Shen and Wanda - BH Party

[ax_swift]

It mostly goes well, until it doesn't really?


Shen was not just a little bit impressed with the party the Brotherhood kids had thrown. She was tragically not dressed to match, in grey and black that she had figured would fit anywhere, but not so much when everything was neon. She'd never let a little thing like that stop her from having a fun time at a party, though, and she wouldn't this time either.

In so far as she was here to have fun. It was part of her reason for being here, after all.

And so when she saw the girl in a red top go by (it was easier to think of her that way than 'the twin of that Tommy look-alike'), she jumped on the opportunity. "You guys throw a good party," she stated with a grin. Hey, she totally meant it.

Wanda turned around and grinned back. She didn't recognize the girl from any of Pyro's descriptions, but that didn't mean much - and it was one more reason to talk to her, anyway. "I can't really take credit - it was all on Pietro and Eileen. But I'll pass it on. I'm Wanda, by the way."

"Shen," she replied with a small smile. "Nice to meet you. I'll try and track them down, pass on the kudos. The graffiti wall is a great touch." She was still deciding what to tag.

"That was definitely my brother," Wanda acknowledged with a fond smile. "He's not about to lose out on an opportunity to make his mark on the world. Did you write anything on it yet?"

"Nah, I've been trying to think of the right thing." Shen looked at it again, and then back at Wanda. "Did you?"

"Not yet. I haven't quite decided what to write either," she admitted. "I keep feeling like I should put up something deep, but y'know. Spray paint." She shrugged and grinned.

"You don't think spray paint and meaning go hand in hand?" Shen asked curiously.

Wanda laughed. "No, I just think I'm going to fuck up with the spray paint and no one's going to be able to read it."

Shen laughed. "Where's a paint-manipulator when you need one?" Hey, there were some crazier mutations out there.

"You mean you guys don't have one? I figured sheer numbers, there had to be at least ONE person who could fix spray paint disasters." Wanda shook her head and grimaced, though her eyes were sparkling with amusement. "And here we invited you figuring someone would be able to fix whatever Mort stuck up there."

"Which one of you is Mort?" Shen asked curiously, looking around to spot the outnumbered Brotherhood kids.

Wanda looked around, her eyes narrowing, then pointed to the greenish skinned boy over near the food. "Over there," she pointed.

"Is he really all that likely to -" Shen stopped talking as his tongue shot out to grab something off the table. "Holy Jar Jar Binks."

Wanda let out a snort of laughter. "Fuck, I'm going to remember that one. But yeah. He takes the whole Toad thing to new levels." If it had been one of the other Brotherhood, she'd have had a lot more to say on the subject (and probably would say something to him later, because seriously?) but at the end of the day, he was part of her team.

Toad. That made sense. Shen managed to look away - waiting to see if he would use his tongue again was a little like watching a train wreck - and back at Wanda. "Seriously, nature was on crack when it came up with the X-gene." Except Shen didn't sound like it was anything but a good thing. What they could all do was incredible - including Mort over there.

"No shit," Wanda replied in pretty much the same tone. It was nothing but the truth, after all - hell, her teammates were living examples of it. "All you have to do is look around this room for proof." She eyed Shen curiously. "What's your thing?"

"Wings." Shen smiled at the thought of them. "Disposable wings. What about you?"

"Probability manipulation." Wanda grinned. "In other words, I make improbable things happen." She eyed the other girl's shoulders. "How can wings be disposable?"

"They detach and turn into this weird green goo, super yucky," Shen replied, although her mind was still on what Wanda had said about her own mutation. "So, like, you'd be great in Vegas?"

"I would own Vegas," Wanda countered with a smirk, then shrugged. "Or, y'know, lose everything. That could happen too." Her eyebrows climbed as she considered the rest of what the other girl had said. "They grow back again, though? Or do they reform out of the goo somehow?"

That temporarily distracted Shen from Wanda's power. She grimaced. "Ew, no, thankfully. No, I grow them again." She took a tiny sip of beer, then asked, "But does yours work on everything? That sounds insane." It sounded like there wasn't anything Wanda couldn't get done, potentially.

"It is insane, and it's not the easiest thing to control. And I'm not sure about whole scale altering of reality, but little things?" She shrugged. "Depends on my concentration, and just how crazy unlikely something is. Like," she thought about a non-threatening example, and grinned. "It wasn't at all likely your teammate could control his eye blasts if he took off his glasses, but it was possible. So."

Shen's eyebrows raised. "You did what?"

"Hey, I asked him first," Wanda pointed out, wondering just what the other girl was objecting to. "It would've been pretty fucked up to not. But yeah, gave Scott a quick look at Pietro's decorations, without everything being shades of red." She smiled a little. "Figured it was only fair. Best conversation I've ever had about The Art of War deserved something in return."

Shen wasn't objecting to anything. At all. "That is amazing," she blurted out. "Only quick? I mean, he's back to normal now?" She'd so been hoping Wanda could make that sort of thing stick.

"About thirty seconds, maybe a minute." Wanda shrugged. "The odds of a fuck up go up exponentially the longer I hold it, and he didn't seem the type to want to risk that."

"He isn't," Shen confirmed. And they would all enjoy not being hit with that kind of force, too. Her enthusiasm was more subdued now, but it was still great. "It's still amazing that you did that for him."

