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! ]

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[ When Steve looks at the oncoming storm, all he can think of is what will happen when it's Tony's turn to return home. It's going to happen one way or another, Wonderland wouldn't allow anything else in this situation. With Bucky here, they're more or less waiting for another bomb to go off.

Not that Steve necessarily thinks that Tony will go after Bucky with the same amount of intensity now that the immediate shock and betrayal is over with, but it isn't going to make things easy for any of them.

He'd come up here to avoid having to give out any more tired smiles, but it looks like he might have to. Evelyn is someone he can be a little more open with, but there's no easy way to explain anything that happened, especially to someone who isn't from their world.

Maybe she won't ask, but Steve knows her better than to assume that. ]

Thanks. [ Eventually he goes to take a seat next to her, exhaling as he watches the sky. ] Looks like we're taking turns.

[The trouble with tired smiles is that they're always a front, and Evelyn would know: she's executed her fair share of them in the recent past. I'm fine, she says, and part of her means it, but the same sort of weight settles heavily on Steve's shoulders and as inhumanly powerful as he may be, he is no Atlas.

Evelyn watches him for a long moment as he sighs like a valve releasing pressure, gaze cutting over the hard lines of his face. He didn't die in his world - he would have told her that much, would have trusted her to understand - but there are other things that bear saying when she doesn't want to push too far into an open wound.]

It's very selfish of me. [Briefly, she looks down at her hands.] To be glad that you're here. I know it can't be easy for you.

[ Everyone is selfish sometimes, even Steve Rogers. He proved that many times over during the past few days, when for the first time he'd put put himself before everything else. Well, in reality he'd put Bucky before everything else, but the two of them are bound together tightly enough that it amounts to the same thing. ]

In a way... right now, things are easier here than they are back home.

[ He doesn't have to worry about Ross' men hunting them down. He doesn't have to worry about how safe Bucky might or might not be in Wakanda. He doesn't have to worry about what he'd say if his burner phone ever rang. ]

I mean, I'm not saying I'm glad to be back, exactly, but... [ Steve looks over at Evelyn and smiles with one side of his mouth. It's a little more genuine this time. ] It's not all bad.

[It's easier here.

That speaks volumes about the current state of affairs in Steve's world, that anything more chaotic than unadulterated, unlawful chaos could exist. That he could survive in it (or flounder, depending upon the circumstances).]

A lot has changed.

[She observes, more of a commentary on his situation than her own. Things do not change for Evelyn, who takes one of Steve's hands in hers and squeezes it. It's as much an invitation to unburden without explanation as she can give.]

You'll weather it. Some of us have to.

Most of us have to.

[ Steve has no doubt that any person who's been brought to Wonderland has their share of problems, their host of issues that they're doing their best to deal with. No two people are completely alike in that sense, but he's not self-centered enough to believe that he and a few others are the only ones suffering.

But yes, a lot has changed, both in terms of Steve's feelings about Wonderland and in terms of everything that's happened back home.

There's a few moments of quiet, and then Steve sighs again. ] I found Bucky, finally. It's just that the rest of the world found him at the same time.

[It isn't the information Steve gives her, but its delivery, that makes it evident this particular reunion was not what it should have been. Bucky never gave her much in the way of free explanation when it came to his prosthetic and its origins, and kindly she did not press, but there was always something lingering on the edge of conversation that suggested his home front was far from ideal.

Evelyn licks her lips, pausing over the questions she desires to ask, and those that she should ask instead.]

...is he wanted?

[And if so, for what?]

[ That's a kind way of putting it, when the situation itself had been anything but. Steve can't help but reply with bluntness. ]

Wanted dead, you mean? [ He closes his eyes and huffs out a breath, this one more irritated than weary. ] He was framed. A lot of people were after him, and I got involved to help him get away, then got myself branded a criminal in the process.

[ There's a lot more to it between Tony and the Accords, but Steve boils it down to its simplest form, focusing on his and Bucky's role in it rather than everything else.

Realizing that he might sound as if he's bitter about what happened, Steve clarifies: ] I don't regret any of it. [ Not strictly true, but that gets into an uglier part of the story that he's not sure he's ready to share yet. ]

[Wanted dead, or alive, of in general, or for something like murder. Take your pick, she wants to say, and Steve does, although it isn't too long into his explanation that she feels something too close to shock and horror creeping over her face.

Inasmuch as she understood it, Steve and many of his friends from home comprised some kind of elite force meant to...upkeep the peace, or something along those lines. It was always difficult to understand, primarily because they all had unique and particular abilities, either superhuman or intellectual. Little wonder people might have been concerned about a significant amount of concentrated power. Any member might make the perfect scapegoat.]

Bucky is your closest friend, [Evelyn says with a sigh.] Have you...are you both safe, back home? Safer than you were when it all started?

[ The Avengers are definitely a varied team in terms of their powers and skill sets, which is probably why some consider them so dangerous. Even if they'd only set out to help people from the start, and even though the casualties they rendered had been few in comparison to how many lives they'd saved, apparently some people just couldn't accept them.

Steve considers Evelyn's question for a few seconds. While he doesn't want to worry her, he doesn't think that outright lying is the right choice either. The fact is that he and Bucky are both relatively safe now, within Wonderland, so there's always that to fall back on. ]

Not... really. I mean, neither of us are badly injured or dead, but I'm on the run and Bucky's currently in stasis. He made that choice because he didn't want to risk any of his triggers getting activated again, but...

[ He shakes his head. This is clearly not the ideal setup. ]

video; guess who's back, back again

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