[ Her war had been cruel and cold, she won't soon forget the sleepless nights spend in frozen foxholes with the whistling of mortars overhead, knowing that lighting a fire would mean being zeroed by the enemy. She has endured worse than this, but this certainly toes the line of "worse." The storm is unnatural β unsurprising, in a world full of magic. It never lets up. They're coming up on the beginning of their third day in this godforsaken wasteland and Peggy Carter, hardy though she may be, is damn near running on fumes. (They don't know, of course, that the end may be quite literally in sight sooner rather than later.)
They should get moving, but the caravan of refugees is slowing down, everyone worn down and battered by the elements. Even Peggy finds it difficult to rouse herself this morning (is it morning?), limbs stiff and aching, cheeks and lips chapped and stinging. She's determined to see it through, to not get bogged down, but she hardly even utters a word or cracks a smile until Eggsy comes up alongside her with a hot meal chemically heated in a foil packet. ]
Better than K-rations, [ she murmurs, bundled up in her makeshift shelter and jaw tight against the cold. ] Thank you.
[ They arrive at the city gates worse for wear β some more than others. Peggy is startlingly, although perhaps unsurprisingly, irritable with exhaustion and the way this entire ordeal was handled. Clearly the people here, led by whoever's voice interrupted Darma's broadcast, mean to test them and the Natha couldn't get them any closer to ease the journey. That's all very well and good, Peggy is no stranger to hardship in the field, but she's tight-lipped as they're tended to and shuttled off to their housing and she only relaxes when she finds Steve in the throng.
The tension doesn't melt from her shoulders until they're settled into a room. It's small; smaller, in fact, than the apartment they first moved into in Olympia. Suddenly, she misses their home with a sharp pang, and it's the first time she really appreciates the fact that they've made one here. She misses their bed, their cosy kitchen, their record player. They don't even know if it survived the dragon's rampage. But she's dead on her feet and beggars can't be choosers, so this structure carved out of ice will have to do. ]
Well, [ she exhales, dropping her massive rucksack from her shoulders and onto the floor. Exhaustion pulls at her words but she's already crossing the small room to have a look around, pausing at the foot of one bed. ] I vote pushing these together if we can.
[ So they can at least fall asleep together for the first time in days. ]
After everything that happened since we landed, that is the single-most best plan I've heard all day.
[ Steve, too, puts his own set of arctic tundra belongings down by hers, then pulls his shield off from around his shoulders to add to the pile. He stretches, takes a moment to breathe in the warmer air, and shakes his head.
It's been a tough day for all of them, but seeing Peggy again is like a much-needed balm. He doesn't care so much about their surroundings - he can adapt to pretty much any place, anywhere if need be - but he, too, misses their little home in Olympia. It was theirs, and it was the first time in his whole life that he'd ever had a place to call his own. You don't forget something like that so easily.
He's already moving towards the spare bed, pulling at the blankets to get a better grip on the frame.
[ She lifts the blankets on the bed closest to her so they don't get trapped in the crack between, watching as he drags (or lifts) the other one to join it. ]
Dead on my feet, [ comes her dry remark, ] thank you for asking.
[ To anyone else, she'd put on a hardier front and she has for the three day journey to Nadril. Eggsy Unwin is likely the only one who saw her flagging and irritable near the end of it, but to anyone else, she was steadfast and ready to help at a moment's notice. It's what simply needed to be done.
But here, in the privacy of the room she's to share with Steve? She lets him see the heaviness in her limbs, the way she's leaning against the wall; she lets him hear the weary bite to her voice. Once the beds are together, she tosses the blankets back down and strips the gloves from her hands before fumbling with the zip of her thick coat. ]
I could do with a hot bath, to be honest. But I may just fall asleep before the tub can fill up. [ She shucks her coat and tosses it onto a nearby chair. ] How did you get on?
[ Satisfied with the position of the beds, Steve moves to discard some of his own heavier outerwear, eventually pulling off his boots and setting all winter items aside.
He understands Peggy's weariness all too well, feels it in his own bones grown tired and exhausted from the journey, which has been an arduous feat akin to every other wave. He's glad for the break, anyhow. And he's glad for the quiet. After days of hearing the winds whistle and howl in his ears, it will be too soon to do a repeat. ]
I'll wake you. [ Steve is tired, sure, but he's not necessarily sleepy. He might take a moment to sit and draw something, maybe. Or find a book to read.
As to her question: ] Hm. I'd say 'dead on my feet' is as apt a description as any. Point is, everyone on the ship has made it in one piece - more or less.
[ So now they can catch their own breaths. He approaches Peggy, reaching out to gently touch her arm. ]
Hey. [ His voice is soft, and while he isn't characteristically the 'sappy' kind, he feels like it needs to be said (because he wants to and because he means it): ] I missed you.
[ She heads out for the wreckage of the Natha ship alone. She's been before with company and scouted it out as best she could so this isn't precisely a perilous decision, but she can't always drag someone along and she won't wait for the opportunity to arise when there's work to be done. The technology on the ship is dated compared to Thesa, but it's still advanced in her eyes, so she's using her best judgement to determine what is and isn't useful. Tricky, since a good amount of it was likely left behind by more experienced scavengers for a reason, but not impossible.
