I'm a fighter

So, Annie had gotten a call a few days ago. And now that she'd had a few days to think (and to cry, and to pray, and to drink) about it, she was butting up to maybe actually being able to respond.

There was so much to say? But at the same time, so much she wasn't sure how to say. There was a prevailing feeling of lightness that had ballooned in her chest at hearing Wanda's recorded voice, even after everything -- but that lightness was also chased by something she didn't want to admit was panic that Wanda was still alive, even if she was sorry.

After this summer, and the year before, and now this -- Annie's fear responses were becoming sharper and sharper by the day. She didn't like that about herself -- she was supposed to be a dang superhero, unafraid of anything, but it was happening anyway.

On the bright side, her twitchiness and inability to relax meant that the mistletoe that had been creeping along one wall was now but a scorch mark on the wall across from her. (Which, of course, did not mean more would not be back.)

In any case, she finally willed herself to hit the send button on the text she'd been waffling on for days:

I'm glad you're okay.

And that was all there was to it, really. She was. There was more, but that part was true.

And now she was sending a much easier text to Wong, who had offered to help her find a superhero-friendly therapist, and good God was it obvious that Annie needed one of those.

[mostly establishy but totally open to neighbors, husbands, texts, calls, etc.]

Annie was falling. But was 'falling' the word to use here? Maybe 'hurtling' was better, since she wasn't falling towards the ground -- she, America, and Stephen (who seemed to have thrown himself in after them? Good.) were hurtling through star-shaped portal after star-shaped portal through...world, after world, after world.

Through space. Through a cavern of geodes. Through a city that seemed to be POPULATED BY GIANT INSECTS? Into the ocean, where Annie's lungs instantly filled, and she was gratified that both she and Stephen reached for America upon realizing they were all drowning, just for that second. Then New York -- her New York? Maybe. They were there for a half-second -- then a world with tiny robots (cute), then a much-less-cute world where there were entirely too many bones everywhere, then they passed dinosaurs, and that was awesome but also even more of a fleeting nightmare for Annie than Kamar-Taj had been.

But never fear, of course, because they weren't staying there. Annie, America and Stephen, flailing arms out towards one another to stay connected, were turned into cartoons, then cubed (and that was a lot of screaming, Stephen, but like...mood), then splashed through one dimension as paint -- PAINT! -- before hurtling (that really was the word) through several more worlds in rapid succession and landing in...a park?

A park. A park, and solid ground.

Annie was just going to lay here in the grass and stare at the sky and breathe hard for a second, thank you. America seemed to be breathing next to her, too, so that would do for right now. At some point, she'd have to thank Five for desensitizing her stomach to portaling back in 1963, because she barely even wanted to hurl right now. Barely.

( Multiverse travel makes you pukey )

( Time for exposition )

[[NFI, NFB but OOC is always wonderful! Taken from Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and preplayed with the lovely scarlet_chaos!]