Guinevere Stark and Pietro Maximoff
September 18th, 2020
It had been a few hours since they had taken down Mesmero, since everything that had happened at the warehouse. Pietro had almost forgotten about something that he had originally been planning on doing the night before, but the whole situation with Mesmero caused problems for them. It hadn't felt like the right time for it, so now he went to go find Guin.
"Guina?" he said once he found her.
Guin glanced up from what she had been working on. She was improving the security of the laboratories, namely the highly sensitive information that they wouldn't want to get out again. Her idea had been to attach a dormant virus to the files that would have to be disabled using a second authorized individual, in order to prevent Mesmero from repeating this stunt to get the Cerebro plans hopefully - or at least make it more challenging.
"Did I work through dinner? Shit, sorry..." "It's okay Guina, don't worry, it isn't quite that late, so no, you didn't work through dinner," he said, chuckling slightly that she had lost track of time so much that she automatically assumed that she had.
"Oh," Guin grinned, a bit proud of herself.
"Cool. So what's up, Silver Balls?" "I need to talk to you about something." She nodded a bit, wondering what exactly Pietro wanted to talk to her about but she assumed it had something to do with Mesmero. Understandably, loads of people were shaken up after everything that had happened, so she quickly saved her progress on her work and turned off the computer she was using.
"What is it?" "Want to know what I had been doing before Mesmero messed with my head? After I had talked to older X-Men people I mean..." "...Okay, I am curious, not going to lie," she admitted. Pietro had been the first one Mesmero controlled. Given his speed, she had to wonder how exactly Mesmero managed to slow him down enough to catch him in the first place. She had assumed initially that Mesmero must have caught him while talking to the pair of old X-Men closest to the Mansion - but Mesmero had been in New York City and no ex-X-Men lived there.
"I was going shopping actually, but leaving the store before I could take off running I literally bumped into him, turned to apologize since I didn't recognize who it was I had run into, and boom, that's when he got control of my head... So much fun..." he said, giving her a slight smile.
Guin giggled slightly.
"Okay, so several strange things in that story besides Mesmero - one, that you were shopping and not shoplifting and two, that you apologized," Guin teased him, sticking her tongue slightly out at her boyfriend playfully.
"Actually with what I was getting I wanted to make sure wasn't stolen or stuff like that..." She was smiling at him.
"And just what were you getting? I assume not those Department of Defense hats you brought back since those definitely were stolen - epic, but stolen." The hat he had given her was sitting on the table next to her computer in fact.
"This..." he said, pulling a little box out of his pocket and setting it next to her.
Guin looked at the box, her eyes widening a lot and her heart started pumping quickly.
"You know, one of the theorems of quantum mechanics states that things aren't the way they are until we act on them... So until I open that box and observe what is inside of it, there technically is exactly what I think will be there and something else, coexisting at the same time until the wavefunction collapses," she told him, rambling a little bit as she picked up the box.
"Theories are so boring though, so why not open it and find out already? Suspense is over rated anyway." She nodded slightly, opening up the box to reveal
an amethyst engagement ring. Even though she knew that her future self had married Pietro, she still didn't know how to react to this. Neither of her parents were married. In fact, her father had more or less been a revolving door when it came to partners when she was growing up, only settling on Pepper a little after she was ten years old. Her paternal grandparents had been married but she never met them, as they died in a car accident. And her mother's side of the family? She liked to pretend that they didn't exist.
"Was going to ask last night, but things got a bit um... Messed up to say the least... Anyway, so Guina, will you marry me?" he asked her, not really caring to be all formal about it.
Her eyes watered slightly and she quickly tried her best to dry them. Although marriage had never been in her life plan... she loved Pietro and never wanted to be with anyone else. Guin knew that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him.
"Of course I'll marry you," she told him, grinning.
"Yay!" Pietro said with a smile, before he picked the ring up and slipped it onto her hand.
She started giggling a bit, looking at her fiancé who had just said
yay. She then reached into her pocket and took out Muscles' wedding ring, before she slipped it onto Pietro's ring finger.
"I think this fits you nicely?" she commented, hoping that he wouldn't be upset she had given him Muscles' ring or anything like that.
"Wow, still a little surprised you carried this thing around for a while... But it doesn't matter, it works for me," he said, before he gave her a kiss. She wrapped her arms around him, kissing him back.
Bedroom? she suggested through the mental link.
Sure, he said with a grin.