Peggy is peering at the innards of a pried-open panel when a nearby clatter of metal draws her attention. She frowns and points her flashlight β not her firearm β in the direction it came from and stands slowly, walking towards it. ]
Hello? [ she calls, voice echoing off the hollow corridor. Outside, the wind whistles. If horror sci-fi films were around in her time, she'd feel a chill going up her knickers. As it stands, the only chill comes from the relentless weather, and Peggy presses on, undaunted. ] Who's there?
[ She understands how difficult it can be to try and step into an old skin. Perhaps it's not quite the same thing, with her spy's life, but Bucky was pulled into covert operations and although the circumstances differ, there's a thread of similarity and commiseration that goes with that. Remembering who you can be around people you deem are safe takes some getting used to, after a lifetime of masks.
She hasn't lived as long as he has, but she can imagine a little. She can never fully relax unless she's around him or Steve. Because he knew her like that, too. ]
I've never forgotten, [ she says with a quiet smile, taking a seat at the bar. She raps her knuckles expertly on the counter to get the bartender's attention and somehow, smoothly, talks her way out of a dizzying concoction of a beverage and gets the closest thing to a whiskey on this side of the galaxy. ] Care to join me? Or were you just my chivalrous escort?
[ She rests her elbow on the bar and her chin in hand, brow quirking. ]
[ Bucky's mind isn't just wrapped up in safety, but also in the general struggle to remember at all. At first, he hadn't even known who Steve had been to him. Now, he still doesn't remember everything. It's okay, though. He remembers the important parts and he trusts Steve to fill in the rest when he can't.
Peggy, too, has been nothing but welcoming and kind and he's got no reason to see her as anything more or less than the smart, capable, good woman he'd always seen her to be. She's a lot like Steve in some ways and maybe a little bit like Bucky, too. Maybe that's why it's so easy to get along with her and feel at ease. It's not just that she'd known him before. Much as he'd grown to really care about them, he doubts he'd feel this comfortable if Dum Dum or Gabe were here.
He rests his elbows on the bar, mirroring her. ]
I wouldn't dream of leaving you without the best company I can provide.
[ It's easy to joke, but it's a nice change to do it because he can and not because he's deflecting. ]
[ His answer seems to satisfy her, judging by how easily he elicits a chuckle from her. ]
I have no doubt, sergeant.
[ Peggy isn't one for small talk and something tells her Bucky isn't, either, although she can't be certain. Even with the years spent together on the front lines (although she was often off doing her own missions), she feels she knows the other Commandos a hair better than she knows this one. Although that may also be because they all bonded in the wake of losing two of their own in such a short amount of time. Grief does strange things.
It isn't until her drink arrives that Peggy follows up on her last statement, voice more politely curious than anything else. ]
Do you mind if I call you that? Old habits, is all. I understand if you'd prefer something else these days.
[ He takes a moment to think about that question. He doesn't feel like much of a sergeant anymore, but some days he barely feels like Bucky Barnes at all. Peggy and Steve make him feel a lot more firm about who he is. It's like they can see it, so it must be true. After being on his own for so long, more questions than answers and only his guilt and nightmares for company, he welcomes the feeling that someone is looking at him and seeing something good. ]
No, it's okay.
[ His metal hand fidgets. He thinks he'd tell anyone else not to, but she's different and she makes him want to be different. ]
Bucky's fine, too. Long as no one's trying to call me James, I think we're good.
[ Peggy has war stories about blizzards. She thinks of the one in Russia, when a blizzard had trapped half their battalion in enemy territory β and Steve had fought through a HYDRA blockade to get them all out. She thinks of Belgium in the winter of '44, frozen foxholes and not enough warm clothing or food to go around and the incessant shellings from the Germans.
Daisy says if that didn't kill me, some snow sure as hell shouldn't and the other woman can't help but smile as she pulls the glove from her teeth, chapped lips catching on the woollen knit of the scarf wound around her neck. ]
No, [ she murmurs after a moment, looking up from her screen. ] It certainly shouldn't. I daresay many of us out here have been through worse, but I wouldn't mind this weather letting up at some point. Getting lost in these conditions is as much a death sentence as not being warm enough. But we'll manage.
[ Peggy goes about fixing her dinner, digging out a plastic utensil from the front pocket of her jacket; old habits from the war die hard, it seems. She offers Daisy the fork and keeps the spoon, although she's no less elegant when she shovels stew from the packet into her mouth, talking in the middle of chewing. ]
May I ask what your training was like? I'm curious to know how much it's changed since my time.
Pretty non-existent, actually. ( which isn't a fair assessment, really, but it's a sufficient one in the middle of a bite of something that she thinks is supposed to taste like a meatball. the bite, for the record, doesn't taste like anything but salt and the vague memory of its aluminum-coated container. ) For me, I mean. I didn't actually go through proper SHIELD training, though.
