[ she can't help the way gears seem to spin behind her eyes. it isn't that she's an enterprising person -- she doesn't see powers in a person and feel any compulsion to turn them into a tool -- but she can't help imagining the possibilities! the implications! the things he must be able to do, to achieve, to accomplish! she may be a spy but (off-duty) she wears some of her bolder emotions on her sleeve.
and it's easy to see she's impressed. ]
Remarkable still. [ gently (gingerly) she lifts the spoon from her cup, the one that had so recently been stirring, and examines it with a kind of quiet wonder. like having watched a marksman fire off a good round at the range. ] And you mean to say you keep it a secret?
[ shame, that. although she can certainly understand... ]
[ His expression goes dark for a little bit, and he debates with himself for a moment but eventually says: ]
I kept it a secret, only known to people like me, up until last year.
They fear us, it's as simple as that.
[ And then he pushes that thought aside, which takes visible effort on his part, and changes his tone. ]
I doubt our captors don't already know. But if they don't, I'd prefer if only we did. We're already at a major disadvantage in that we have no idea who they are. So we should remain a mystery.
[ she registers every tic -- every variation in his expression -- and makes a mental scribble next to erik's name: a little list of truths, of impressions, of assumptions. a tidy little file she can keep in mind for any and all future interactions.
he speaks of fear, and given what pieces she knows of other worlds and other times, she can easily imagine such a prejudice existing. but beyond that he speaks of strategy -- and that's something she can certainly understand. keeping an air of the unknown about their persons (or merely pretending to be anything but interesting) is certainly a tactic she's fond of using. the advertisements make it difficult, however. erik's interest alone is proof enough that hers had been a bit too...fascinating.
peggy hooks her fingers around her teacup once more. ]
People like you. [ she echoes. ] Enhanced individuals?
We were called mutants. Children born of genetic mutation. Shaw sought to accelerate it by the use of nuclear weaponry.
[ So yeah, that was fun. He's going to stop saying Shaw's name now, every time he does he bets Peggy can taste the bile from where she's sitting. ]
But people fear what they don't know. And they didn't care to differentiate the ones who were trying to cause war and those of us trying to prevent it from reaching their shores.
[ Anyway. ]
But if you ever get stuck in an elevator... you know who to call.
[ she says the word like it's heavy. like it means something. and if she's honest, the word probably has all kinds of meanings for all kinds of people. but the extent of the man's abilities and the way he discusses it -- well, how can she not be reminded of billy? billy, and his story about how he came from a world with avengers. just not her world with avengers.
her fingertips tap restlessly on the teacup. nails creating a little clinking sound as she digests the information. ]
...Or a bullet extracted. [ because that's where her mind goes first -- a soft roll of her shoulder as she thinks about the painful procedure she'd endured just to take fragments out of her tissue. ] Or -- just about anything, frankly.
[ she finds him just that impressive. ]
I'm terribly sorry, Mister Lehnsherr, but I have a strange question I feel I must ask you.
[ He smiles at her when she says that because honestly, he mostly uses his powers to extract bullets from him and from others, or to place them in other people.
He's about to tell her wish granted, call him anytime for that, but then-- ]
--Sure. What did you want to ask?
[ At this point, he's an open book. At least, as far as anyone else is concerned. Nobody else has gotten all these secrets from out of him, not so much at once anyway. He trusts her implicitly more than the others, perhaps because of her service, her timeline, or the fact that she's willing to talk to him like this. ]
[ she's trying to piece together a puzzle. and peggy? peggy likes puzzles. she enjoys them -- albeit not with the sort of enjoyment that engenders smiling or relaxation. but when she gets her teeth in something, when she's chasing an answer, she seems to light up with serious purpose.
so she sets aside her fresh tea without so much as taking a sip. ]
[ He raises an eyebrow because of all the questions that he thought Peggy might ask, that is not the one he thought she would.
