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[ He's unsure of the network, but in the end, it seems like the smartest way to get what he wants. It's not the most subtle way to communicate, but he doesn't think this situation calls for subtlety and if he's been pulled into this place, there's no telling who else might be here. ]

This is Agent Phil Coulson.

[ Still an agent, even without SHIELD, he can't quite drop that part of himself. If SHIELD is just his team, then so be it. They're still SHIELD. ]

I'm looking for whoever's in charge here or any information anyone can give me that isn't in this handy pamphlet.

[ He pauses, looking around. ]

Or my team. I'm looking for my team.

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[ He nods at each name, going over his conversations with everyone as their names come up. Her comment about Bucky has him smiling, although it's more about her knowing him well than about Bucky. Well, no, that's a lie. Bucky Barnes. Phil had an action figure of him as a kid. The real thing looks less constipated than the action figure version. ]

Alright, I've touched base with everyone, save for the one obvious exception. Have you assessed his risk to others here?

[ It's interesting and he makes note of the fact that he, Rogers and Natasha are from around the same time, but many of the others are from earlier--Bucky likely the earliest, but maybe he shouldn't make assumptions about Loki.

Part of him wants to ask about Barton. She hadn't named him, but it seems like half the other Avengers are here and he selfishly wants Clint to be here. ]

Not entirely.

[She admits it reluctantly because so far they haven't had a chance to do as much reconnaissance on the Asgardian as she would be comfortable with. But then again, Wonderland in itself could be a little overwhelming. They've had other things to assess.]

What I do know is that his presence here is similar to ours - he was brought too and I don't think he's very happy about it. He's trapped and still here but in the week I've been here, I haven't picked up anything overwhelmingly alarming.

[Unless him and Steve singing Disney ballads to each other counted. She really thought it should.]

He was among the first I met here, actually. Tried to pass himself off as Thomas, a normal human, but he only altered his own appearance to be less.. well. Loki. So I'm not sure what the point of that was, other than to unsettle me. He even spoke of forming alliances.

... Interesting. If he wants peace, that's what we want, too, but I can't say I trust him to not have ulterior motives.

[ He's pretty sure Loki's ulterior motives have ulterior motives, because he's seen exactly how Loki operates. If there's a chance at peace between them, he's all for it, but trust isn't happening. Those are two completely different beasts. ]

And so far he's already tried to deceive you, so that's not a point in his favor. Let's keep an eye on him and hope that he keeps his head down.

Coulson, I never trust anyone not to have ulterior motives.

[He gets a wry look for that. Not to mention that's an understatement because she rarely trusts anyone. It's not something she's hardwired for.]

And if he'd shown up as himself, I might have gutted him with a steak knife before he said anything, so it was a wise move on his part. I can respect as much. It's not like I haven't done similar things myself.

[And if anything, Natasha's all too familiar with the concept of enemies unexpectedly turning into allies when situations change. Loki had done many unforgivable acts, but she had too. Trust would be stretching things but Wonderland had just changed all the rules on them.

She just wasn't sure any of her teammates would see it from that point of view. And Coulson... well, he had his own personal reasons not to want to deal with Loki, which she understood all too well.]

[ There are things Phil considers too personal to ignore, but his own death isn't one of them. He'd put himself there and Loki would have killed anyone who had. It is what it is. Loki's not a good person, but Phil can work with him if need be. Betrayal stings a lot more than someone who's always been an enemy. ]

Fair enough. At least he's not trying to actively kill everyone.

[ He rolls his eyes. ]

Where are you sleeping?

[ Of all the strangers and familiar faces, there's no one here he trusts more than Natasha and if that's where he's sitting (and he suspects that she's of much the same mindset), then he wants to set up camp close by. ]

Yet.

[She amends his statement lightly, giving him a bemused smirk despite the seriousness of the topic. Then again, she's always had a strange sense of humor.]

Steve and I have rooms up on the seventh floor. I can show you, if you'd like? That's part of the whole... magic deal, by the way, if you haven't been informed yet.

Three square meals and a bed? It's just like prison.

[ He smiles and starts to head towards the mansion again. If they're rooming near each other, that only makes it easier to keep an eye on both of them. They should stick together as much as they can here until they learn more.

Holding the door open for her, he glances inside, still wary of what could be hiding out of sight. ]

If prison had magical rooms and closets you can wish anything from?

[Her tone is dryly amused as she walks with him, hiding a smile when he opens the door for her and slips inside to the foyer, looking completely at ease. She's stopped treating every hallway as a potential threat for the moment, letting some of her hyper-vigilance fade, although she was anything but unwary. Anyone - or anything - that thought her apparent complacency was an advantage to be pressed was someone she wanted to meet. If only to assess what threats they might actually have here.]

Also I should probably warn you about the mirrors, if you haven't heard already.

I read what was in the pamphlets, but it was pretty vague and ominous and when I first woke up, there was a message writing itself on one of them. Have you heard more?

[ Not that he offers what that message was, because it can mean a lot of different things and he's not sure what yet. Maybe it was about his death or maybe it was about TAHITI, but it could have been about something else entirely or a baseless scare tactic. He's not making assumptions until he knows more. ]

A message? [That catches her attention and she flashes him a quick searching look.] What did it say?

And no, not a lot. I haven't seen anything from it, to be honest. I wasn't sure what to think. I just know they're supposed to be a reflection, a backwards reflection of sorts, of what we are. The Queen of Hearts rules that side of the mirrors and I'm not sure what she's after, but I've been told both sides have been pitted against each other in the past. Apparently there was a giant chess game at one time. It sounded as if it got pretty vicious.