Marygold Isley and Guinevere Stark
September 19th, 2020
Guin was feeling more and more like her old self. Everything that had happened with Mesmero had been awful, but she couldn't help but smile slightly looking at the ring on her left hand. She never was much into diamonds, but she did love the color purple and beyond having to take it off when working in the lab, it didn't get in the way too much. Knocking on the door to Mary's room, Guin had two things of Dr. Pepper and a bag filled with assorted candies with her. She also had a variety of movies, including Mary's favorites.
"Mare?" she called out.
"It's Guin. Your annoyingly amazing best friend." "Come in Guin," Mary called through the door. She was currently reading a book, having taken to being a bit by herself lately since the Mesmero incident. She didn't really tell anyone why that was the case, but she seemed to just prefer being by herself, though it wasn't too hard to figure out the reason for those who know her. Mary hated the idea of hurting anyone, and the fact that she could have caused a lot of damage still freaked her out a little.
Opening up the door and heading inside, Guin set down the junk food and movies in front of Mary.
"I'm here to eat crow... I pushed you away, Mare, after Muscles died and... that wasn't cool of me," Guin said softly, deciding to just get this over with. She fidgeted a bit with the ring on her hand.
"I'm sorry... I'd like to go back to that sister like friendship we had before, if you're willing," she then asked.
"...I can understand why you pushed me away Guin, it was hard on you, that much was obvious... And I'd be perfectly fine with things going back to the way they were before that whole incident... Things were better then than they have been, I can tell you that..." She nodded, sitting down next to Mary and giving her friend a hug.
"Yeah, it was rough but... That doesn't excuse me shutting you out. You're my best friend and I didn't treat you like one for a while..." she trailed off, figuring the next thing she had to ask Mary would come a bit awkwardly after this, but she didn't know how else to say it and she wanted to know Mary's answer already. Only her father knew so far about this - Mary was the second person she was telling.
"...Would you be my maid of honor, Mare? Piet asked me to marry him yesterday and I - I said yes." "...Congratulations on that Guin," Mary said with a smile. She was happy for her friend, not sure what else to really say about that one as she returned her friend's hug. Hearing the other part, Mary couldn't help but smile at he,
"Of course I would be happy to." "Thanks," Guin couldn't help but smile, looking at the ring and showing it to Mary.
"I kinda have no idea what I'm doing, since it's not like my parents were married at any point in their lives so... I honestly have no idea at all what to do or what needs to be done, but I know that you are definitely a type A personality and you made that amazing little swirly flower and you're my best friend so... I need you so hearing that you'll be my maid of honor is a huge relief." "I'll happily help you out with anything Guin... Don't worry, if you need anything I'm here for you, I always have been. And that ring is beautiful, not too surprised that he didn't go for a diamond or anything, amethyst definitely suits you." "You really are the best, Mare," Guin told her honestly, giving her friend another hug. She promised herself that she wasn't going to shut Mary out if she went through another trauma like that again. Mary had never done anything like that to her, always being open and honest and being there for her if she needed it. Grabbing the sodas, she handed one over to Mary.
"Do you want to just keep on talking and watch Jumanji maybe?" she asked, pulling out the DVD and showing it to her. She preferred the original movie over the sequel.
"Also, fun fact, he actually paid for the ring. It isn't even stolen." "Now that is surprising. Your future husband is a bit of a kleptomaniac... Let me guess, he went to your dad to ask for the money for it so he didn't have to steal it? As for Jumanji and talking, I am all for that, works for me." Guin nodded, getting the movie and putting it in the DVD player in Mary's room, before getting the TV all ready to go.
"This feels so retro, watching on a little TV," she commented as she worked. Back home at Stark Tower, they had a private theater. She got to see movies about a month before they were released to the public. Sitting down next to Mary on the bed, she grabbed the bag of prepopped popcorn she had brought up with her.
"And yeah, apparently he went to talk to my dad to get his blessing two days ago - bit old fashioned but he is from Serbia so I'm not too surprised." "Well not all of us come from rich families or whatever you know. And sure, he's a bit old fashioned, but honestly that isn't that bad all things considering you know." She giggled slightly.
"I know - but think about it... What if he wants me to change my name to be Mrs. Guin Maximoff?" "I don't think he will, especially if you tell him you don't want to or whatever." "I've honestly never thought about it," Guin admitted. She knew that some people liked to dream about getting married one day and they already had an idea as to what name they would take, if any. Some of the girls and boys at her boarding school had picked out names for their future children and knew what style dress or suit they wanted to wear. Sure, she knew there was a good chance she and Pietro would get married thanks to Muscles, but this stuff hadn't been what she spent her time thinking about. She didn't even know if she wanted to get married in a dress or not.