Maybe something about his powers, or the X-Men, or the Brotherhood, or his methods or diplomacy, his part in the Cuban Missile Crisis-- but the Avengers? ]
Yes, the television show? With Diana Rigg, it hasn't caught on in the States yet but I'm sure it will in a few years.
[ his reply brings her up short. her confusion is sharp -- palpable, almost, as she works backwards from his answer to her understanding. it's all in the one word: television.
she's never owned one. but she's heard enough about tv from others that she thinks (thinks) she can find the misunderstanding. ]
N-no. At least -- I don't believe so. I'm talking about a team of heroes. Some enhanced; some not.
[ she chews the inside of her lip. something is bothering her. there's a kernel left to this story that she doesn't want to tell -- some detail she prefers to keep to herself. but erik told her such a secret! was it done, she wonders, simply to win her confidence? these questions must be weighed and considered with care. ]
Oh, my world's Avengers are from a decade well after mine. Well after yours, too, by my math. [ she hums. ] But the only other time I'd heard similar talk of mutants was from a young man whose world was just similar enough to my own to make the coincidence a notable one.
[ He raises an eyebrow and thinks that maybe it was someone that she'd met here. Maybe he'd met them too-- another mutant, perhaps. From another time. It's certainly not the first time that he'd have run into one. ]
I've noticed most people who identify as mutant instead of metahuman tend not to stray too far from my corner of the universe.
[ metahuman. she's heard that one before, too, but knitted up in someone else's world. how many groupings must there be of worlds -- and variations on worlds -- where people are just a little bit different from how they're meant to be. history's nudged just a bit to the left or to the right?
peg knows she needs to tread carefully. only two people know the secret she now hedges around. ]
His name is Billy. But I haven't seen him in some time. He came from a world that seemed almost to be a half-step away from my own.
I've never met Billy. I should probably talk to him sometime. Maybe we're all interconnected in small ways. Maybe that's how they got to all our worlds, and one of the Earths is just the root node.
[ There's a lot to unpack here, mostly just theories they won't find solid answers for for some time. But what he can do is pick out patterns, try to organize them in ways that make sense. ]
It would explain why there are so many variations on it. I don't think there's anything particularly special about Earth, otherwise.
Nearly everyone from "my" world, who's here in the city, hails from the 21st century. [ peggy explains -- shedding a little light on her position within her own world-mates, as it were. ] They consider me to be something of a notable exception.
[ she isn't steve rogers, lost in the 40s only to be found again in the following century. and she isn't the winter soldier either. she is anachronistic. ]
But I can almost always tell when someone's from home -- once I introduce myself. [ a beat. ] It's rather bewildering to have the details of your life known by people you've never met. Details that haven't happened to you yet. I'm a line in a history book to most of them.
[ it's a quiet confession. and this time, today, she expresses more of her unhappiness in it. it's only fair; he's shown her so much already. and peggy can appreciate a little quid pro quo. ]
That just means you were an influential piece of their lives.
And at the very least fame is better than infamy.
[ Yeah, he's been on the receiving end of "I've met you and you're a huge asswipe." But he understands what she means, after all, he feels disadvantaged that everyone around him seems to know and be avoiding telling him what he did. It's an odd feeling. ]
But that's what I mean. We're from variations. Slight shifts in time from the majority of others. But there has to be an origin, a patient zero.
[ her fame feels a lot like infamy, some days, when she considers what's to become of shield. what she must allow to happen -- either by stubbornness or by blindness or what. her nose crinkles at erik's suggestion that she should be in some way influential. it's a claim she's heard people actually make, and it never sits well in her stomach. ]
Shifts, yes. Some slight and some not so slight. [ a beat. ] Do you believe the difference between mutants and metahumans is one of those diverging paths?
No, I think the existence of mutants is one of those paths. I know someone who had met me in my future, but he is a metahuman who doesn't identify as mutant. Yet he is familiar with my chosen designation.
He is also familiar with the concept of multiple worlds and timeline shifts - he told me he wasn't sure if I was the younger version of the man he knew or from a world adjacent.
