might see it that way. Equations are an odd route, but they would be…" Statistics, what does one call those things? "Equations that measure numbers, percents, things that could happen and might. Mine changes more than most. But then you are right on that front." Wanda's narrow shoulders dance upwards. Her eyes flicker wider, slightly, with the mention of the Fantastic Four. "I am a member of SHIELD. For what that is worth. Carol Danvers is a good person, stable. She is… Very strong, capable. It would not be easy. But I will leave you to decide what is best." The offer is made, the chance his to take or not. Billy is not smothered, hopefully, and she is mindful of those boundaries between people with greater insight than some. "It is easier not to stop a bullet. You make it move somewhere else. Turning it back on its path to the person who shoots it is very hard. Much focus is needed to move it around. But redirect up or slightly off, that needs less energy. You can make a wedge, and up! Its path changes." A simple hand gesture cuts over her shoulder, revealing a way to dodge danger.
*
"The numbers and equations are always changing, but I can suss out what they are quantifying. Describing." He pauses, then adds hesitantly, "You're actually… one of them? Aren't you afraid of them? The Government will turn on us— then— build weapons against us— I don't know when or where or how but— I mean, sure, maybe this Director is a nice lady, maybe Fitz is, but what I keep telling Teddy is, *government* is power and bureaucracy who is in charge changes. Every four years there's a new President, every two a new Congress. Who can say what policy will be? I can't stand the thought of his blood sitting there in some storage vault which no one at all right now thinks to use against him, but two— four— years from now if new policy is made…" Billy shivers, frowning a bit. Then, considering Wanda's words on wedging, he tilts his head to the side, Billy considers, lifting a hand, and makes a wedge of pure force— to most people its invisible, but since it is not true telekinesis but a strange approximation, to Wanda's sight it is the very nature of space being altered momentarily to declare 'space is hard' and thus, it is. He experiments with 'wedges', considering, "That would take a really good reaction time, I might have to find a way to practice. In general I actually have good instincts and reaction speed with this stuff, but when someone's shooting at me I'd probably want some… confidence."
*
Wanda nods to the question again, another clipped dip of her chin affording the merest and damning lack of enthusiasm one could hope for. "The past few months. I do not know I like what they do now. Their purpose and morals are in danger. Fear them? Yes. But how else can I know what they do being outside them?" Her head tipped, she gives Billy a direct, open look impacted only slightly by the splitting headache she's going to have to show for being flung into a wall at force and the spiral of chaos pillowing what it could. "They do not have me by a leash. Cerhan and I see to that. We can guide by better principles, perhaps. I thought, once…" Her words form a bridge between two distinct ideas. "When it was only Pietro and I, we had a way out. One we took. But he does not see eye to eye with them. I stayed because I wanted to know their nature. And I found it. It is as you say. The world is changing. There was something corrupt, blighted, that broke any faith I might have held. I do not know it will come back. SHIELD stands for something good. Do they achieve it? I do not know. The director, the capture of that Soviet, this jail. It is enough I could erase my name, link it only to the Doctor's. Maybe my path takes me higher. But then…" A nod again, as though she's not fully listening, and her aura is all the more purple because of it, the liquid balance restored closer to neutral. "I am allowing the old mistakes to be repeated. You are involved to keep someone important to you safe. I am involved for the same. And it is a duty for myself, for my family. Not only two people anymore, but you."
*
Waving a hand briefly, a totally useless gesture that is mere habit, the experimentations with telekinetic wedges vanish into nothing as Billy regards Wanda with a serious expression and nods his head slowly, "There's something to that." admits the young man with a grave nod, "Being inside you at least have a chance of knowing more then being outside: I barely knew they existed. I don't *think* SHIELD are the part of the Government that will turn on us *then*, but you know how unreliable that part of my… complicated history is. But still. Maybe you'll have clues and information." He hesitates, then adds, "You say there's something corrupt, but… do you know how long this Director has been their prisoner? Like… how much of the corruption happened when the alien was in charge? If the corruption was the alien's doing, if we get the real Director back, do you think they can be saved?"
