entranceway | video; guess who's back, back again

[ The feed snaps on, and the frame is on the crowded side. In the foreground Steve and Wanda are seated, arranged on a couch in one of the mansion’s tea rooms, while Natasha stands behind them, leaning against the wall near the door. Steve has his phone tilted so that all of three them are visible, Wanda’s arm linked with his.

Steve’s in civilian wear, his expression composed and collected. He isn’t here to give out orders or make any speeches, though. ]

So it looks like Wonderland sent all three of us home at once. Sorry about that. [ As if they had any control over it. ] But we’re back now and more or less in one piece. [ Which isn’t the full story at all, but that isn’t something that needs to be shared with all of Wonderland.

Natasha pushes away from the wall at this and moves closer into the frame of the video, leaning on the back of the couch over Steve’s shoulder, expression mild. ] I don’t know if any others of us were sent home recently, but if so, letting us know would be greatly appreciated.

[ Her lips quirk briefly. ] Either way, I think some of us will need to be assembling for a SitRep soon regardless. But we wanted to let you know we were back to keep people from worrying.

[ Steve glances over his shoulder at Natasha, nods, and then returns to looking at his phone. ] Let us know if we’re needed anywhere.

[ With that, the feed cuts. ]

[ They’ve done their duty and reported their return, which means that it’s time for all three of them to go and lick their wounds. Steve returns to his room first and foremost, finding Bucky even sooner than he had expected when it turns out he’d camped in his room.

Once they’ve reunited, though, Steve laces up his shoes and goes for a run up and down the beach, needing some time to clear his head. Everything that happened back home has him on edge, searching for a way to take action, to do something, and yet none of it means a thing here in Wonderland. There are no Accords here, but a secret that had been revealed in the worst possible way back home remains a secret here, and it’s eating at him.

He also heads up to the roof, as if hoping that a bird’s eye view of everything will somehow cause it all to make more sense. Wonderland isn’t where he’s supposed to be, but at least some of his team is here. They maybe be prisoners, but they’re not caged and collared. It’s something. ]

[ Once Natasha parted ways with Wanda and Steve, having had a chance to - finally - compare information, she briefly stopped by her room upstairs, checking to make sure everything she'd accumulated here was as she'd left it. Then, after replying to a few text messages that had been waiting for her, she headed to the fifth floor. And the bar.

Because damn, did she ever need a drink. Or twenty. ]

[ For most of the day following their return to Wonderland, Wanda remains out of sight. There's no trace of her in either of her usual haunts, the training room or the magic study: she shuts herself away in her room for the better part of the afternoon, door locked tight, though she'll likely answer for those who seek her out. It's been months since she's been this withdrawn-- longer, considering how much time had passed during her trip home, but she finds herself feeling very much like the Wanda who had first come to Wonderland one year earlier, skittish and wary of human contact, unnerved by the idea of having to explain exactly what had changed to rob her of the confidence she had spent so many months building alongside her teammates and new friends alike.

Eventually, it's one of the most basic of human needs that forces her to emerge, hunger driving her to leave her room behind and make her way down to the communal kitchen. After spending time in government custody, the need for a real meal as opposed to whatever the closets might be able to supply is enough to make her brave the mansion beyond her room. She keeps her focus narrow at first, rummaging through the pantry to see what it might have to offer in the way of ingredients, occasionally turning her attention to the kitchen at large to see who else might have wandered in since her own arrival, an attempt to remain aware of her surroundings. House arrest followed by more severe isolation has done very little to put her at ease, and she finds herself unwilling to trust even the slightest creak of the floorboards, regardless of the fact that here, the word fugitive means very, very little. ]

[ OOC: One or all of them will respond to any network replies. If you reply to any of the action options, please specify who it’s for! ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ It's difficult to tell if Darcy is trying to convince them or herself that everything is fine, but Steve has to admit that it seems like Wonderland is as they left it.

This is the second time that he's had to deal with returning to a place only a week later even though he has a whole year worth of memories. It isn't any easier. ]

We owe you for taking charge while we weren't here. I'm not sure why Clint, Tony, and Sharon didn't leave with us, but it's probably better this way.