( the fork is begrudgingly taken. mostly because she wants to eat the breadstick, and literally scooping food up with her fingertips feels a little too depraved. )
I had friends β
( there's an abrupt pause. daisy has to swallow down some tightness in her throat as the word slips through her lips, the memory of jemma and fitz floating in the pods up on thesa station too raw and recent to be easily brushed aside. )
They went through the Academy. I, mostly, went through my SO trying to beat me up and telling me I didn't know how to do anything right.
( which, to be fair, wasn't entirely inaccurate. ward might have been evil, but he'd tried to do right by her. daisy's actual training was the definition of on-the-job apprenticeship. )
[ She's only just woken up from stasis, so Peggy reads that pause easily, even if it wasn't her job to do so. It's been a year for her and it's still a difficult thing to swallow, knowing that the people you care about are asleep rather than here on the surface with you. She doesn't press, just listens patiently, mixing the contents of her stew before it cools down too much to be enjoyable. (As enjoyable as it can be, anyway.) ]
No better teacher than experience. [ At least in her day. SOE training was a trial by fire in a few short weeks before being dropped into enemy territory. They couldn't afford to wait any longer. ] What made your path so different?
I wasn't exactly recruited β ( the words are stoppered by the swallowing of a particularly dry bit of un-mixed flour hidden by a pool of sauce; she feels almost sheepish coughing out in present company, but eventually powers through. ) β so much as commandeered, I guess.
( in retrospect, though, she could understand now why they'd done what they had. )
It's probably not surprising to you, but SHIELD wasn't exactly gung-ho about me snooping through their classified files. Interrogation didn't work out so great, so they put me to work instead.
[ She thinks of the United States recruiting Nazi scientists after the war and her smile turns a little more wry. ]
Better to have you on the inside than out, I suppose. [ If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, or something like it. ] Were you looking for anything in particular, or just window shopping?
I was looking for myself, as ridiculous as that sounds.
( for anyone else who might think to ask that question, daisy would offer nothing but non-answers and evasive half-truths. but it wasn't anyone else, was it? it was peggy carter β if there was anyone in the world daisy johnson could trust with her most intimate secrets, it was a fellow member of shield. a true member, one vetted and practically guaranteed by history to be true blue down to her core.
there was no risk here of another grant ward situation, in any case. )
I'm guessing you're familiar with the concept of an 0-8-4.
[ Peggy laughs, the sound no less genuine for its brevity or softness. She thinks of Dr Samberley, one of the lab techs from SSR Los Angeles, and how particular he could be. She hasn't had to borrow anything off him yet, but she knows it's only a matter of time. The techs in New York were no better, convinced that the field agents were too gung-ho about their missions and unappreciative of their hard work. But Peggy is friends with Howard Stark, so she knows the value of a good gadget.
Glowing bracelets seem simple enough, but she's sure that barely grazes the surfaces of their capabilities. ]
[ Peggy steps back to let him try his luck while she scans the area around them. It's close enough to the city to be convenient, which gives it a few possible uses, and none of them draw up the "monster" theory. (That may be foolish or naive, but the fact remains.) ]
My money's on an evacuation tunnel, or perhaps a transportation hub, given the proximity to the city.
[ She turns back around to give the gate a good hard kick with the heel of her boot and it rattles again, louder. ]
But we won't know until we go in. [ She looks about ready to break down the gate with her shoulder, but she wonders if Jim has a more elegant way of diving into the breach, so to speak. ] Shall we?
[ She looks about ready to break her shoulder with the gate, t b h. Jim's forte is not elegance, but he can work out simple machines, so once Peggy's clear, he pulls out his phaser. Fusses with the setting, steps back to mitigate the potential for a close-up blast prompting an explosion instead of a charge, and warms the two major hinges one at a time in quick intervals. He reholsters the weapon while the metal's still glowing red, slowly fading into orange, warping as it melts. ]
Alrighty. [ One good yank is all it takes to get half the thing off, the padlock serving as the new hinge. ]
[ She steps back and watches, lips quirking a little when the job is done. ]
Splendid.
[ Peggy snaps on her own flashlight and unholsters her pistol, given that Jim has his blaster out at the ready, and slips past him to take point β a reflex at this point, regardless of who she's working with. The stone steps are icy and precarious for how slippery they are, but her boots keep her steady, and she eases down the stairs without incident. ]
Cheerful place, isn't it? [ It's lightly said, her voice echoing off the walls. It's even colder in the underground, her breath mists in the air, and the silence presses on all sides. The beams from their flashlights cut through the inky darkness, but she can't discern anything more telling until her eyes adjust. ] I don't suppose anyone's home.
They must do some serious training for the Olympian Guard, [ Jim says, watching the way she arms herself and slips into position as easy as breathing. That remark earlier about honesty wasn't aimed at her, but THIS ONE SURE IS.
The wry edge to his voice is a little teasing. Poking her with a stick, but gently. He follows, leaving the grate open. If someone follows them in, they can all hang out. ]
Nah, nobody's living down here. [ There's a bit of an echo, but it's designed well enough not to be too pronounced - suggesting that at one point or another, it was meant for active use. Too much noise in a structure prone to echo can be painfully deafening; it's more than just an abandoned mining effort. ] No sign of any traffic to and from the city, and the Nadril people are way too chatty to not have mentioned hermits or giant yetis.