"Well, knowing Pietro I'm pretty sure that he'd be fine with no matter what you did." She nodded again, having a bit of a silly/dreamy smile on her face.
"I am really happy that he asked me... My dad, not sure how he feels about it." Mary giggled slightly, seeing the expression on Guin's face. She felt better and happier than she had in a while ever since the stuff with Mesmero had happened.
"Well clearly he's accepted it otherwise odds are he wouldn't have given Pietro the money." "What's the giggling for?" Guin asked Mary, nibbling on a handful of Goldfish.
"No reason Guin... Just glad to see you smiling and all happy." Guin rolled her eyes at her friend.
"You are such a Hufflepuff sometimes, Mare. I know you want to be a Ravenclaw or a Gryffindor - probably Gryffindor, knowing you - but you just can't help but be a little gooey marshmallow on the inside," she teased.
"Whatever you say Guin," Mary said with a slight laugh, shaking her head at her.
"Oooh can weddings have themes? We could do a Harry Potter wedding!" Guin suggested excitedly.
"Okay, saying this now, fairly certain that Pietro would not let you have a themed wedding." She paused for a moment.
"He'd probably say yes if it was Star Trek themed," Guin mused. It was her boyfriend - well, now fiancé's favorite show to watch. She fell on the Star Wars side of that rivalry, but that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy watching Star Trek episodes with him and pointing out that she would be considered a red shirt.
"He's a bit old fashioned as you pointed out before, so I don't think even then he'd go for it." "True... Oh well, a girl can dream about wearing Harry Potter robes since dresses aren't really my thing..." "He's going to make you wear a dress whether you want to or not Guin." She wrinkled her nose at that. Her dad had made her wear dresses to Stark Industries events before, despite her insistence that she would be a lot more comfortable in a power suit instead.
"Bleh, I hate dresses. They're the worst. My legs are always freezing in them and I feel like they're just designed to show off people's boobs." "Yeah well, pretty sure you'll survive wearing a dress Guin. It's kind of generally what is worn by the bride you know." "...Fine, as long as there are no heels," Guin rolled her eyes, taking some more GoldFish.
"You might need them because of the height difference," Mary teased.
"He's not that much taller than me!" "He's like, 8 inches taller than you!" She shrugged.
"Then he can just lift me up for the photos, I hate heels!" "Ever heard of wedges? They add the extra inches but are more like flats than heels and don't have it so you are like, walking on a spike or something." "... See, this is why I want you to be my maid of honor. You've got good ideas. Oh, and don't worry... I am not asking you-know-who to be a bridesmaid, so you don't even need to get stressed out about that," Guin told Mary. She wasn't friends with Ayita, but she wanted to make sure that Mary knew she wouldn't have to be in that sort of situation at all. Guin had heard some of the things Ayita had been saying to Mary lately and it was horrifying, to be honest, that someone could be that cruel. She thought Ayita had been a better person than that.
Mary smiled at that, really glad that Guin wasn't going to have Ayita be a bridesmaid. She had tried to patch things up between them, but it didn't seem like Ayita was letting her do that. Though she started getting a slight headache now, but she wasn't going to let Guin know that.
"Good..." Guin nodded.
"If you need me to do anything regarding that entire mess... Let me know. Richard owes me a favor." "Honestly Guin? I don't think you can do much about that entire situation." She grimaced slightly.
"Yeah... It's just really shitty. But I know what I can do is offer you some of this variety of junk food I have. I can even get Piet to go grab us some deep dish pizza from Chicago if you want?" "That sounds like it would be amazing," she said, smiling slightly at Guin.
Piet, can you get Mare and I some deep dish pizza from Chicago? Guin asked him, using the mental link. She had gotten the idea from the Flash TV show, since the Flash was always running off to Keystone City to get pizza for his friends back in Central City.
"Okay, I asked him, so I hope you are hungry." Alright, came his response. Mary nodded her head, glad that they were going to have pizza and such. Watching movies, probably talk about the wedding maybe, it was going to be fun.
Yay! I love you. Guin grinned, giving Mary two thumbs up to indicate that Pietro would be playing pizza delivery service for them.
