mandalus :: the city of fates.

To those who knew him, Steve Rogers has returned home. His room is empty and his contact no longer connects through the phones. We were lucky to have him with us, and as I understand it he returns home to be a hero of the people there as well.


[Filtered to Tony Stark and Pepper Potts]

If it is alright with you, I'll gather his things from his room tomorrow. I'll see to any outstanding business he has.

Hello, can anyone hear me? I..I don’t know if I’ve done this right …

[There was a pause and an upside down view of a shoulder, arm and tree behind it.]

… I seem to be blind.

[All things considered blind was better than dead. But it was certainly disorienting.]

It sounds and smells like a forest, beyond that I don’t know where I am.

[There was the initial sound; it was loud enough to be felt in the surrounding area but the video that came along with it told the tale in far more depth.

Light filtering through dust and the sound of grating stone were the first immediately apparent and recognizable things. But others images and sounds followed shortly thereafter; coughing and sounds of scrabbling through the evident rubble.

A hand dug past the view screen, streaked with blood and coated in the debris around it, some sort of dark brown cloth ripped savagely but still clung to the limb. Another move and the view shifted as though dislodged from the wreckage, and slid down to show a mass of dark hair filled with chips and dust and more of the matting red that streaked the arm.

A soft moan accompanied the next move and that was followed shortly after by a cry of pain. The crimson streaked lengths rose until a wide eyed face filled in pain and fear faced the screen. Peggy Carter hissed out a breath and what might have been a strangled cry before a deep wet sounding cough cut it off. She lurched forward as the debris shifted again and all went suddenly quiet and dark; the transmission ended.]

Peggy wasn't willing to let things fall into disrepair and there was more than a little curiosity about her adopted nephew and his lady friend. She had only just begun to get to know them and now they were gone. The Stark Tower they left behind was part of them and for her that meant a connection to them.

She arrived and it was without doubt an impressive edifice, she had to smirk as it was just so..Stark. She paused a moment at the doors, wondering if she would even be able to get inside. No on way to know until she tried, so she stepped up to the doors and pulled.

Hello, I admit it is awkward to speak to so many like this and so informally but that seems to be how things work here. My name is Peggy Carter and I would like a moment of your time.

I knew, though briefly, Miss Potts and Anthony.. Tony Stark. It seems only just beginning to when they vanished to return home. I would be lying if I said this loss was unfelt by many or that I was unhappy they get to resume their lives. The fact is we needed them, we need each and every man, woman and child we can have to safeguard our own homes by battling the opposition here.

People may come to us and aid us and they may leave, but we cannot give up the fight. [Her voice has a slight emotional hitch but it’s smoothed out quickly.] We cannot abandon the work they have started, we must carry on not only for this city but for them and for ourselves.

If we intend to return, if we intend to see our worlds safely moving forward, then we need to remember those we lose and use those memories as the strength we need to continue.

I will do what I can, offer what I can in this capacity to help anyone who needs it. You have only to call on me and I will answer. I hope we can all bolster each other, because in the end that is our greatest resource.

( ”nightmare” )

Steve…STEVE!
[She woke screaming his name, her face damp with tears and her throat choked. She hadn’t had that dream.. that nightmare in months. It was every bit as powerful now as ever. She would not be sleeping the rest of the night.]

[Peggy stepped forward and looked behind her at the building she’d been escorted from. Things had been explained but frankly it was beyond her with the technical side of things. She gathered the item in her hand was some sort of communication device and the new piece of jewelry around her wrist was something…well something like dog tags only so much more advanced.

She’d been kindly advised about some things, the city, and the intent of it and then sent on her way with the number and location of her quarters. It seemed she was intended to stay here in Mandalus. No time like the present to acquaint herself with this place. She followed the basic instructions for the communication device and..]

Is this on? How do you tell if it’s..oh..

Now if I only knew what to say. Best to start at the beginning I suppose.

This is Peggy Carter with the Strategic Scientific Reserve, a little guidance would not be amiss.