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The beauty of the spring is the bounty bestowed upon those green spaces, rare as they can be in the city. Flowers and plants beckon to a witch, and even living in the sanctum sanctorum doesn't allow her a great deal of flexibility for enjoying gardens on a scale she might wish. Thus, the witch finds herself in the dreamy drift of trimmed bushes of the Japanese garden here. Reflecting ponds and arched bridges are a rarity enough in the US, still, that this wonder warrants fascination from her. She runs her hand up the vermilion pole for a torii gate, staring up at the arched, black lacquer top. "A place of significant happiness, this."
*
Carol accepted the invite to meet Wanda because, well, she's had a rough time of it lately. Though if you asked if it was her SHIELD problems, her boy problems, or the fight in Latveria that was the main thing, she'd probably just say "Yes," and move on with it. As it is, the still-on-administrative-leave agent of SHIELD walks into the garden, taking a deep breath as she inhales all the different scents, immediately relaxing as she stands next to Wanda, giving her a slight smile, "Definitely. Haven't been here in far too long."
*
A rough time they can commiserate upon, though in truth Wanda's troubles reflect a very different state of things. For example, interdimensional horrors are an outstanding example of things that ruin a perfectly nice day. "A good place for tea. I have a basket," she says, carefully working through the vagaries of English upon seeing the blonde coming in. Her mouth skims a smile, greeting and welcome rolled into the same reflective expression. The sunlight glances off the garnets caught in a vibrant claret web over her hair, pushing back her lustrous chestnut locks. Whatever indolence is hers to enjoy of late, it's showing well upon her golden skin and that ephemeral glow of someone likely happy. Rare, as that is, for Miss Maximoff, she isn't bound to cast annoying sunniness upon the unsuspecting. "Come walk with me? Tell me what you wish. What lies on your shoulders you are not carrying alone if you want to."
*
Carol Danvers grins, "Well, I wouldn't want to worry your mood…" She notices Wanda actually happy, and she can't help but smile at the sight of that, since… well, normally it's the opposite, with Carol being chipper and Wanda being… well, not unhappy, but not happy either. Though she does perk up at the mention of tea, adding in, "Well, I can't think of a nicer place or company for tea, that's for sure."
Then, after a bit of a pause, Carol gets a bit of a rueful expression, "Honestly, there's a lot of things going on. SHIELD is dragging their heels on either clearing me or not for possible misconduct, the work on the mansion has been a bit slow-going lately just with getting everything I'd need to fix it up properly, and then, well, there was Tony." Really, all she needs to say is Tony, and that's a probable red flag just by itself.
*
"I am from Transia, da? We say the sun only comes out sometimes, but darkness is a guarantee." See, improving English vocabulary even if the lexicon and the grammar rules elude her at times. It makes sense her little Balkan homeland has such a hard look on life, given how the Byzantine to the Ottoman to the Third Reich empires of choice have mowed them down at the crossroads of Europe in their long, broken history. "All things are better in the garden, I say. You know no problem is so bad with hands in the soil, or leaves about." This is, of course, a girl whose very mentor remembers Atlantis' founding rather fondly. That latter fact SHIELD is unaware of, blithely, or else Peggy might be screaming to the high heavens.
She runs her hand over her hair, and tosses loose curls around. "Is it now with Tony he likes his other women, or has not a good value for you? The Mansion… Avengers, is it? Buildings take their time. The people, the houses of our lives, these are the things of more pain and joy. So you have not an easy time of the work or the heart, and it makes the rest harder, I think? "
*
Carol snorts a bit at the mention of Tony, "Yeah, Tony is great at making the rest harder… well, he tells me that he won't have time for me, and breaks things off. Then I find out that he's started dating his former assistant again, so I'm just, you don't have time for me, but her you have time for?" She gives Wanda a wry look, probably explaining a bit too much, but she shrugs a bit, "But the building… the mansion, actually, has been a godsend, honestly. It's almost like gardening in a way. Just putting your effort and work into something and watching it take shape. Admittedly, not as fast as I'd like it, but I'm learning quite a bit." Wow, Carol Danvers, construction worker. Who'd have thunk it?
*
Well, when his assistant happens to be the ex-girlfriend of a wanted assassin, there's some difficulty there with continuing a relationship meaningfully. Not that Wanda holds any opinions on this.
