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! ]
mindbend: (16)

[personal profile] mindbend 2016-06-27 05:24 pm (UTC)(link)
[Her expression darkens as she frowns.]

I don't know. I thought I did. I wanted to change, to protect those who could not protect themselves, like you said-- but I fear I've done more harm than good.

[Even if it hadn't been intentional. Not this time. She'd thought that putting her anger aside would make all the difference, but it hadn't been enough. She hadn't been able to master her powers. Instead, they were mastering her.]

I do not want people to suffer. To feel helpless, as I have.
hypoxic: (having just one dream)

[personal profile] hypoxic 2016-06-28 05:41 am (UTC)(link)
[She regrets the casualties from Sokovia. Of course she does. She's an Avenger. They're all so noble, they probably feel every life intimately.]

You haven't. Done harm, I mean.

We'd all be worse off without you.
mindbend: (04)

[personal profile] mindbend 2016-06-28 09:56 pm (UTC)(link)
[She shakes her head, discouraging, because she's not so certain he's right. Not anymore. She'd done her best to make amends for Sokovia, but things were bigger than that now, because even her attempts to help had left blood on her hands.]

Even when I try to help--

[She grimaces, her lips pressed into a tight line for a moment.]

People have died. Not because of what the 'bad guys' have done, but because of me. Because of what I did in a bid to save one person. I helped him, but so many more were killed. You should see the news reports. They are-- specific.
hypoxic: (that's how I feel about it)

[personal profile] hypoxic 2016-06-29 08:24 pm (UTC)(link)
News reports aren't trustworthy. According to the news, SHIELD is a terrorist group and the Inhumans are an alien invasion.

You never meant to hurt them. And that's what makes you different than the ones who hurt people because it's fun for them.

[Fitz is a man of moral certainty. There are Good Guys and Bad Guys, and they're on the first team.]
mindbend: (Default)

[personal profile] mindbend 2016-07-01 07:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Perhaps not, but people believe them. People let them sow the seeds of fear.

[She cannot control anyone's fear but her own, she knows, something she will have to continually remind herself of, but the guilt is still there, ever-present and weighing heavily on her heart.]

Your belief in that is-- unwavering.

[Something about that makes her smile, just a tiny bit.]

It is rare to find someone so stalwart.
hypoxic: (or else I'm meaningless)

[personal profile] hypoxic 2016-07-01 07:43 pm (UTC)(link)
We're afraid of what we don't understand. That's why we can't ever stop learning.

[His cheeks darken at the following remark. It's bordering on being too much attention. How does one even take a compliment?]

Sometimes, belief is the only thing that keeps us going. It's important not to lose hope.
mindbend: (15)

[personal profile] mindbend 2016-07-01 07:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Hope is hard to find, for some.

[She pauses, then asks quite honestly:]

How do you manage to hold on to yours so well?
hypoxic: (sent from the bluest earth)

[personal profile] hypoxic 2016-07-01 07:52 pm (UTC)(link)
[He swallows. Hope is a complicated issue.

He's been trying to find Jemma for months. All signs indicate that she'd been vaporized on the spot. There's pressure to have her case formally closed, so that her parents can be informed and funeral arrangements can be made. Everyone at home is begging him to give up, to stop making things harder on himself.

Hydra is still everywhere. There's no way to know that his friends are really his friends. Spy games mean that nobody can really be trusted. And yet, to do things as dangerous as their daily activities, trust needs to be firmly established. Hesitation is death. Trusting moles nearly got him killed, once.

He smiles, but it's a tiny, melancholy thing.]


I wouldn't be able to survive without it.
mindbend: (14)

[personal profile] mindbend 2016-07-01 08:55 pm (UTC)(link)
[Even without probing his thoughts, that smile is enough to drive the point home. The explanation is a simple one-- but it's everything it needs to be.]

I suppose that's all the reason anyone needs.