Hexing for Dummies

In the Evo!verse, we're never given a clear or concise explanation of what Wanda's powers are, exactly, or how they work. There are the occasional exclamations from those she is using her powers on, as well as Pietro's apt description of "She's like a witch with those powers!" However, what exactly "those powers" are is never really defined with any certainty or authority.

Which means when I write Wanda, I get to make up how her powers work.

Yay.

What is Hexing?

Wanda's powers are, as in the comics, the alteration of probability. This sounds vague, but at a quantum level, anything is possible, so while you might NOT wake up to find yourself a giant bug every morning, there is a chance, however small, that you COULD. Wanda's powers mess with how large or small those chances are. It's truly a frightening prospect, when one gets down to it.

Further examples:
(a)The Juggernaut throws a giant bolder at Wanda. She alters probability that that rock will turn right around and fly back in his face.
(b)Wanda alters the probability that earth's gravity is the strongest affecting Scott Summers. Now, instead of being pulled towards the ground, Scott is pulled towards the ceiling.
(c)Pietro still hasn't learned any better, apparently, and runs up behind Wanda to scare her. She accidentally alters probability of Pietro's hair reflecting white and silver colours, to reflecting reds and magentas, effectively changing his hair colour to bright pink.

How Does It Work?

How, exactly, is she doing these things? It's one thing to know WHAT she's doing, and quite another to know HOW.

Wanda sees the universe as, for lack of a better description, a giant tapestry. Millions upon millions of threads, interwoven and making up everything around her. Pulling at one thread causes all the threads it's attached to to pucker and warp, as well, changing the image of the tapestry. Now, while the interwoven tapestry descriptor is figurative, the imagery of strings is not. Wanda sees these strings overlaying everything and everyone in her life, very faint, and very ghost-like. They're hardly noticeable to her, and she has a hard time describing them. It's quite possible they're not actually real, and are only a manifestation for her brain to quantify what her powers are and how they work, but as far as she's concerned, they're real.

When Wanda moves through space, these threads naturally snag on her fingers. They also sometimes snag on her arms, legs, torso-- all of her, really, but more than anything, they snag on her fingers. The threads don't hinder her motion at all, but when they snag, and she keeps moving-- whether it's just walking and swinging her arms, or drumming her fingers, bored, at the table-- she pulls them out of position, with no finess at all. The larger her hand gesture, the more out of place they're pulled.

This is when explosions happen. Too many threads pulled too far out of place, and the universe just sort collapses in on itself and goes "Fuck it," and does a hard reset in that area, in the form of an explosion.

All of Wanda's power training and control exercises are in fact a form of constantly reminding herself to move carefully, and to pass through the strings, rather than pulling at them. It is something she has to be constantly aware of, since they are literally everywhere, and the more emotional she gets, the more she seems to snag on things.

~~She could probably craft a hex that made her less likely to catch on these strings but shh, she hasn't thought of that. She's not that clever.~~

When Wanda is casting hexes, what she is doing is essentially manipulating these strings, very carefully, into patterns and forms that will have desired outcomes.

For example. Carefully wrapping the string for Bobby's ice control around her middle finger, she can then pull that string over to, and loop is around the string that controls her own gravitational pull. Loosely knotting the first to the second string, she can now push and pull at the gravitational string, and effect Bobby's powers. Since her own gravitational pull doesn't actually effect much around her, pulling (carefully) on this thread doesn't have too much in the way of side effects.

Wanda will create complex cat's cradles with these strings, to create more and more complex hexes. It is very tricky to hold on to all the strings she needs, sometimes, and not accidentally pull on the wrong ones, hence all the crazy finger wiggling and arm gesturing.

Additional Notes

The complex nature of these strings is also why she can't just "do" magic, a lot of the time. Some patterns she's figured out (if I take these and loop them like that, and tie the loop off on this while I pull those, I can reflect incoming projectiles), and some she hasn't. She may WANT to turn a rock into a rabbit, but until she finds the right way to physically craft that desire, she's SOL.

The tendency for things to explode when she gets them wrong also sort of makes her hesitant about trying some of the more outlandish hexes.

Wanda usually will not knot one string on to another, preferring to use lose slip knots that can slide off, and let the strings move back into their correct places. This means that many of her hexes do not have lasting, permanent effects.

A final note about her hex-aura.

While Wanda's blue hex aura may make some nervous, it is actually a physical manifestation of control. When her aura is up, it is a sign she is actively controlling her power. So while, yes, it does mean she has hexes running through her at the moment, it also means she is controlling those hexes.

It's when she starts hexing and there's no aura that things are really dangerous.

Extended Headcanon

Random Headcanon factoids about Wanda. Some are created based on the comics, some are expansions on what's shown in canon, and some are just straight up headcanon.

Wanda's birthday is November 13th.
Born in the High Evolutionary's castle on Mt.Wundagore, Erik thought he removed his new-born children from that place before they could be experimented on. He did not. The High Evolutionary did some very basic meddling, which is why both Pietro and Wanda's mutations showed up at such a young age.
Wanda spent half her life in institution for the uncontrollable and the violent. She started being straight-jacketed for extended periods of time around the time she was 10. She spent much of her time struggling against her bonds, and consequently, she developed some light scaring around her wrists, and upper arms, where she would habitually rub herself raw. She covers up these marks with jewelry, as, after her brain washing, she can no longer really remember where she got them from, and people asking makes her head hurt. If pressed, she'll usually just snap "There was an accident" and escape he conversation as soon as possible, after that.
Wanda has the same haircut as her Father, just a little messier, since she does it herself, with a pair of scissors and a mirror.
Wanda speaks with a lot of "..." and "--" peppered in, especially with people she's unfamiliar with. She is normally a quiet person, and then when she speaks, she can be very hesitant to express her own thoughts and opinions. The opinions of her Father are another story, however.