[ She smiles briefly at his first remark, not looking at him as they move slowly through the space. Her finger lays alongside the trigger, clearly at ease with handling a weapon β she remembers now that it was Steve Trevor, not Jim Kirk, who saw her shoot down creatures in the sky in Olympia. ]
Only as much as the individual is interested in, [ comes her soft reply, eyes scanning the tunnel. ] Some people don't β [ she's about to say something else, but her flashlight hits on the edge of a platform and she stops short. ] Careful.
[ Peggy frowns, peering down. ]
Yetis are quite real, [ she murmurs teasingly. An old joke for an old friend. Junior was shot and killed not long after that cheerful exchange over a fire. ] I doubt they'd use a train to get anywhere, though. Which begs the question, [ her flashlight beam travels along the tracks, watching them disappear into darkness, ] who would?
Colonization is quite real, [ Jim deadpans. ] Olympia. We know that much - at least according to the rumor mill.
[ He movs to the edge of the platform and then hops down into the track well, bending to get a look at the make of it. ]
Pity I didn't stick my head in the tracks for a closer look when I went and sunburned my entire dumb self. [ .. The beach, he's probably talking about that lull in terrorism when everyone was effectively on vacation, Flona Cove opening to Wyver residents. He stands back up, looks around. ] It's all finished, though, at least this section.
[ She stays on the platform, letting her flashlight shine on where he's standing. Clearly the tracks aren't live; nothing in this tunnel is, far as she can tell. ]
This place looks one flick of the switch away from functional. [ The construction is complete. It looks ready to receive passengers, which makes her wonder what made Olympia abandon the project right at the very end. ] Rasyc wasn't the only person from the south to know about this place, then. Another matter of inter-city conflict left unresolved?
Could be, [ he says. ] Depends on how old the project is. How long did Magda say he's been here for? Two hundred years? I'd be real surprised if this is that old.
[ The cold can preserve, but this is a structure, not a corpse. And the weather erosion is minimal, all things considered. ]
At the same time, it's not from the last decade, or I'm sure we'd have heard about it, even just from locals chatting about construction jobs drying up. [ He looks up at her. ] Do you think, given the relations between Olympia and Wyver, that a conflict would be let go quietly?
[ Peggy nods, glancing around as she listens. There must be a control room somewhere. ]
Maybe Nadril doesn't mind its self-imposed isolation. I wouldn't be surprised if they came to some agreement about being left alone up here. Or maybe the weather was enough of a deterrent. [ Her lips quirk. ] Russia was too cold for Hitler, after all. Even world domination has its limits.
[ She exhales slowly, mulling over what he's said. ]
This place is probably a generation or two old, then. I wonder what would happen if we asked the older members of Olympian society about it.
Probably a bit of both. I mean, given the ability to stay out of the Natha's reach, I figure it'd be easy to prevent Olympia from moving in, but it seems like if there'd been that kind of direct animosity we'd have heard about it by now.
Besides. [ Jim moves to the opposite side of the track, pulling himself up onto the slim access walkway. ] Natives are here, and welcomed, apparently. Living side by side, starting families.
[ He walks a little, looking for a door. ]
Maybe it shouldn't be surprising that Olympia just ... stopped caring. Couldn't get there, couldn't best it, decided to pretend it didn't exist.
[ Olympia is a proud city. And nowhere is it said that history should be truthful; it may be written by the victors, but it can also be revised as anyone sees fit. She wouldn't be surprised if Olympia decided to do the same about its foray into the north.
She walks parallel to him on the opposite platform, searching for a door or a panel. She has nothing on her to jumpstart whatever power source exists here, but she's curious all the same. ]
Where do you suppose this tunnel leads? I've never come across its entrance on my patrols, but then again, I wasn't really looking for it.
You know Olympia better than I do, [ he points out. If Peggy doesn't have a ballpark guess off the top of her head, Jim sure doesn't. Though - ] If we've got a map to take a look at, we could probably estimate, between terrain and existing stations.
[ There's no such convenient travel options in Wyver, though all that's done is make sure Jim gets in his cardio. ]
I mean, that's definitely what we needed, this week. Bullet train out here, screw that snowstorm.
[ LIKE, SERIOUSLY. Anyway, Jim speeds up when he spots an alcove with a doorway. ] Nice. [ Locked, of course, so he crouches down to investigate the lock. ]
[ He mentions a map and she pauses β she's just short of smacking her forehead with the revelation, but the sharp exhale she makes replaces it. ]
Captain, leave that door for a moment.
[ Will she ever call him Jim? Time will tell. She pops the small flashlight into her mouth as she pats down her coat and then rucksack for the little book Cree had gifted her for a job well done on the Institute some weeks ago. That located, she crosses the tracks to join him on the other side. ]
Here. [ Peggy comes up next to him, tucking her flashlight away and letting his illuminate the small leather-bound book between them. ] It's a map. We'll only have a few seconds, twenty at most, to study it, so I'd say two sets of eyes are better than one.