That said, Billy shrugs a bit, looking a little embarrassed, "I'm not planning to be involved beyond this one… operation. I remember… things. They're vague and uncertain but they're enough that I won't ever join up with the government. I… can't talk Teddy out of this because in a way he's right: we can't let aliens invade and take over. And aliens trying to take over covert government agencies is really bad. I just hate they have his blood." He adds then, softly, "I do think of you — and Pietro and Stephen — as family, but its still… weird. I don't know how to fit it into my head sometimes." Unspoken is that Tommy fit in without any difficulty at all, he almost clung to the idea that Tommy was not his friend but his brother. But Wanda probably knows something about what it is to be a twin.
*
"It was a choice. SHIELD gave the best route for our future. This was before we knew what the new days held," explains the brunette, her fingers combing out her windblown tresses. She moves more gingerly than she normally might, given the bruising blow she took during the initial stages of the abduction. "For so long, there was only Pietro and I. Not even the comfort of loving parents. You see, Tommy makes much sense to me. What he went through without us. I went through the same thing. We have been abused. Abandoned. Treated bad. Our 'parents' did it." Her eyes narrow slightly, lashes blunting the sheer gold hue, but not the openness of her expression offered if Billy wants to take it. "SHIELD took us to the Hellmouth. Then we learned so much. You." It has shades of plurality even when English treats the singular and plural you as the same thing. One of those annoying references. "Stephen. The Director not what she seemed. The school. Pietro and I no longer only fight demons and hunt our history. We are a family, and SHIELD has not my highest loyalties. You do. You, Tommy. Stephen. Even Lorna and Erik, anyone else in that orbit. I have not met Teddy. It is not right to talk of him. He matters to you then he matters for me. This I promise." Then she runs her fingers down the line of her coat, smoothing out the dust. However much damage it takes, she always mends it.
His questions require contemplation, but the speed of thought she boasts isn't Quicksilver or Speed-level. It's fast, though. "I am not important enough to SHIELD to know these answers. People around me can find the answers. I can find proof of the corruption. They will have to cut deep. Frightening to do it. But Peggy Carter met us on the dock. I am willing to pull her back and let her decide. Aliens did a terrible thing. They came where they were not welcome and they have interfered. This is my home, my planet, and Teddy is right. Taking over is wrong. It will not help, it will only harm people who need protection. The doctor is Sorcerer Supreme, he guards against a kind of threat. I stand behind him to see those threats do not pass and he doesn't fail. And Pietro, to find our place in this world, he who is a piece of me. Like you guard Tommy from falling."
*
Billy's expression darkens at mention of Tommy's parents, and at Wanda and Pietro having gone through something similar. He wants to fix it but this is something that simply can not be fixed. It's the past and you can't fix the past— or can you? Before he starts going down paths of hubris he should not do, he gets distracted, "I was lucky, my parents were pretty great." Then he hesitates, and looks a little embarrassed. This talk of Teddy! "Teddy and I, we're just like friends. I, like, he reminds me of someone then. I don't know, everything's weird. But I can't leave him to aliens even if" And his mouth clamps shut. "But I understand being loyal to your family first and something like SHIELD second, especially if SHIELD is not what you think it is. I'm… just wary. All it takes is an anti-mutant President to get elected and suddenly the entire way the government looks at us may change, even if they're friendly now." He hesitates, then nods more soberly, "It's the responsibility of people with power to use it to do good, to me. But its also the responsibility of people to take care of their family, period. As it happens both things are true for us. We're a powerful family so we face dangers no one else does, we fight things that other families can't, and so we take care of us and the world— at the same time. I think."
