riverviewlogs | player-suggested mini-event: A STRANGER'S BED

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player-suggested mini-event: A STRANGER'S BED

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: Player-Suggested Mini-Event
when: August 26th - August 31st
warnings: please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

a stranger's bed

As a lead in to September, Riverview's ♥ Month of Romance, this is a completely optional mingle that will cause affected characters to end up in each other's beds. There are various options for both established and new CR. While it's easiest for characters still living in Communal Housing, anyone who has moved to their own homes can be affected and end up finding their way to Communal Housing, or within their own housing.

Residents of the Quarantine may notice that various businesses selling food and drink - cafés, diners, bakeries, restaurants, and other such establishments - are heavily advertising a new flavor that's supposed to be the biggest thing since pumpkin spice. A flavor additive that's said to subtly change the flavor of whatever the diner is eating or drinking to optimize the dish, drink, dessert, or any other food item it is added to for each person's individual taste, it's been selling like wildfire and is the latest trend.

After the cause of the rash of amnesia was revealed to be plant-related, sellers are keeping the origin of the secret ingredient very close to their chests, since it is a derivative of a recently-discovered plant dubbed chameleonis. Depending on the method of ingestion, this additive can have a variety of unexpected side effects, but only once the person who has ingested it becomes sleepy. Methods of ingestion include:

● Ingestion: Beverage: When ingested as a flavor shot to drinks ranging from sodas to coffee to alcoholic beverages, it can cause a desire for closeness to a particular other person. Affected characters end up crawling into bed with that specific other character when they become sleepy.

● Ingestion: Food: When ingested as a flavoring added to a baked good or other meal, it can cause an intense desire for body heat when the character becomes drowsy. It won't matter to an affected character who is providing the body heat, so long as it's someone, and they will end up sleepily crawling into someone else's bed for warmth.

● Inhalation: When inhaled ether from a steaming hot beverage or soup, or as an essential oil or aroma from a bakery, it can cause disorientation when a character becomes sleepy. Affected characters either aren't sure which bed is theirs and simply crawl into the closest one, occupied or not, or become convinced that another character's bed is their own.

Feel free to post up a top-level for your own character either affected and invading a random bed or unaffected but open to having their bed invaded by affected characters, or tag around to other people's top-levels.

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"HAIL THE WAKING OF THE THREE-FACED PRIEST!" the mice cheer brightly and Tony lets out a little grumbling sound.

"'m awake," he says in a way that's probably supposed to be an agreement, though the roughness of his voice kind of belies the statement. He still attempts to claw himself upright to further cheers, until he's tucked into the corner of the sofa and peering blearily at Wanda.

"Y'can sit," he says, absently patting the now-empty cushion next to him. "There's room." He tugs a little at the blanket that still half draped over him, shifting it until it's wrapped around his shoulders in a way that almost makes him look like a kid.

Edited 2017-08-31 20:54 (UTC)

Well, so much for letting the man sleep. He says he's awake but Wanda doesn't quite believe him until he lurches upright. The mice cheer and a few even throw flower petals on him--something that no doubt they're doing because he's so rarely here.

The invitation to sit is one that Wanda almost waves off, but she finds that she is tired after cooking and for all the awkwardness between them, she doesn't hate the man. There's no reason to not accept.

"Thank you," she says, taking a seat, pressed against the arm as she leans against the back of the couch. It's hard not to smile as she looks at him, however, all bundled up and cozy on the other half of the couch. Tucking her legs up onto the couch, she lets herself relax. "Did you get enough to eat?"

"Sure," Tony says absently, practically going crosseyed at the flower petal that's landed on his nose. He huffs it away, then glances over at Wanda as she settles. And she's right there, close enough that Tony can feel the warmth radiating off of her. And before he can think twice about it, Tony just tips over sideways, pressing up against Wanda's side and resting his head on her shoulder. There. That's even warmer.

"Hate to tell you this," he says once he's settled in, the words still drawn out slow and rough in a way that indicates Tony isn't completely awake yet, "but I think you've got a mouse problem."

Wanda watches the petal as it flies off his nose and then gracefully falls to his lap. One of the mice cheers again, but the others have already had their attention caught by a magazine nearby and the latest fashions displayed on the front cover.

She doesn't realize at first until Tony leans up against her what he plans to do, but her body responds automatically, arms shifting to give him room and let him lean against her as he likes. Before Dick she was almost touch-starved, desperate for physical affection. Now the need is lessened but she realizes with Tony there that perhaps some platonic interactions may help fill the void that Pietro left behind.