[ If he has any questions about it, they can wait until after. She flips open the book and immediately, ink spiders across the pages to form a map: it reveals no exit to this tunnel other than the entrance they came through, but it also shows the extent of the subway system β a straight shot through the Nysan Isles, from Nadril to Olympia and Wyver and every city in between. ]
[ Jim does as requested, standing back up straight again as Peggy hops over to him, bright blue eyes observing curiously. There's a split second where he considers getting his phone out to snap a picture, but between layers and gloves, he knows it'd waste precious seconds with his attention elsewhere and risk fumbling the whole thing away.
So he just looks, uncanny sharp memory taking in everything. ]
Location adaptive schematic detection? [ is murmured mostly to himself. In his head it's woah, cool map. Sometimes the dumb shit he says and the adept way he understands things get switched around; he'll be sure to sound like a moron about something later. ]
Huh. Might be older after all, to go down that far. Recent tensions would definitely have something to say about a construction project spanning all the way down. But if it's been carved out with borrowed Natha tech, that'd make sense.
[ It's the first time she's used this map so she's just as pleasantly surprised as Jim is. Peggy didn't anticipate it giving her such a generous outline of the island chain for starters; at most, she thought it would tell them if there was a monster behind the locked door or lurking in the tunnel β or that the tunnel suffered a cave-in some yards in which rendered it useless.
No such luck. Good luck, in fact, is what they're dealt. She lets out a low, impressed whistle at the scope of the subway network. ]
If the locals in the south knew these tunnels connected, invading one another would have been as easy as pie β especially with recent tensions. Older sounds right. [ Her eyes sting a little with staring at the map; Cree had warned her of that, too, even as the lines start to fade. She blinks and takes in the last of it before it disappears completely. ] This one seems to go on for miles. If anyone is hellbent on heading home through here, I don't like their chances.
[ Jim frowns at the odd sensation, but it dissipates. Less uncomfortable than icy wind directly into his eyeballs, so there's that, at least. ]
Yeah, they'd have to be outfitted for it. It's a couple days between Wyver and Olympia already the old fashioned way. [ A trek he knows very well, as Peggy might remember; their first meeting was him wriggling his way into Olympia when it was on high alert and decidedly unfriendly to anyone coming in from the south. ] And making it a military journey may actually be pretty stupid - all anybody up ahead would have to do is cave the thing in on 'em once they got going.
[ Or any number of things with all your enemies funneled into one cramped space. No, it doesn't surprise him to see no one's used this to try and get troops anywhere. ]
There's still got to be maintenance doors or a - you know, ticketing booth or something, maybe they left makers' marks, at least.
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eggsy unwin | en route to nadril
They should get moving, but the caravan of refugees is slowing down, everyone worn down and battered by the elements. Even Peggy finds it difficult to rouse herself this morning (is it morning?), limbs stiff and aching, cheeks and lips chapped and stinging. She's determined to see it through, to not get bogged down, but she hardly even utters a word or cracks a smile until Eggsy comes up alongside her with a hot meal chemically heated in a foil packet. ]
Better than K-rations, [ she murmurs, bundled up in her makeshift shelter and jaw tight against the cold. ] Thank you.
steve rogers | nadril
The tension doesn't melt from her shoulders until they're settled into a room. It's small; smaller, in fact, than the apartment they first moved into in Olympia. Suddenly, she misses their home with a sharp pang, and it's the first time she really appreciates the fact that they've made one here. She misses their bed, their cosy kitchen, their record player. They don't even know if it survived the dragon's rampage. But she's dead on her feet and beggars can't be choosers, so this structure carved out of ice will have to do. ]
Well, [ she exhales, dropping her massive rucksack from her shoulders and onto the floor. Exhaustion pulls at her words but she's already crossing the small room to have a look around, pausing at the foot of one bed. ] I vote pushing these together if we can.
[ So they can at least fall asleep together for the first time in days. ]
no subject
[ Steve, too, puts his own set of arctic tundra belongings down by hers, then pulls his shield off from around his shoulders to add to the pile. He stretches, takes a moment to breathe in the warmer air, and shakes his head.
It's been a tough day for all of them, but seeing Peggy again is like a much-needed balm. He doesn't care so much about their surroundings - he can adapt to pretty much any place, anywhere if need be - but he, too, misses their little home in Olympia. It was theirs, and it was the first time in his whole life that he'd ever had a place to call his own. You don't forget something like that so easily.
He's already moving towards the spare bed, pulling at the blankets to get a better grip on the frame.
Conversationally: ]
I never did get to ask how you were.
no subject
Dead on my feet, [ comes her dry remark, ] thank you for asking.
[ To anyone else, she'd put on a hardier front and she has for the three day journey to Nadril. Eggsy Unwin is likely the only one who saw her flagging and irritable near the end of it, but to anyone else, she was steadfast and ready to help at a moment's notice. It's what simply needed to be done.