[ He's aware that's a lot to take in, so he's just going to keep fussing with the tea in the meantime. It does assuage him that other people seem to understand the idea of multiple versions and timelines, that it doesn't bother them in the slightest. Makes it easier to sort out what here is normal and what isn't. ]
[ she fesses up: ] Certainly, I'm no stranger to the concept.
[ once upon a time she met a young woman who claimed to know her in the modern day -- a one-eyed and gruff leader of a shield that never fell. it was odd to hear; odder, still, to come to terms with. and she can empathize with erik's position in hearing about versions of himself. ]
Although I must say it took being peeled from my own world before I heard anything like it. [ a beat. ] What do you mean, however, by your 'chosen designation"?
I just mean mutant instead of meta human. The title is not very flattering but it's the one I most associate with.
[ For several reasons, one being that one shouldn't be ashamed of being a mutant and it would take years to convince everyone of it - a feat that hasn't quite been accomplished. ]
Had this happened to you before then? What was the world like, if you don't mind me asking? The other one that wasn't yours?
[ hmm. once again, her expression crinkles. it's painfully obvious how little she enjoys discussing herself and her experiences. ]
It's a rather long story. [ or so she'd position it. ] But I was trapped somewhere for well over a year before being brought into this city. A lot of the trappings were similar, however -- we were there against our wills, with people from all manner of different universes.
[ But he can also tell that she definitely does not want to discuss this any further. ]
It's just that I haven't met anyone else who has had the same experience of being pulled into another world prior to this one, one that isn't their original.
We don't have to talk about it. You did ask for casual conversation and I think we've both offered up more than that. I don't want to make you uncomfortable.
I know of at least one other. [ she admits -- but stops short of saying his name. it's not her secret to spill. ] And, for my part, I'm trying not to share that information around. Almost no one from my own world knows that I was somewhere else first. It's...better like that.
[ she takes a sip of tea, and finds herself more at ease discussing these circumstances rather than the world she used to inhabit. ]
I've learned that there's an awful lot of risk in learning about the future. An awful lot of pain, too, and -- perhaps it's best if those I meet from home never need to know how much I've learned about them. Which of their secrets I already know.
I don't know who it is you know from home, but I assure you that they will not find this out from me.
[ He supposes it would be too much to ask about the other person that she knows, perhaps because he might feel the same way. But Erik can find him and he's sure if there's anything relevant to their current situation, Peggy would let him know. ]
Must have been awhile since you were home. Brooklyn did pretty well for herself in the fifties, has Jackie Robinson been added to the Dodgers for you, yet? It was big news for a few years.
Indeed he has. [ she bobs her head with a nod. ] That news is still only a few months fresh. It was July when I was last home -- and from all I've learned since, it seems as though we were on the precipice of a great many things.
[ but now she turns a little impish. and why shouldn't she? it's nice to not have to fake it for the moment. ]
And I must confess I've long since adjusted to certain "modern" conveniences -- [ although there is a kind of irony in how she says the word. to her, '47 felt rather modern after all! ] Texting, for one. Microwaves. Grant Green. Liquid lipstick.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
[ she can't help the way gears seem to spin behind her eyes. it isn't that she's an enterprising person -- she doesn't see powers in a person and feel any compulsion to turn them into a tool -- but she can't help imagining the possibilities! the implications! the things he must be able to do, to achieve, to accomplish! she may be a spy but (off-duty) she wears some of her bolder emotions on her sleeve.
and it's easy to see she's impressed. ]
Remarkable still. [ gently (gingerly) she lifts the spoon from her cup, the one that had so recently been stirring, and examines it with a kind of quiet wonder. like having watched a marksman fire off a good round at the range. ] And you mean to say you keep it a secret?
[ shame, that. although she can certainly understand... ]
no subject
I kept it a secret, only known to people like me, up until last year.
They fear us, it's as simple as that.