*
The past cannot change. The past is inviolate. So sayeth an angry floating witch likely to have found multiple opportunities to endure terrible experiences, and her bequeathed lore is now Wanda's, who likes it no more than he does. Her hands punctuate her statements. "I am happy you grew up better than we did. Pietro's strength gave me life, and we have a bond I would not give up. But I would not wish difficulty or pain on others." She also looks thoughtfully at Billy with the knowledge of youth and the double lens of a woman very much attuned to her own emotions and others. The Sight bleeds along her deep amethyst pupils and never strays, seeding hints of an aura through colour and melodious tone. "A time ago I would tell you do what you have to, to survive. No one but your twin matters. Now? Now I am learned and wiser. You must be wary and make those actions count, the ones which can protect your family and protect more. The government is easily replaced." Her shoulders lift and fall, a gentle motion, as they walk. "One day maybe I can tell you our story. Pietro and I were born in terrible times under the Third Reich. I remember the Reich. Pieces. But I remember what followed. How one man with a vision and great charm can make everyone turn away from their values is a terror, Billy. One you never want to see. It is responsibility of us to do what is right and good. Even when that puts us in danger, we risk it. There is no choice for walking away. It is not who you are, is it? It has not been me. We have stood in the middle of revolution and change every year, every country we find. Pietro sometimes says it's all bad luck but I think not. Not anymore. We are here because we have to be. Someone will stand up."
*
"My parents— well, other parents— were always supportive. Even of the… thing. You know, the guys thing." Billy is adapting to 1963 and not throwing around the I R GAY quite so openly, "Though it didn't really help at school where I got picked on, but still, I can't complain. At least I could come home and be safe: Tommy didn't have that." Oooh how Billy sometimes thinks of turning Fred into a newt. But as topics become more seriously, Billy nods even as he listens thoughtfully, "I remember reading about World War 2 in school. One crazy man changed the world for the worst. People like to think the USA is better and could never do that, but its not true. The average German person wasn't a bad person. They didn't just decide they wanted to kill all the jews, homosexuals, Romani, and all the others. They got led into it. That can happen here too. All it takes is a recession, suffering, difficulties, and then the wrong person with enough charisma to blame everything on… say, mutants." Then he pauses, and nods slowly, "I'm not really religiousI am such a bad Jew but I do believe there's an order to the universe. We're here because we're supposed to be. But yeah. There's no choice for walking away. I'm not that person."
*
It's 1964! One year closer to uncomfortable silences and euphemisms being slowly replaced by tolerance, celebrate the coming of the new year. Right? Wanda, having experienced the utter dregs of humanity, may consider herself vastly open-minded about happiness and its many manifestations. Certainly she doesn't vibrate with disappointment or disgust. "Some believed they would control that man. Or others could control him. They thought these laws were just, things were balanced. Fear poisons good men and bad men, and fear now may be the great danger. You see it in the eyes of people on the street reading those newspapers. Watching shows. What a stupid, ignorant thing did on television only gave them reason for fear. Now others act to get an advantage for their own wishes and desires. We see it here in SHIELD. The aliens want Earth not for its own sake. Some pawn in a war, maybe. Always resources." Live at the crossroads of Europe in a nation of no consequence except on the way from here to there, fought over, boundaries bleeding to the tramp of armies for a millennium, and history has a way of giving someone a very particular view about these things. "We watch too many pieces come together. It makes the situation too good for those who want to cause harm. So we must fight against the storm and the tide. It is good you and I know how to dance in the rain, yes?"
*
Billy nods along to Wanda's explanation of fear being a great motivator for change, for the worse, he sighs, "Really, like, we just don't need this whole alien invasion thing, you know? That's what annoys me. We have enough bad stuff going on already. Between what happened in Mutant Town and some big creepy guy scaring Lorna, the todo list is pretty full. But no, aliens too. But, yeah. Fear is the mind-killer." But he has to laugh, dimples shining, at 'dancing in the rain'. "What an interesting way to put it. As point of fact I do not at all know how to dance.." His grin turns sheepish, "..but I know what you mean."
*
"We have enough problems. Human problems." The ones that have been around since earth's most ancient cities were a twinkling in a herdsmen's eye, in other words. "There will be too many. I think it is not something we will escape. But we do not need the aliens." Wanda's teeth are bared in one of those deadly, rare smiles full of purpose and a hint of the young woman she truly must be, the girl who beguiled the Sorcerer Supreme himself and carries a hint of her Roma blood through every flashing-eyed look and flick of her hips. "I can show you the steps. If you are mine they are your blood right. My grandfather was a master of dancing in lightning. My mother dared the Reich for us. So we will dance, Billy, and see what happens when someone does things we do not like." Her fingers are outstretched, an open gesture of sorts. "Where is your focus, the most important things? What can I do to help you?"