But here, in the privacy of the room she's to share with Steve? She lets him see the heaviness in her limbs, the way she's leaning against the wall; she lets him hear the weary bite to her voice. Once the beds are together, she tosses the blankets back down and strips the gloves from her hands before fumbling with the zip of her thick coat. ]
I could do with a hot bath, to be honest. But I may just fall asleep before the tub can fill up. [ She shucks her coat and tosses it onto a nearby chair. ] How did you get on?
no subject
He understands Peggy's weariness all too well, feels it in his own bones grown tired and exhausted from the journey, which has been an arduous feat akin to every other wave. He's glad for the break, anyhow. And he's glad for the quiet. After days of hearing the winds whistle and howl in his ears, it will be too soon to do a repeat. ]
I'll wake you. [ Steve is tired, sure, but he's not necessarily sleepy. He might take a moment to sit and draw something, maybe. Or find a book to read.
As to her question: ] Hm. I'd say 'dead on my feet' is as apt a description as any. Point is, everyone on the ship has made it in one piece - more or less.
[ So now they can catch their own breaths. He approaches Peggy, reaching out to gently touch her arm. ]
Hey. [ His voice is soft, and while he isn't characteristically the 'sappy' kind, he feels like it needs to be said (because he wants to and because he means it): ] I missed you.
peter parker | dumpster diving
Peggy is peering at the innards of a pried-open panel when a nearby clatter of metal draws her attention. She frowns and points her flashlight β not her firearm β in the direction it came from and stands slowly, walking towards it. ]
Hello? [ she calls, voice echoing off the hollow corridor. Outside, the wind whistles. If horror sci-fi films were around in her time, she'd feel a chill going up her knickers. As it stands, the only chill comes from the relentless weather, and Peggy presses on, undaunted. ] Who's there?
bucky barnes | cantina
[ She understands how difficult it can be to try and step into an old skin. Perhaps it's not quite the same thing, with her spy's life, but Bucky was pulled into covert operations and although the circumstances differ, there's a thread of similarity and commiseration that goes with that. Remembering who you can be around people you deem are safe takes some getting used to, after a lifetime of masks.
She hasn't lived as long as he has, but she can imagine a little. She can never fully relax unless she's around him or Steve. Because he knew her like that, too. ]
I've never forgotten, [ she says with a quiet smile, taking a seat at the bar. She raps her knuckles expertly on the counter to get the bartender's attention and somehow, smoothly, talks her way out of a dizzying concoction of a beverage and gets the closest thing to a whiskey on this side of the galaxy. ] Care to join me? Or were you just my chivalrous escort?
[ She rests her elbow on the bar and her chin in hand, brow quirking. ]
Bit rude to leave a lady to drink alone.
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Peggy, too, has been nothing but welcoming and kind and he's got no reason to see her as anything more or less than the smart, capable, good woman he'd always seen her to be. She's a lot like Steve in some ways and maybe a little bit like Bucky, too. Maybe that's why it's so easy to get along with her and feel at ease. It's not just that she'd known him before. Much as he'd grown to really care about them, he doubts he'd feel this comfortable if Dum Dum or Gabe were here.
He rests his elbows on the bar, mirroring her. ]
I wouldn't dream of leaving you without the best company I can provide.
[ It's easy to joke, but it's a nice change to do it because he can and not because he's deflecting. ]
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I have no doubt, sergeant.
[ Peggy isn't one for small talk and something tells her Bucky isn't, either, although she can't be certain. Even with the years spent together on the front lines (although she was often off doing her own missions), she feels she knows the other Commandos a hair better than she knows this one. Although that may also be because they all bonded in the wake of losing two of their own in such a short amount of time. Grief does strange things.
It isn't until her drink arrives that Peggy follows up on her last statement, voice more politely curious than anything else. ]
Do you mind if I call you that? Old habits, is all. I understand if you'd prefer something else these days.
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No, it's okay.
[ His metal hand fidgets. He thinks he'd tell anyone else not to, but she's different and she makes him want to be different. ]
Bucky's fine, too. Long as no one's trying to call me James, I think we're good.
daisy johnson | blizzard
[ Peggy has war stories about blizzards. She thinks of the one in Russia, when a blizzard had trapped half their battalion in enemy territory β and Steve had fought through a HYDRA blockade to get them all out. She thinks of Belgium in the winter of '44, frozen foxholes and not enough warm clothing or food to go around and the incessant shellings from the Germans.
Daisy says if that didn't kill me, some snow sure as hell shouldn't and the other woman can't help but smile as she pulls the glove from her teeth, chapped lips catching on the woollen knit of the scarf wound around her neck. ]
No, [ she murmurs after a moment, looking up from her screen. ] It certainly shouldn't. I daresay many of us out here have been through worse, but I wouldn't mind this weather letting up at some point. Getting lost in these conditions is as much a death sentence as not being warm enough. But we'll manage.
[ Peggy goes about fixing her dinner, digging out a plastic utensil from the front pocket of her jacket; old habits from the war die hard, it seems. She offers Daisy the fork and keeps the spoon, although she's no less elegant when she shovels stew from the packet into her mouth, talking in the middle of chewing. ]
May I ask what your training was like? I'm curious to know how much it's changed since my time.