"Yeah well. Pretty cool guy, kinda hot, good dancer." Wanda shrugged. There really wasn't much more to it than that. "Besides, Pietro will sulk if everyone doesn't get to admire his decorations."

Shit. She'd missed Scott dancing? And he was good at it? Shen had to track him down and pull him onto the dance floor now. "Yeah, I guess the red filter wouldn't do the neon justice."

"Not from the sounds of it, no." Wanda grinned a little and raised her eyebrows. "So, gotta ask - does he have a girlfriend? And do they make more of them at your school like that? Because I'd be tempted to sign up for a few classes."

"Pretty sure you should be asking him that first question," Shen replied with a smirk, although her amusement seemed to hint that the answer was no. As far as she knew, anyway. Scott wasn't exactly the sharing type. "And we've got our fair share of hotties. But you did pretty well for yourselves too," she added, tilting her head towards the boy in the open vest with another smirk.

What could she say? Those abs.

Wanda followed Shen's gaze, then laughed. "Yeah, Lance is awesome eye candy," she conceded, then turned back to the other girl, shrugged, and made a face. "There are some things you don't want to share with your twin, though. Guys are one of them."

"Oh, yes, ew," Shen agreed with a grimace.

"Exactly." Wanda sighed. "So, there's nine of us, right? I'm related to one. He and Lance are supposedly not 'together', but yeah, we all know better. Alex and Fatale were already 'Alex and Fatale' before they even got here, though how they managed that as inmates in a fucked up research facility I can't figure out. Mort eats bugs, Freddie eats everything, and Pyro's glued to his phone these days, waiting for your teammate to text or whatever the hell they're doing via cell phone." She grinned a little. "I'd say Eileen and I are screwed, except it hits a little too close to home, because we're very definitely not."

"Yeah," Shen said sympathetically. She figured Wanda and Eileen hooking up wasn't an option, or Wanda would've specified. "Sign up for class. Seriously."

"What's the place like?" Wanda asked, genuinely curious. "I mean, I heard bits from Pyro, but they were...maybe a little biased." Or a lot. Not that she could blame him.

"The actual place?" Shen asked. "It's crazy big. The grounds are huge. At first it feels a bit like you've got to be breathing money just walking down the halls, not gonna lie."

"Ugh. Yeah, not sure about that." Granted, it might be cool to see, but living there? She'd take Asteroid M any day. "But no, I meant the classes, the people - that kind of shit."

"The classes are all right," Shen answered, "although a lot of them are online." She'd be surprised if no one at the party tonight told them about their less usual classes, but Shen wouldn't be the one to volunteer the information. "The people - you get a bit of everything, really. There's a bunch of us. This is just a sample, tonight."

"Mmm, yeah, I think Pyro told Magik to be selective." Wanda shrugged, totally unapologetic. "We wanted to meet you guys, not start a bunch of fights."

"Smart move," Shen confirmed. "This is way too cool a party to be cut short by a fight."

"Right? Though fuck knows, that can happen among my teammates as easily as it can between them and someone else. Still," she reflected, looking around, "so far it seems like we got it right."

"I'm... gonna cross my fingers," Shen stated, a little uncertainly. That didn't sound too good about the unity of their (small) group.

Wanda frowned, trying to figure out why Shen suddenly sounded apprehensive, then rolled her eyes and smiled. "Not actual real fights. Just morons screwing around with powers. You guys never have that happen?"

"Not really?" Shen offered, and shook her head. "That sounds - really not safe. We're big on safe."

"Because the world's a safe place?" Wanda's eyebrows climbed. "I hope you never have to find out what you can do the hard way. I'd rather learn screwing around with my teammates than when I'm fighting for my life. Or theirs."

"'Cause those are the only two options," Shen confirmed with raised eyebrows. Ugh, she did not want to get into arguing about safe spaces with one of those kids, nope, not her. She was being good and sticking to gentle sarcasm instead of adding anything!

"Well, no," Wanda retorted sarcastically. "We've got two kids with incredible control of their powers." She met the other girl's eyes. "They got it by being lab rats for the Right, and they're the only two survivors, but hey. They know exactly what they can do. Personally, I'd sooner deal with Lance shaking the building to keep Pietro from getting the remote, but that's me."

Shen narrowed her eyes at Wanda's comeback. Seriously? If the Right wasn't still active, if everything wasn't so recent and ongoing, this would be as good as the mutant version of the Godwin point. "Yeah, again, other options exist."

"Maybe," Wanda allowed. It was possible, after all - and given the girl's mutation, it wasn't all that likely to matter, anyway. "But personally? I wouldn't want to risk it."

"You are risking it," Shen retorted before she could help herself, because learning in a safe environment (as safe as possible; it was called the Danger Room after all) was the opposite of 'risking it', thank you. But she immediately raised her hands placatingly. "But hey. Not here to pick a fight - even the argumentative kind. I'm gonna go grab another drink."

Wanda's eyebrows rose - personally, she thought she'd made the case that she was doing exactly the opposite - but she shrugged and smiled. "No fighting," she agreed. There didn't seem to be much point, anyway, and she could recognize a lost cause when she saw one. "I'm going to go see what my brother's up to - he promised me a dance, and I haven't collected yet. Have a good time."

"Yeah. See you on the dance floor maybe," Shen told her with a smile, and turned to go grab another beer.