"She is easy. Familiar. She is the thing he knows and there is less risk." Simple brutality falls to the scythe of eastern European or Roma values. With the toss of her dark hair, Wanda sets off over the bridge, ignoring the pretty green pond full of glimmering hints of copper-bodied koi, marmalade carp that pop to the surface and raise their whiskery mouths in hope of bread. No signs here to not feed the fish abound, but her path stirs her through the elegant tumble of fatsia bushes and peonies planted in handsome drifts of soft pink and stark magenta. "It is hard. You will find a person who is best for you, I am sure. But then I am not like other women that way, waiting for a love." No, instead, she just has a cloak perennially attached to her and her own damn children full-grown while she still has her youth. Go figure.
"I see the way building is as gardening. A good thing, then. Why does Shield not have an answer for how you should be working?"
*
Carol Danvers shakes her head, "Well, some people in the office are holding me responsible for the whole fiasco with Barnes. He escaped on my watch, I was too easy on him… I actually had sympathy for him, how much sympathy, etcetera etcetera." She sighs, "I don't know what's happening there sometimes anymore, I really don't. But at least with the Avengers, I can be making a difference again. It just feels, different. Especially with Cap leading us." She smiles a bit, looking down at the koi swimming peacefully in their pond, then she glances over towards Wanda with a wry expression, "But you didn't want to just listen to me vent all afternoon, did you? I mean, I could, but I'd rather hear what you've been up to too."
*
"You were not. Does no one read my reports? He was taken and there would be nothing you or even the man himself could do." Wanda shakes her head viciously, the spin of her curling hair along her leather-bound shoulders evidence of the emotion behind that. She runs her fingers over the green leaves around her, and they almost reach for her. Watch too long and even the flowers have a faint tendency to turn her way, evidence of the relationship between the earth daughter and the verdant cloak of Gaea's majesty. "They know so little about anything. It is like one day they forgot how to think and see. They walk blind. Shield needs to have a person in the street and in the business. Not only in the Avengers." Spycraft, where art thou? Alas for the lack, especially with the world in flux. "You tell me nothing I do not invite. It is good to hear your thoughts. You are a hero. I am only me. Much I could say is not easy to understand in English. Or any language."
*
Carol smiles wryly, "I'm not the only hero here. But I appreciate it, Wanda." She hmms, "It wasn't just Loki that first time, though it did feel pretty good to punch that arrogant jackass in the face. Even if it did upset his boyfriend." Her grin goes a bit wider, and she looks over at Wanda, "But whatever happens with SHIELD happens. I'd like to stay, but I'm sure I could finance the rest of the mansion with a tell-all book about my time with the agency, hmm?" Her eyes sparkle with mirth, as she's (mostly) joking about that.
*
"You are one." Wanda shrugs her shoulders at that, clearly not about to argue with someone else about their opinion. To each their own, perhaps. "Then can you see into the past? You have power to make a man's mind whole? Even the people with great power see what they see. They cannot fix everything." After all, if that were true, they'd have a very weird view of the world more than likely. The offer of a book about the agency gives a bit of a blank look. Selling tell all books is so outside her experience, she can probably only briefly drag comprehension of it. "Go where you are needed, I think. The role of Shield gives me little to do there. It is… a pause, you say? One now where I worry about more things, those in the sky."
*
Carol considers that fo a few moments. Then she smiles towards Wanda, "In other words, don't worry about what I can't fix, just worry about what I can?" She tilts her head, looking over at Wanda, and then nods once, "Good advice. I just need to remember to follow it." With that, she gets a wry expression, "Sometimes it's hard to realize you can't fix something."
*
"This is something true. It is very hard, yes. Sometimes I must tell myself I am only me. Only responsible for me, and no one else. This is hard. I do not want to be weak or slow or small." There's really no way around that. Wanda drops down to her knees on the grass and stretches her arms out, all but easing the discomfort of the day that threads through her. "My time here gives good lessons. Ask for help, do not want for everything at once, and be glad to lend aid to others."
*
Carol sits down across from Wanda, nodding in agreement, leaning back a bit as she breathes in the air again. "Easier to remember in a place like this… I mean, sometimes I have to wonder how you do it the way you do. Just feels like everything is happening at once for me, sometimes." A hint of envy, there, but only a hint.
*
"When it happens to me, there is no stopping. No time to breathe. I miss this peace." Peace is rare, and it cannot be trusted. Nor should it. A quiet world means Wanda isn't doing her job, isolated from the epicentre of all that is dangerous and challenging. "I like to stand in the middle. Not be outside it all. You see, the hard balance. You are much better at it."
*
Carol blinks, then smiles a bit, "Thanks Wanda, though you're pretty good at it." She takes a deep breath again, then sighs a bit, "Not used to peace… I mean, being a fighter pilot means you have to be aware all the time for threats. Because they can just jump at you out of nowhere, you have to always be alert and ready. So yeah, there's not really a peace so much as a calm before a storm."