*
"Hey, if anyone is able to escape, it has to be us, right? I mean, we've got a pair of speedsters, a triplet of magicians, and… whatever it is that Lorna does that involves apparently throwing benches at guys— I'm not entirely clear." Billy has one great flaw: he doesn't really know he should be afraid of the great dark and doom that they face. He just gets annoyed at things. But this talk of dancing? That sets fear to his eyes. "Wait, is dancing still a metaphor or do you mean like actually dancing?"
*
"She touches metal and moves it. It is like telekinesis but not telekinesis." See, she has a Greek word to go with the rest of her odd bits of language. Wanda inclines her head slightly and stares up towards the sky for a moment, taking in the blur of clouds and very little in the way of stars, for even now the city generates far too much light to see. "For me dancing is both. I will stand in front of something that wants to harm those I care about. And I do literally dance in my magic, some of it, to make things happen. Sometimes, too, it is nice to simply dance. Your father is very good at it. I can teach you if you ever want to know to do it properly."
*
"Wait." Billy holds his hand up, even as he stops floating and ends up standing, because for this he needs solid ground beneath his feet. "Wait, wait, wait." The expression on Billy's face is profoundly skeptical, "You're telling me Stephen— Doctor Stephen Strange— is very good at dancing?" He lets that sit there in the air for a moment before he sniffs, "I roll to disbelieve."
He crosses his arms over his chest as he regards Wanda critically. You're not supposed to lie to your family, and obviously she just told the most obscene lie ever.
*
"Where do I know to waltz? Rhumba? Tango? You think a child on the run from the Reich and worse had time ever to do this?" Wanda sighs slightly and then steps back from Billy, putting her hands to her chest rather than holding them out to capture an invisible partner. That might be awkward even for the likes of her. She steps back on her right foot, toe pressed down and then the sole of her leather boot following. Her left leg follows as she sweeps left, and then closes her right foot neatly to join it, giving a eloquence to motion. Then she ventures forward, stepping to the left, closing her feet together anew. It's a simple box step in general that she combines with a turn, rotating in three-four time to execute a full number of pivots around him. It is, in no way, anything save deeply formal.
One more revolution and she halts, bending forward in a bow. "Outstanding. He taught me to do that. My style of dance is harder to teach. I am after all what I am. Clothes are not needed, yes?" Brat!
*
Billy watches a little skeptically, "Well, that first type of dancing I have no use for— I'm not going to go to any dance and dance with a guy because that'd get me killed. So the other style— did you say CLOTHES ARE NOT NEEDED?" Billy looks absolutely horrified. He backs away, closes his eyes, and lifts his hands up to ward off the sight of his mother NAKED. Its bad enough she's barely older then he is, but oh god! She dances NAKED? He has to tell Tommy.
*
Let it be said that not once has Wanda laughed in his presence. Not once has she laughed where anyone in this city, short of her twin brother, heard it. Perhaps Strange does, the good doctor taking her to another dimension simply to hit her with enough LSD she might loosen up and giggle.
But she can deliver a joke deadpan better than a reaper of death itself, and the mild lift of her eyebrows says everything that no stream of words or maniacal giggle ever could.
*
Billy squints, sorta cautiously, in case Wanda decides to demonstrate naked dancing, but since she's still clothed, he lets his hands fall and he shakes his head, "Well like I said that whole waltzing doesn't seem useful to know, but if you can endure you know pants to teach the other kind, it might be interesting to learn. To learn about my heritage? I mean, since I'm apparently not Jewish. But at my bar mitzvah we didn't so much dance, beside this big circle hand holding thing. I figure I should learn something about where I come from more, you know?"
*
"I wear pants. Do you see me in dresses?" Only on the dance floor for special events, and they don't warrant that. Wanda shakes her head slightly, throwing her hair around her shoulders and allowing it to melt into the buttery darkness of her beloved coat. She's as attached to it as Strange is his cloak, albeit one's enchantments are especially fancy. For now. "We can practice other kinds, yes. It is appropriate. You would not like the club dances we learned in Berlin, I think. They were…" Salacious? Fun? Daring? "Different." It is enough she can end up on that note.