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( the fork is begrudgingly taken. mostly because she wants to eat the breadstick, and literally scooping food up with her fingertips feels a little too depraved. )
I had friends β
( there's an abrupt pause. daisy has to swallow down some tightness in her throat as the word slips through her lips, the memory of jemma and fitz floating in the pods up on thesa station too raw and recent to be easily brushed aside. )
They went through the Academy. I, mostly, went through my SO trying to beat me up and telling me I didn't know how to do anything right.
( which, to be fair, wasn't entirely inaccurate. ward might have been evil, but he'd tried to do right by her. daisy's actual training was the definition of on-the-job apprenticeship. )
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No better teacher than experience. [ At least in her day. SOE training was a trial by fire in a few short weeks before being dropped into enemy territory. They couldn't afford to wait any longer. ] What made your path so different?
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( in retrospect, though, she could understand now why they'd done what they had. )
It's probably not surprising to you, but SHIELD wasn't exactly gung-ho about me snooping through their classified files. Interrogation didn't work out so great, so they put me to work instead.
( and now she's in space. whoda thunk it. )
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Better to have you on the inside than out, I suppose. [ If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, or something like it. ] Were you looking for anything in particular, or just window shopping?
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( for anyone else who might think to ask that question, daisy would offer nothing but non-answers and evasive half-truths. but it wasn't anyone else, was it? it was peggy carter β if there was anyone in the world daisy johnson could trust with her most intimate secrets, it was a fellow member of shield. a true member, one vetted and practically guaranteed by history to be true blue down to her core.
there was no risk here of another grant ward situation, in any case. )
I'm guessing you're familiar with the concept of an 0-8-4.
natasha romanoff | spaceship earth
[ Peggy laughs, the sound no less genuine for its brevity or softness. She thinks of Dr Samberley, one of the lab techs from SSR Los Angeles, and how particular he could be. She hasn't had to borrow anything off him yet, but she knows it's only a matter of time. The techs in New York were no better, convinced that the field agents were too gung-ho about their missions and unappreciative of their hard work. But Peggy is friends with Howard Stark, so she knows the value of a good gadget.
Glowing bracelets seem simple enough, but she's sure that barely grazes the surfaces of their capabilities. ]
Speaking from experience, Agent Romanoff?
jim kirk | secret tunnel adventure
[ Peggy steps back to let him try his luck while she scans the area around them. It's close enough to the city to be convenient, which gives it a few possible uses, and none of them draw up the "monster" theory. (That may be foolish or naive, but the fact remains.) ]
My money's on an evacuation tunnel, or perhaps a transportation hub, given the proximity to the city.
[ She turns back around to give the gate a good hard kick with the heel of her boot and it rattles again, louder. ]
But we won't know until we go in. [ She looks about ready to break down the gate with her shoulder, but she wonders if Jim has a more elegant way of diving into the breach, so to speak. ] Shall we?
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[ She looks about ready to break her shoulder with the gate, t b h. Jim's forte is not elegance, but he can work out simple machines, so once Peggy's clear, he pulls out his phaser. Fusses with the setting, steps back to mitigate the potential for a close-up blast prompting an explosion instead of a charge, and warms the two major hinges one at a time in quick intervals. He reholsters the weapon while the metal's still glowing red, slowly fading into orange, warping as it melts. ]
Alrighty. [ One good yank is all it takes to get half the thing off, the padlock serving as the new hinge. ]
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Splendid.
[ Peggy snaps on her own flashlight and unholsters her pistol, given that Jim has his blaster out at the ready, and slips past him to take point β a reflex at this point, regardless of who she's working with. The stone steps are icy and precarious for how slippery they are, but her boots keep her steady, and she eases down the stairs without incident. ]
Cheerful place, isn't it? [ It's lightly said, her voice echoing off the walls. It's even colder in the underground, her breath mists in the air, and the silence presses on all sides. The beams from their flashlights cut through the inky darkness, but she can't discern anything more telling until her eyes adjust. ] I don't suppose anyone's home.
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The wry edge to his voice is a little teasing. Poking her with a stick, but gently. He follows, leaving the grate open. If someone follows them in, they can all hang out. ]
Nah, nobody's living down here. [ There's a bit of an echo, but it's designed well enough not to be too pronounced - suggesting that at one point or another, it was meant for active use. Too much noise in a structure prone to echo can be painfully deafening; it's more than just an abandoned mining effort. ] No sign of any traffic to and from the city, and the Nadril people are way too chatty to not have mentioned hermits or giant yetis.
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Only as much as the individual is interested in, [ comes her soft reply, eyes scanning the tunnel. ] Some people don't β [ she's about to say something else, but her flashlight hits on the edge of a platform and she stops short. ] Careful.
[ Peggy frowns, peering down. ]
Yetis are quite real, [ she murmurs teasingly. An old joke for an old friend. Junior was shot and killed not long after that cheerful exchange over a fire. ] I doubt they'd use a train to get anywhere, though. Which begs the question, [ her flashlight beam travels along the tracks, watching them disappear into darkness, ] who would?