[ It's hard to picture a vicious chess game, but he nods anyway. This place seems strange enough that he could believe it capable of quite a lot. ]

It just said they know and now I know what it feels like to be the cute blond girl in a horror movie. I hope I'll never know that joy again.

How cryptic of it.

[Worrisome, because that could mean any number of things. They who? And know what exactly? Although his following comment gets a snicker from her, amusement flashing across her face for a moment as they moved upwards.]

I don't know, I'm sure you could probably pull of damsel in distress with a little effort, Sir. You definitely need to trade in the Dolce for American Eagle, however.

Why not go the whole nine yards and put me in a dress?

[ He chuckles, already running through the checklist of things that their new living spaces are going to have to meet beyond just proximity to each other. They need to be safe and secure and they need to have access to all of their people. They need to be ready. ]

You know if we've all arrived here so close together, that means more people from our world might be on their way.

Careful, Sir. [Her lips are curving into a mischievous smirk.] That could be arranged.

[She nods in agreement, serious again.] Yes, Steve and I have been thinking that. We might have the whole gang together soon if this keeps up. [She still couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a terrible one.]

[ As much as he wants to see Barton now, he's not so sure that this place is really all that safe and because of that, he's not so sure how he feels about his likely arrival, not to mention the fact that throwing Banner into anything involves throwing the Hulk into it, too. It could be... messy. Luckily, it doesn't matter what he thinks, because he has no control over whether it happens or not. ]

It might not just be the other Avengers, too. Pepper and I aren't the only non-Avengers from our world here. We could wind up with other agents, scientists, civilians, even HYDRA agents.

[ Or his team. He tries to picture Skye here or May. ]

Just what we need. Especially since I'm still not sure who was who, other than Pierce. Rumlow and Rollins. Sitwell.

[She adds that last one carefully, because she's not sure how much he's heard and Coulson and Sitwell had worked together quite a bit.]

[ He looks sick for a moment, because that can't be right. Jasper's worked with him for years. He has to catch his breath before he can even say anything. ]

Sitwell was HYDRA? Are you sure?

Yes. [She looks regretful to be the one to tell him.] He was the one we got the information from. He was easier for us to get to than Pierce. He... didn't make it out of DC. I'm sorry.

[She left off the part about kicking him off a roof. And how he actually died.]

I can't believe it.

[ Death is sad. It's always sad, but Sitwell being HYDRA is what he's stuck on, because that is the death of his friend. The man who died in DC wasn't the Sitwell he'd known. That was a HYDRA agent. He shakes his head. ]

Garrett, too. He was HYDRA. I've got agents May, Ward and Triplett on my team along with two scientists and a trainee. I don't know who else I can trust right now.

Garrett?

[Surprise flares across her features. She hadn't really liked the guy, but he'd been a renowned agent in SHIELD. She'd had respect for some of the ops he'd pulled off. He'd had an impressive reputation.

As for the others...]

I'm glad May's with you. She's a good person to have watching your back. [She barely knew Triplett at all, only by name and Ward... Well, she wasn't overly fond of him. The man had a chip on his shoulder and he rubbed her the wrong way, but he had an impressive reputation of his own.]

Garrett was their S.O., wasn't he? I'm sure they took that hard. [Coulson had been hers, hers and Clint's. Possibly because no one else had ~~been stupid enough~~ had the balls to take them on. Clint had problems with authority and she'd sparked terrified and suspicious whispers everywhere for months after joining up, but Coulson had earned their trust. And their respect. And much more.]

He was. Things haven't exactly settled yet, but at least they're not alone when they do get time to process.

[ He knows the kind of relationship that working together in that capacity can build and he knows that they must feel betrayed. He feels guilty enough for keeping his own life a secret from his people, but it's not like he's betrayed everything he's ever taught them. That's a whole other level.

His people matter to him. He could never do something like that. For whatever faults he might have or whatever difficult orders he's been handed, he practices what he preaches and when he sends them into dangerous situations, he does it because he believes in what they do and he hopes that they believe in it, too. ]

May is, uh--[ His face falters. He has to forgive her. ] She's a good agent.

[Her gaze narrows slightly at that stumble of speech.]

I know that look, Sir. What did you do?

Edited 2014-05-08 03:02 (UTC)

Why do you assume I did something?

[ He raises an eyebrow, but he's not really planning to pursue a line of distraction when he owes her better than that. ]

It's... It's not a big deal. It was personal.

You have your guilty face on.

[She shrugs as she says it casually, even though his expression barely flickered at all. He has his tells, though, and she knows him well enough after all this time. Then again, she'd paid especially close attention to him at first. He was the man watching her back on missions, giving her her orders. She'd spent a lot of time figuring him out, figuring out if she could rely on him. Trust was not something she gave easily. He had it, all the same.]

Mm-hmm. If you say so. [She sounds totally convinced, Coulson.

They've reached the seventh floor and she motions to the hall they've taken up residence.] And here we are. Temporary headquarters of the Avengers, Wonderland Branch. Steve's got that room there. I'm across the hall from him, in here. The others are still filtering in.

[ He gives her a look that says the conversation is over, even though it's a look that doesn't really work with her unless she wants it to. He's long-since accepted that she's one of the people who can push back when most people are scared to. ]

Anyone in there yet?

[ He motions to the door next to hers. ]

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