The touch her fingertips to her lips leaves a permanent mark to the psyche, not the skim of their fair pink hue. "I can say it is likely you are part Jewish. Maybe. The man who is my father could be a Jew. Until I ask questions, I cannot know entirely."
*
"Well, technically, you're a Jew if your mother is a Jew. Jewishness passes through the mother, not the father. So you and I, if we wanted to be Jewish, we'd have to go to my Rabbi and go through a conversion." Billy, wincing a bit as he does so, "…which would be really awkward to explain to said Rabbi, as he attended my circumcision, Pidyon Ha-Ben— I'm the first born son so technically I was supposed to serve at the Temple so my 'rents had to buy me off symbolically so I could you know not do that— and Bar Mitzvah— which would name me a man and a Son of the Commandments. Man, all those Hebrew classes I had to take growing up— didn't really have to do them apparently." He sighs wistfully, but then he blinks at 'club dances', skeptical, "I think 'club dances' are probably against the law for a mom to teach her son."
*
"I am fairly sure my mother is not. Though I do not know entirely. Like my father? They were victims of the camps." A shake of her head follows, though it's a fair bet that the golden-skinned girl isn't entirely Jewish. Roma? Maybe. Transian? Utterly. The witch blood in her veins doesn't exactly run with the whole notion that keeps the diaspora very happy, to be certain. "You were … bought? Free? What a curious notion. Not a bad, I have simply never heard of it. It is like paying a fine for something to clear your name. Still, you are very much free to follow what you wish. We are different in our ways. My history is not as his." Strange, of course. The good doctor, farmboy turned broken neurosurgeon turned Sorcerer Supreme, follows a very different arc than the witch and yet, there they are. "Just know we exist to break laws, yes? Your father is always giving us looks when we use our magic."
*
Mention of the camps darkens Billy's expression significantly, "I can't help but wonder, hearing about the massacre in Mutant Town, if we're going to have camps here, too. We couldn't go even one whole generation without mankind slaughtering their brothers and sisters for reasons no more meaningful then who they are? My parents were here, but— we had cousins in Germany, in my Grandparents days the family would fly out and have these huge Hanukkah events for the whole family." He sighs a little, then adds after a moment, "Its… symbolic. In the ancient days, the first born son of a family would become the next generations… assistant-priest, sort of. Not a true priest, not a Levite, but one who did the family's share of work tending and maintaining the Temple. Those who did not want to do this would give the Temple five silver coins, instead. It's a symbol of the Jewish family contributing to the wellbeing of the community. Nowadays, the money is given to charity." That said, he gives a little bit of a shrug, "I'm more… culturally Jewish then religiously so. We don't keep kosher. Heck I love bacon." That said, he has to laugh when she mentions the Looks. "Yeah I know those looks. I figure if there's an order to the universe then we have the ability to alter reality in defiance of rules for a reason. Maybe because that order goes awry sometimes and SOMEONE has to be able to FIX it."
*
The veiled look from Wanda conceals a thousand things, a history burnt into the flesh as much as it might be tattooed into the arms of those who survived the Shoah. Old wounds never truly cease to bleed in their way. "We never have," she murmurs. "Always someone. Mutant Town, San Francisco. These are warnings. But violence is not the way forward, I cannot think it is. Guns and knives and drugs? No." Lips tighten, turned white for a moment, and she forces herself to listen, and learn, from someone intimately tied up in a culture that suffered parallel to hers, and has in many ways been treated similarly as outsiders, untrusted, strange, unfamiliar. "Your family's name suggests they did things in the temple. Priests themselves. Kaplan, that is what it means. For you it is doubly fair, I think." She dips her head, and then smiles with the mention of bacon. "Yes. Your uncle does too. And your brother, surely. I cannot eat it myself, but then meat and I…" Another little shake of her head. Her status as a semi-vegan is fairly apparent, and if he knew how much honey she eats in a week, there's no question why on earth Tommy is so freaking keyed up. Wanda has the metabolism of a speedster, if not the actual ability to move as fast as them. "There are reasons maybe why we are. In fact, sometimes I feel that I am a reason only to make other things happen."