"I think you may be right," she replies, wondering what one did with this particular Tony when he settled in against her. With the other Tony, there was no question. She would have cuddled with him on the couch without hesitation. But she's never been like this with the one from her world so...it was just going to take a little getting used to. "It's a wonder that they haven't tried to claim the spare bedroom for themselves."

"Do mice need bedrooms?" Well, these are pretty clearly not normal mice, given the cheering. Tony's still not completely sure he's not dreaming, which might be why he's let himself drape all over Wanda like this. Things aren't as awkward between them as they have been (and probably should be), but they don't do this. Tony doesn't really do this with anyone except maybe Rhodey or Pepper.

It's so comfortable, though. Why shouldn't he just let himself have that little bit of contact? Wanda clearly doesn't object, considering she could have blown him across the room if she wanted to. He lets out a long, contented breath and seems perfectly happy to just rest there.

Wanda isn't quite as starved for affectionate contact as she used to be after Pietro's death, but it doesn't stop her from finding this to be, well, surprisingly pleasant. Tony's weight against her his manageable, and the sense of connection is welcome.

"They don't need them, but they'd make use of them. The other Stephen gave them a room at his sanctum and then set up a permanent portal so they could travel back and forth between here and there in seconds," she says, resisting the urge to reach up and play with Tony's hair like she might with someone she was closer to. "It helps for them to have places for them to go to as they please. They're living lives of their own after all."

"That's weird," Tony says with great solemnity. And then ruins it with a yawn, but still. He shuffles himself in a little closer to Wanda's warmth, practically curling himself against her side.

"I mean, I guess. Never really thought about what mice would do before." And the way Wanda talks about them sounds a lot more like pets than vermin. He's never had an actual flesh-and-blood pet. Maybe giving them their own bedroom was a completely normal thing.

"And this whole place is weird, isn't it? Should be used to it by now."

If he'd ever had a pet perhaps he'd realize that she doesn't speak of them as pets. They're not vermins. They're not pets. They're living creatures with thoughts and feelings and capable of not just speech but also dressing themselves. They have an entire culture of their own.

They're not human but they're living beings. She can sense them, different but equal to humans for their mental presence.

"This whole place is very weird," she agrees, getting used to Tony curled up against her more and more. Even as he shifts closer. Resigning herself to the oddness of their situation, Wanda lets an arm wrap across him. "Though weirder I think for how normal it is. The life I have here...is more normal than any I've had back home. No war. No robots. No..."

She almost said no Avengers, but that isn't true, is it? It's not that there are no Avengers but...she doesn't have to be one here.

Pressed as close against her as he is, it would be impossible for Wanda not to notice the full-body flinch Tony gives at the mention. But he just lets out a soft sigh, too tired and too comfortable to be properly defensive about it.

"Would be easy not to fight here," he murmurs in what's probably an agreement. Not an idea that's ever occurred to him personally, but Wanda probably doesn't have that same panicked drive underlying all of her actions. Probably. Tony will be the first to admit that he doesn't actually know her all that well.

"Could do anything you wanted. Be somebody else."

Wanda's gotten past judging Tony about Ultron. He made terrible decisions but his intentions were good and...that much she acknowledges privately. He wasn't the only one that made poor decisions when it came to the A.I. and it's much easier to try to forgive Tony than it is to forgive herself.

"I sometimes wonder if I'm...dishonoring his memory. Not fighting. Being someone else here and not...fighting to get home. Not fighting to protect people here," she murmurs. "There are so many people here who protect the city, however..."

And she hasn't had a firm grip on who she is since before she arrived. Now it's even worse. Wanda swallows and lets her cheek rest against Tony's head. Breathes in deeply, and sighs.

"What would the others think? If I never put myself on the front lines anymore unless it was an emergency?" she asks. What would they think of her if she took the easier path after everything they've been through? Could she even call herself an Avenger anymore?

"Uh, that you probably deserve to have some chill time?" Tony is so not awake enough for this kind of conversation, but it just makes him more quietly honest. His layers upon layers of defenses seem distant at the moment, his thoughts unfiltered by the way he usually dances around conversations. Maybe later he'll regret that.

For the moment, he shrugs as much as he can without dislodging her. "We're all there because we choose to be. If you want to choose something else, then you should." He falls quiet for a moment, then inhales when it almost seems like he's fallen back asleep.

"That's what I wanted," he says, voice muted. "A way to make it so no one had to fight. Didn't really work out."

Edited 2017-09-14 22:45 (UTC)

No one has ever told her that she didn't have to be an Avenger. After the Battle of Sokovia they only worried about protecting her. Including her. Making her know that she was welcome and one of them.