[ For a number of reasons. ]

[ Stay tuned for the answer for that because she's not sure. ]

Don't worry about it. I'm kinda glad they didn't. It was bad enough without three of you gone, I don't even want to think about what could've happened if everyone had peaced and I'd been stuck here twiddling my thumbs.

[ A beat. ]

Natasha said it was bad back home...

[ Steve suspects that the three of them will have their own trip home at one point or another, and he can't say that he's looking forward to it. Still, he made this bed and now he'll have to lay in it. He's never been one to turn away from responsibility.

Of course Darcy is curious, even though the idea of relating everything that happened is frankly exhausting. Steve rubs at his eyes and nods. He can talk in broad strokes. ]

Pretty bad, yeah. Bucky got framed for something and was flushed out of hiding, and the UN was trying to pass something called the Accords which would heavily limit Avengers activity. I didn't agree with it, Tony did, and it just escalated from there.

[ That final fight had been due to something much more personal, though, and Steve plans on being careful with who he tells about it. ]

[ There's only a few ways she's gonna find out what's going on back home. One of those ways is Steve, granted this time it isn't over coffee and baked goods. She's fine with as much or as little as he's willing to share considering they'd just gotten back. Honestly, he could have just told her 'yeah' and left it at that and she wouldn't have pushed. ]

Leave it to the UN to make a mess of things. [ She gives a sigh, wondering when the bad things would stop happening to everyone - when life would quit trying to test breaking limits so fiercely that they just might be reached. Her voice is soft, lips formed into a solid frown. ] I feel like bad is an understatement. [ A beat. ] Do you need anything? Like a hug or a cookie, or maybe a giant bag of brussel sprouts to throw at the Queen? [ Because no one likes brussel sprouts, right? ]

Not as bad as it could have been.

[ That's been Steve's mantra since he got here. It's a coping mechanism and he's aware of that, but if he doesn't try to find some sad sort of silver lining then he's not sure how else he's going to handle everything that happened. Tony still doesn't know, and that lack of closure is going to weigh on his mind until one of them tells him or he goes home himself.

It's not that Steve wants that whole mess to follow them here, but the fact that it's brewing under the surface again isn't much better. ]

The Queen probably doesn't have anything to do with this. It's fine, Darcy. We all made our choices, we just have to figure out how to live with them. [ Which is cryptic, he knows, but he won't downplay the part he played in everything that happened. ]

[ 'Not as bad as it could've been' and 'figure out how to live with them' don't line up in her book. Not one bit......... But she doesn't push. As much as she might want to. It's obviously still fresh for him and the others. So, she'll let him tell her if he ever wants to and she promises she won't get mad if he doesn't. Not like the last time, even if it could still affect Wonderland in some very detrimental ways. ]

Well, you know where to find me if you need to talk. Or even just need someone to distract you.

[ And she'll leave it at that for now. ]

[ This time around Steve doesn't really see any of the interpersonal issues among the Avengers affecting the rest of Wonderland. The biggest powder keg would be between Tony and Bucky, and there are a lot of reasons that it won't go off here the same way that it did back home. Tony doesn't even know right now. If they decide to tell him, they can do it in a much more controlled fashion.

Even if Tony does go home and come back knowing the horrible truth, he'll have already lashed out and almost killed the two of them in the process. Steve knows that he won't repeat that. They may not end up on speaking terms, but Wonderland isn't going to get blown up because they're at odds.

Since Darcy isn't going to force him to talk about it now, Steve is quick to nod. ] I do. And I appreciate it. I'll try to swing by later after I've talked to Bucky. [ Even if it's just to share a meal and talk about other things. ]

[ Because she's more than happy to continue to use her babble skills to fill the quiet if needed. Ramble on about some of the goings on in the lab and around Wonderland, whatever she could think of that wasn't about home right now. ]

Sounds good, maybe see you later.

[ And with that, she cuts her end of the feed - going back up to the office/library space to continue organizing and transferring Jane's notes to something not paper. ]

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