[ And then he pushes that thought aside, which takes visible effort on his part, and changes his tone. ]
I doubt our captors don't already know. But if they don't, I'd prefer if only we did. We're already at a major disadvantage in that we have no idea who they are. So we should remain a mystery.
no subject
he speaks of fear, and given what pieces she knows of other worlds and other times, she can easily imagine such a prejudice existing. but beyond that he speaks of strategy -- and that's something she can certainly understand. keeping an air of the unknown about their persons (or merely pretending to be anything but interesting) is certainly a tactic she's fond of using. the advertisements make it difficult, however. erik's interest alone is proof enough that hers had been a bit too...fascinating.
peggy hooks her fingers around her teacup once more. ]
People like you. [ she echoes. ] Enhanced individuals?
no subject
[ So yeah, that was fun. He's going to stop saying Shaw's name now, every time he does he bets Peggy can taste the bile from where she's sitting. ]
But people fear what they don't know. And they didn't care to differentiate the ones who were trying to cause war and those of us trying to prevent it from reaching their shores.
[ Anyway. ]
But if you ever get stuck in an elevator... you know who to call.
no subject
[ she says the word like it's heavy. like it means something. and if she's honest, the word probably has all kinds of meanings for all kinds of people. but the extent of the man's abilities and the way he discusses it -- well, how can she not be reminded of billy? billy, and his story about how he came from a world with avengers. just not her world with avengers.
her fingertips tap restlessly on the teacup. nails creating a little clinking sound as she digests the information. ]
...Or a bullet extracted. [ because that's where her mind goes first -- a soft roll of her shoulder as she thinks about the painful procedure she'd endured just to take fragments out of her tissue. ] Or -- just about anything, frankly.
[ she finds him just that impressive. ]
I'm terribly sorry, Mister Lehnsherr, but I have a strange question I feel I must ask you.
no subject
He's about to tell her wish granted, call him anytime for that, but then-- ]
--Sure. What did you want to ask?
[ At this point, he's an open book. At least, as far as anyone else is concerned. Nobody else has gotten all these secrets from out of him, not so much at once anyway. He trusts her implicitly more than the others, perhaps because of her service, her timeline, or the fact that she's willing to talk to him like this. ]
no subject
so she sets aside her fresh tea without so much as taking a sip. ]
Do the Avengers mean anything to you?
WOW I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS HAS RELEVANCE
Maybe something about his powers, or the X-Men, or the Brotherhood, or his methods or diplomacy, his part in the Cuban Missile Crisis-- but the Avengers? ]
Yes, the television show? With Diana Rigg, it hasn't caught on in the States yet but I'm sure it will in a few years.
omg. i love it.
[ his reply brings her up short. her confusion is sharp -- palpable, almost, as she works backwards from his answer to her understanding. it's all in the one word: television.
she's never owned one. but she's heard enough about tv from others that she thinks (thinks) she can find the misunderstanding. ]
N-no. At least -- I don't believe so. I'm talking about a team of heroes. Some enhanced; some not.
no subject
A team of heroes.
No, I only knew one of those. And we were all mutants, and I left it once we had some... disagreements.
Perhaps the Avengers is after both our times.
Hopefully not named after the show.
[ It's a pretty good show though Peggy, you should watch it... ]
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Oh, my world's Avengers are from a decade well after mine. Well after yours, too, by my math. [ she hums. ] But the only other time I'd heard similar talk of mutants was from a young man whose world was just similar enough to my own to make the coincidence a notable one.
[ it's half a kernel, then. ]
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[ He raises an eyebrow and thinks that maybe it was someone that she'd met here. Maybe he'd met them too-- another mutant, perhaps. From another time. It's certainly not the first time that he'd have run into one. ]
I've noticed most people who identify as mutant instead of metahuman tend not to stray too far from my corner of the universe.
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peg knows she needs to tread carefully. only two people know the secret she now hedges around. ]
His name is Billy. But I haven't seen him in some time. He came from a world that seemed almost to be a half-step away from my own.