"Okay, so what else should I know about the wedding stuff...We talked about how I have to wear a dress or whatever, and then the not heeled flat things... wedges, right, that's what they're called..." "I think I have a pair of wedges here somewhere..." she said, before she got up and went to her closet, looking around. After a moment, she pulled out a pair of
shoes to show Guin what exactly they were.
"These are the sorts of shoes I was mentioning, they are much easier to walk in than heels." Guin put aside the junk food, getting off the bed and going over to Mary.
"Those are actually kinda cute," she said, a bit surprised.
"Of course never tell anyone I said that. I have to keep up my reputation as dressing like a street rat," she added with a bit of a giggle. She knew that Pietro would love it if she wore nicer clothes, but a large part of it was she wanted to be comfortable and she was stubborn as hell.
"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. Anyway they are a lot easier to walk in then heels by a mile." she said, before there was a knock at their door. It was Pietro with their pizza.
Guin headed over to the door and opened it up, beaming at her husband-to-be.
"You are really the best," she told him with a grin.
"I'm assuming one of those pizzas is ours and the other ten are for you?" she giggled a bit, knowing that Pietro's metabolism required him to eat a lot.
"You know me too well Guina," he said with a smile as he handed her a box of pizza.
"I don't know if that is possible," she told him, giving him a kiss.
"Have fun you two," he said with a slight wave, before there was a gust of wind and he took off.
Guin then shut the door and put the box of pizza on the bed, opening it up. Thankfully, Pietro had included some plates and even some forks if they needed them. Deep dish got messy super easily.
"Okay, so what's next to chat about? I'm assuming you don't have anything going on in your love life which is a shame - though Gambit did ask me if you were still dating Folly..." "He's ridiculous about that and won't believe me when I tell him that we were never dating!!!!" She cackled slightly, getting a piece of pizza for Mary and putting it on a plate for her, before getting herself a plate.
Jumanji was playing in the background and it was about halfway over.
"Why does he think you two are or were dating, anyways?" Guin asked. Mary never really struck her as someone that swung that way, so to speak. She had her own life and career and her plants - not really much room for a relationship and people didn't need those to be happy.
"Just because when Folly first came to the mansion and everyone told me to stay away from her I didn't and instead befriended her. I don't swing that way at all... Is that the only thing he mentioned about Folly?" "He mentioned something about some corporate job he had and the CEO wanting to recruit her... He, obviously, gave a hard no to that," Guin told Mary. She didn't really know Folly, but she knew that the girl was insane. Her mutation also prevented any medication from really helping her, meaning that Folly's sanity was just going to get worse and worse as time went on.
"I think he said he's working for Serval Industries - they're having some sort of private superhero team, which is interesting, but also will never kick ass as much as the Avengers." "...Remy working for some company? That's a shocker, though I can totally understand why he'd say no to Folly being on any superhero team... She's too unstable... Last time she was here at the mansion she might have stabbed Remy..." She raised an eyebrow at Mary, taking a bite of her pizza.
"So I'm taking it she most definitely did stab someone then? Good to know." "Yeah... Um, can we talk about something else now, just about anything else will work." Guin paused for a moment, before she started snickering.
"Okay then. Marygold Isley, Fuck, Marry, Kill? Your choices are Wolverine, Hawkeye, and Magneto." She used to love playing these sorts of games with Lance - MASH was always her favorite and she tended to have better success getting him to play that, rather than Fuck Marry Kill. But hey, they were pretty much having the semi-stereotypical female hang out session - they might as well lean into it.
"Yeah no, especially given those choices of yours!" Mary said, before she threw one of her pillows at Guin. She generally didn't mind the game, but was not going to pick from those three no matter what happened.
Guin narrowly managed to get her pizza out of the way, before the pillow hit her in the face.
"Fine, fine - how about... Jakobsen, Loki, and Xavier?" she asked cheekily, throwing the pillow back at Mary.
"Nope, not happening." "Okay, but you know the rules. You can't skip on the third set - Mr. Fantastic, Hawkeye, and Ant-Man," Guin posed to her friend.
"Yeah, no, I'm passing on the game entirely." "Lame!" Guin giggled.
"Okay, how about MASH? I used to play it to keep myself entertained whenever Dad made us fly to Europe so he could watch someone race one of his cars. Honestly, I totally approved when he decided to drive one himself - much more macho than just owning one and not doing anything with it really." "Alright fine we can play MASH," Mary said with a laugh, shaking her head.
