assembles: (trying to keyword while tired)
Steve Rogers / Captain America ([personal profile] assembles) wrote in [community profile] entranceway2016-06-01 10:00 am

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! ]
brainleak: (falling down again)

[personal profile] brainleak 2016-06-20 05:24 am (UTC)(link)
[River fidgets, doesn't look at Wanda. She doesn't address the topic of missing anyone. Doesn't want to dwell on that.]

Easier. Because of the impermanence of memories? Because death isn't real?
mindbend: (11)

[personal profile] mindbend 2016-06-25 04:14 am (UTC)(link)
Because here, I am not a monster.

[There are people she longs for, and death, though impermanent, is still cause to grieve, reason to worry about what else might be taken from them in the future-- but if only for that one thing, Wonderland is easier.

Here, she's not a fugitive. Not a weapon.]
brainleak: (something that begs me to stay)

[personal profile] brainleak 2016-06-26 08:20 am (UTC)(link)
[Not a fugitive. Not running from the Alliance. Not putting anyone in danger. Not a weapon. Not forced to be what the Academy made her into. Not entirely.

River understands Wanda perfectly. In fact, it puts into words River's feelings when she could never parse them herself.

Her hand grips her dress.
]

We get to be human here.

[Or some approximation thereof.]
mindbend: (09)

[personal profile] mindbend 2016-06-27 07:40 pm (UTC)(link)
[In that moment, Wanda knows that in this, they understand one another with perfect clarity, and she nods firmly, feeling her throat tighten.]

Yes. Exactly that.
brainleak: (feeding the hunger)

[personal profile] brainleak 2016-06-27 11:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Welcome back, Wanda.

[She stares at Wanda for a few moments more, before turning to leave. She's gotten her answer, and something to think about. The effect this world has on her. A growing fear of being sent back to an uncertain future.]
mindbend: (16)

[personal profile] mindbend 2016-06-28 09:53 pm (UTC)(link)
[The encounter is a brief one, by most counts, but perhaps that's all they need-- because of what they are, they have an understanding of one another without needing to exchange words, but the words River does offer still mean something, and Wanda smiles faintly, as much as her weariness will let her.]

Thank you, River. [A pause, however brief, but she cannot leave one of River's thoughts without comment before she goes.] It is okay, I think. To be uncertain. Afraid. We have the right. Everyone has the right.
brainleak: (falling down again)

[personal profile] brainleak 2016-07-10 07:21 am (UTC)(link)
[River hesitates as she steps through the door.

Uncertainty. With all that she knows of the world around her, uncertainty plagues her. She thinks she ought to be more sure about herself, about what's she's doing, where she's going, but she exists in fog.

Is that really okay?

She just nods, even though she knows Wanda could hear her grapple with those words. She leaves.
]