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[ He movs to the edge of the platform and then hops down into the track well, bending to get a look at the make of it. ]
Pity I didn't stick my head in the tracks for a closer look when I went and sunburned my entire dumb self. [ .. The beach, he's probably talking about that lull in terrorism when everyone was effectively on vacation, Flona Cove opening to Wyver residents. He stands back up, looks around. ] It's all finished, though, at least this section.
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This place looks one flick of the switch away from functional. [ The construction is complete. It looks ready to receive passengers, which makes her wonder what made Olympia abandon the project right at the very end. ] Rasyc wasn't the only person from the south to know about this place, then. Another matter of inter-city conflict left unresolved?
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[ The cold can preserve, but this is a structure, not a corpse. And the weather erosion is minimal, all things considered. ]
At the same time, it's not from the last decade, or I'm sure we'd have heard about it, even just from locals chatting about construction jobs drying up. [ He looks up at her. ] Do you think, given the relations between Olympia and Wyver, that a conflict would be let go quietly?
[ Maybe it was just Too Fuckin Cold. ]
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Maybe Nadril doesn't mind its self-imposed isolation. I wouldn't be surprised if they came to some agreement about being left alone up here. Or maybe the weather was enough of a deterrent. [ Her lips quirk. ] Russia was too cold for Hitler, after all. Even world domination has its limits.
[ She exhales slowly, mulling over what he's said. ]
This place is probably a generation or two old, then. I wonder what would happen if we asked the older members of Olympian society about it.
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Besides. [ Jim moves to the opposite side of the track, pulling himself up onto the slim access walkway. ] Natives are here, and welcomed, apparently. Living side by side, starting families.
[ He walks a little, looking for a door. ]
Maybe it shouldn't be surprising that Olympia just ... stopped caring. Couldn't get there, couldn't best it, decided to pretend it didn't exist.
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[ Olympia is a proud city. And nowhere is it said that history should be truthful; it may be written by the victors, but it can also be revised as anyone sees fit. She wouldn't be surprised if Olympia decided to do the same about its foray into the north.
She walks parallel to him on the opposite platform, searching for a door or a panel. She has nothing on her to jumpstart whatever power source exists here, but she's curious all the same. ]
Where do you suppose this tunnel leads? I've never come across its entrance on my patrols, but then again, I wasn't really looking for it.
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[ There's no such convenient travel options in Wyver, though all that's done is make sure Jim gets in his cardio. ]
I mean, that's definitely what we needed, this week. Bullet train out here, screw that snowstorm.
[ LIKE, SERIOUSLY. Anyway, Jim speeds up when he spots an alcove with a doorway. ] Nice. [ Locked, of course, so he crouches down to investigate the lock. ]
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Captain, leave that door for a moment.
[ Will she ever call him Jim? Time will tell. She pops the small flashlight into her mouth as she pats down her coat and then rucksack for the little book Cree had gifted her for a job well done on the Institute some weeks ago. That located, she crosses the tracks to join him on the other side. ]
Here. [ Peggy comes up next to him, tucking her flashlight away and letting his illuminate the small leather-bound book between them. ] It's a map. We'll only have a few seconds, twenty at most, to study it, so I'd say two sets of eyes are better than one.
[ If he has any questions about it, they can wait until after. She flips open the book and immediately, ink spiders across the pages to form a map: it reveals no exit to this tunnel other than the entrance they came through, but it also shows the extent of the subway system β a straight shot through the Nysan Isles, from Nadril to Olympia and Wyver and every city in between. ]
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So he just looks, uncanny sharp memory taking in everything. ]
Location adaptive schematic detection? [ is murmured mostly to himself. In his head it's woah, cool map. Sometimes the dumb shit he says and the adept way he understands things get switched around; he'll be sure to sound like a moron about something later. ]
Huh. Might be older after all, to go down that far. Recent tensions would definitely have something to say about a construction project spanning all the way down. But if it's been carved out with borrowed Natha tech, that'd make sense.
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No such luck. Good luck, in fact, is what they're dealt. She lets out a low, impressed whistle at the scope of the subway network. ]
If the locals in the south knew these tunnels connected, invading one another would have been as easy as pie β especially with recent tensions. Older sounds right. [ Her eyes sting a little with staring at the map; Cree had warned her of that, too, even as the lines start to fade. She blinks and takes in the last of it before it disappears completely. ] This one seems to go on for miles. If anyone is hellbent on heading home through here, I don't like their chances.
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Yeah, they'd have to be outfitted for it. It's a couple days between Wyver and Olympia already the old fashioned way. [ A trek he knows very well, as Peggy might remember; their first meeting was him wriggling his way into Olympia when it was on high alert and decidedly unfriendly to anyone coming in from the south. ] And making it a military journey may actually be pretty stupid - all anybody up ahead would have to do is cave the thing in on 'em once they got going.
[ Or any number of things with all your enemies funneled into one cramped space. No, it doesn't surprise him to see no one's used this to try and get troops anywhere. ]
There's still got to be maintenance doors or a - you know, ticketing booth or something, maybe they left makers' marks, at least.