*
"A calm, yes. How does one need help here? It is not in making a building. It is not in waiting. I am at a loss. Shield brought me here. They do not see much use for me." Her hand gesturing at the buildings on the other side of the borough, those silvery towers in the distance, more than marks out the situation. The witch huffs a breath. "What do you need me for? Not Avengers. I cannot be like that, too much in the eye. Better I am less known."
*
Carol hmms, "Well, I think you'd be good with the Avengers, Wanda… but I'm not going to twist your arm about it." She grins, "Besides, you're probably turn me into a newt or something if I tried. Though, I do have a question for you." She pauses, then gets a bit of a cheeky look as she looks at Wanda, "Who was that guy that dropped Barnes back in the cell, after Loki broke out with him?" She doesn't really know about Wanda and Strange, but now that she's got Wanda alone without other SHIELD agents around, she's gotta ask!
*
"To be so known is not good for us. The world does not remember magic. It does not like it, all is science and mutant." Her fingers play along one of the leaves, the fine hairs on the underside teased as she strokes the stem the way might pet a very young kitten. Wanda is surprisingly gentle with those fragile things. "I choose now to stay unknown. Safer for those who are on my path." Her gaze tilts up to regard Carol, those impossibly shaded eyes almost the foil gold of molten amber, sunlight caught in a droplet and given to her as the beloved of Apollo. (Strange would still fight him.)
"The mailman?" Male man. Could be the same or either. She doesn't even hedge around on that one. "My mate."
*
Carol blinks, then grins, "Well, that's one way to describe him, I guess. Another… magic-user, like you?" She hmms, "Least, I'm guessing so, considering the way he just dumped Barnes in the cell. Scared the entire shift in the holding block spitless, that's for sure. Had to talk them down a bit when I led them in there." Her eyes dance with a bit of amusement, recalling that particular scene.
*
"He would have. Barnes shot me in front of him," Wanda replies simply enough. Clearly she is not dead, and clearly she is not harbouring much of a grudge. Strange creature indeed — literally. Her hands curl around her knees, and she straightens as much as the corset she wears requires. "It would be good reason for him to be very angry. Luck had he would be alive. I am not…. I would not wish him to kill someone for me." Not really. She would rather not be dead, in other words. The tone is soft, the words thoughtful. "Did I call him wrong? He is like me as a galaxy is to a star, and I am the star. That is the best man I have met who is real."
*
Carol smiles, "Sounds like a nice guy. Good for you." She sounds pretty happy for Wanda, mainly because, well, she's never heard Wanda talk about anyone quite like that, "And hey, you can be deeply madly in love with someone and still know they aren't perfect. My mother always said that it was like two puzzle pieces, and you just fit together. Sure, they aren't perfect, but they'd be a perfect fit. If that makes sense." She chuckles under her breath, shaking her head, "Something I'm still trying to figure out myself."
*
"I am not always good. To like someone you must think that they maybe will like the bad and the good. He sees me for me," replies a girl, a twin, an enigma, and a creature so often viewed in relation to absolutely everything else. She leans back slightly and stares over the pond set like a mirror in the finest of frames, a living edge of flowers. "Your mother is smart. You will find your pieces. One way or another."
*
A wry grin, "Still not sure what she saw in my dad, but… yeah." Carol chuckles a bit, "I suppose I will, someday, but for now, I got other things to worry about." She hmms at Wanda, "And yeah, I meant that it was good for you to have someone who sees the entire thing, and loves you for it."
*
"Someone and something." Oh, helpful answer there, witchy oracle. Next she will tell Carol that water is wet. "Are you happy, yes? In this place, there must be some kind of joy. I am looking to my own path. Right now it is unclear. But you come to me for help if you must. It is too quiet. I do not like it, do not trust it."
*
Carol smiles a bit, "Call no one happy, until they are dead. Herodotus." She chuckles a bit, "Required reading at the Academy, but yeah, I'm pretty happy right now, all things considered. Happier than I was, anyway."
*
"He is like a cinema director. So colourful. Maybe not all true," Wanda replies. Yes, she knows her ancient Greek historians who are utterly delightful. Anyone who does not is deprived, utterly deprived. "Good. I will consider that a victory. Now may we go and have tea? The weather seems to be turning."
*
Carol smiles, "Definitely, some tea sounds absolutely perfect right now." She stands up, dusting herself off a bit out of habit, then offering a hand to Wanda if she wants one. Not that she needs it, but hey, it's how she rolls.
*