And she knows that even in spite of recent events back home, Tony's not trying to tell her that she should quit the team. That she should stop being an Avenger or...whatever it is she'd be back home even with the Sokovia Accords. It's hard to know how she feels about it, knowing that she'd actually have a free pass. That she could quit and build a life for herself without any guilt...

It's just that she hasn't really ever thought about whether she wants to fight because it's what she wants to do. Not just what she should do. She tried to protect Sokovia and failed in a big way. She's tried to keep the world safe since then, but originally she was only ever spurred on by the war at home. The fact that it shouldn't be happening on the streets, destroying the lives of so many others for something so pointless.

Here it's all different, forcing her to wonder if what she wants is a life where she works as a shop girl for the rest of her days...or if at some point she'll want to use her powers the way she'd first intended. If she wants it not because she has to, not because it's the only avenue open to her, but because it's what gives her life purpose and fulfills her.

"You tried," she says quietly. "We both made decisions we thought were right at the time, for the best of everyone. Sometimes...sometimes it just happens to not work out the way we'd hoped I think. I've had time for a break, for months...perhaps I ought to see what it would be like fighting here, before I make a decision."

"Not as much to fight here," he offers like he's trying to give her a way out. And sure, there are incredibly weird creatures and everything, but no AIM, no Hydra. Nothing trying to take over or destroy the world, that he knows of. Things that can be avoided, if one wanted to.

But Wanda had come to the fight willingly, hadn't she? Maybe on the wrong side, but she'd stepped up when she could have done anything else. Maybe she needed it like a lot of the, did. Maybe she felt like she had no choice.

Tony has tried to make decisions for her, and look how that went. If nothing else about being on this god-forsaken moon, he's trying to learn from his mistakes.

"Should do what makes you happy," he says finally. "I mean. Obviously. Worth saying, though."

"Happiness can be fleeting," she counters quietly. She loves living here, she adores Dick, and life in Riverview has been wonderful for the most part. Surprisingly. But she doesn't doubt that something will happen to screw it all up. That's the way it goes, after all.

Without even thinking about it, Wanda drops down, snuggling back against Tony with a quiet sigh.

"It's important but it's not everything," she adds after a moment. Happiness is important and for that reason she ought to be grasping every bit of it she can out of this life, but happiness doesn't have the same fire that pushed she and Pietro to do everything they could to protect their country. She's been happy to let Avenger-ing take a back seat here but talking about it now, she can't help but realize that she might need more after all.

"Does being Iron Man make you happy, Tony?"

It's a question that drives him quiet for a long moment, though he does at least shift to let Wanda tuck in comfortably against him. He's never actually thought about the armor in terms of happiness. He'd thought he could give it up, for Pepper's sake, but that hadn't lasted long and Pepper hadn't even seemed surprised. Iron Man was burned into him now, whether the armor was there or not.

"It's...necessary," he says finally. Maybe it doesn't make him happy in so many words, but the alternative is worse. His own words echo in his head: I shouldn't be alive unless it was for a reason. In some ways, he's still just trying to make Yinsen's sacrifice worth it.

"But you're not me," Tony adds, reaching over to absently pat her knee. "You have options."

"You have options too, Tony," she says, reaching down to pat his hand atop her knee. "Here, at least. You weren't always Iron Man, and you have the benefit of...knowing more than before the first time you put on the suit. You could decide to do something--be someone different if you wanted."

The mice, listening intently to this conversation, are silent. But if Tony were to look over at them they might perk up at his attention. They might even whisper to each other in hushed tones at gaining his attention. Wanda glances their way briefly, and a small smile creeps onto her face.

"I mean, after all, you are apparently a Three-Faced Priest here. Have the mice told you yet about their goddess and savior, Wanda Maximoff?" she teases gently.

At the mention, Tony lifts his head just enough to crane his head over to look at the mice. Which promptly burst into quite cheers as they see him looking. That is still incredibly weird, and Tony lets out a huff of a laugh as his head drops back against Wanda's shoulder.

"I don't, really," he murmurs, letting his eyes fall close again. There's never been a question of his life being anything other than what it is. "S'fine, though. I like being Iron Man." Being Tony Stark was a different story, but there was a lot less he could do about that.

His question of course begs the question.

Does Wanda enjoy being an Avenger? Their Scarlet Witch?

Staring forward at the corner of the coffee table, She curls closer against Tony and sighs, finding herself considering the matter for long moments as Tony seems in danger of drifting off again.

And it's fine. She doesn't need to drag this out.

Speaking with him now has given her quite a bit to think about and she's well aware the answers won't come quickly or easily. There's time for her figure all of this out, no doubt. That portal isn't going to take them home anytime soon.

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player-suggested mini-event: A STRANGER'S BED

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