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[ There's a lot to unpack here, mostly just theories they won't find solid answers for for some time. But what he can do is pick out patterns, try to organize them in ways that make sense. ]
It would explain why there are so many variations on it. I don't think there's anything particularly special about Earth, otherwise.
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[ she isn't steve rogers, lost in the 40s only to be found again in the following century. and she isn't the winter soldier either. she is anachronistic. ]
But I can almost always tell when someone's from home -- once I introduce myself. [ a beat. ] It's rather bewildering to have the details of your life known by people you've never met. Details that haven't happened to you yet. I'm a line in a history book to most of them.
[ it's a quiet confession. and this time, today, she expresses more of her unhappiness in it. it's only fair; he's shown her so much already. and peggy can appreciate a little quid pro quo. ]
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And at the very least fame is better than infamy.
[ Yeah, he's been on the receiving end of "I've met you and you're a huge asswipe." But he understands what she means, after all, he feels disadvantaged that everyone around him seems to know and be avoiding telling him what he did. It's an odd feeling. ]
But that's what I mean. We're from variations. Slight shifts in time from the majority of others. But there has to be an origin, a patient zero.
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Shifts, yes. Some slight and some not so slight. [ a beat. ] Do you believe the difference between mutants and metahumans is one of those diverging paths?
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He is also familiar with the concept of multiple worlds and timeline shifts - he told me he wasn't sure if I was the younger version of the man he knew or from a world adjacent.
[ He's aware that's a lot to take in, so he's just going to keep fussing with the tea in the meantime. It does assuage him that other people seem to understand the idea of multiple versions and timelines, that it doesn't bother them in the slightest. Makes it easier to sort out what here is normal and what isn't. ]
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[ once upon a time she met a young woman who claimed to know her in the modern day -- a one-eyed and gruff leader of a shield that never fell. it was odd to hear; odder, still, to come to terms with. and she can empathize with erik's position in hearing about versions of himself. ]
Although I must say it took being peeled from my own world before I heard anything like it. [ a beat. ] What do you mean, however, by your 'chosen designation"?
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[ For several reasons, one being that one shouldn't be ashamed of being a mutant and it would take years to convince everyone of it - a feat that hasn't quite been accomplished. ]
Had this happened to you before then? What was the world like, if you don't mind me asking? The other one that wasn't yours?
no subject
It's a rather long story. [ or so she'd position it. ] But I was trapped somewhere for well over a year before being brought into this city. A lot of the trappings were similar, however -- we were there against our wills, with people from all manner of different universes.
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[ But he can also tell that she definitely does not want to discuss this any further. ]
It's just that I haven't met anyone else who has had the same experience of being pulled into another world prior to this one, one that isn't their original.
We don't have to talk about it. You did ask for casual conversation and I think we've both offered up more than that. I don't want to make you uncomfortable.
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[ she takes a sip of tea, and finds herself more at ease discussing these circumstances rather than the world she used to inhabit. ]
I've learned that there's an awful lot of risk in learning about the future. An awful lot of pain, too, and -- perhaps it's best if those I meet from home never need to know how much I've learned about them. Which of their secrets I already know.
[ she's asking for his discretion. ]
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[ He supposes it would be too much to ask about the other person that she knows, perhaps because he might feel the same way. But Erik can find him and he's sure if there's anything relevant to their current situation, Peggy would let him know. ]
Must have been awhile since you were home. Brooklyn did pretty well for herself in the fifties, has Jackie Robinson been added to the Dodgers for you, yet? It was big news for a few years.
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[ but now she turns a little impish. and why shouldn't she? it's nice to not have to fake it for the moment. ]
And I must confess I've long since adjusted to certain "modern" conveniences -- [ although there is a kind of irony in how she says the word. to her, '47 felt rather modern after all! ] Texting, for one. Microwaves. Grant Green. Liquid lipstick.
[ pop tarts, but she keeps that to herself. ]
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