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[hypoxic]

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[hypoxic]

It's quite appreciated, Ma'am. And -- of course we don't have to.

[They don't need to weigh themselves down with the sorts of discussions that ultimately lead nowhere. He shouldn't be burdening her with the failures of the future. It's unkind.]

I'm glad you like the biscuits. [He'll try to shift the conversation in a safer direction.] They're my mum's favorite. [Oh wait..] -- Not that that's a way of calling you old -- I just. It's. [He gestures absently, self-conscious about saying something worse.]

[mucked]

Of course not. [ she cuts him loose from that implication. ] I'll cop to likely coming across as rather -- outdated, I imagine. In the eyes of most.

[ she reaches for another biscuit, twirling it idly between her fingertips before it too gets a dunk. just long enough for the water and heat to make the sweet soggy before she (none too gingerly) takes her bite. chews. swallows. ]

And although it stung considerably during my first few weeks in Wonderland, I've tried to make my peace with it.

[hypoxic]

The director would probably argue that things were better during your time anyway. He's quite passionate about the Howling Commandos.

Is there anything you've seen here that's helped, at least?

[mucked]

[ -- she could talk about the howlies. she could talk, too, about what's legitimately helped her adjust to her circumstances. she could gripe about the people who make her feel the most displaced, as though dust still collects on her shoulders and she's only just been brought out of storage.

alternatively, she could offer reserved praise for the rare few who help mitigate it. but unlike last time, peggy isn't penned in to speak too honestly. ]

It's helped to know it doesn't all go to pot. I won't complain about the convenience of an electric kettle. And not every bit of music I've heard from the future has sounded like only noise.

[ it's not a lie, no, but it's nor is it the best answer for his question. fitz asked about what's helped, and she's not certain she can share those details with him. ]

[hypoxic]

[ it might not be the most complete answer, but it seems to satisfy him. It's the sort of answer his mum would provide, but briskly and while in the middle of shoving him out of the kitchen so she'll have a moment of peace from his incessant questions. ]

When I think about the way I hope the future will be, I always think in terms of automation. I'd like to think that the human condition will have advanced. That we'll have gotten rid of some illnesses without replacing them with new ones. That... Maybe everything we're working for might pay off someday. Seems like your expectations are more realistic.

[mucked]

[ peggy doesn't want to be a cynic. quite the opposite, really. but cynicism has taken root in her all the same. maybe the war had something to do with it -- or maybe it's because of the first time she lost steve and the subsequent avalanche of losses. to climb so high only to be knocked down again. what progress was there in the years following the war, when working women became somehow disposable? the soldiers wanted their jobs back. one step forward, two steps back -- but retreat wasn't easy. not now that so many more of them had a taste.

but fitz is looking bright-eyed and hopefully toward a very different kind of progress, she thinks. peggy allows herself a slight smile. and the next sip of tea she takes has turned sweet from the biscuit crumbs swimming in it. ]

Even the smallest of dreams need a bit of ballast. [ and if it sounds as though she just might maybe be offering to be that ballast for him, then it's because she absolutely is. it's a terribly important step in her larger design for this conversation. ] So it only stands to reason than larger ones would need some too.

[hypoxic]

[ he nods, and dunks a biscuit of his own, leaving it in the liquid until it begins to start to dissolve entirely, with just enough time to lift it from the tea and drop it into his mouth. ]

I could build you a more modern tea kettle if you'd like. Customizable temperatures,support for infusion cups and ratios for creams and sugar. The science has been quite extensive in kettle gadgetry.

[mucked]

I fear the bells and whistles would be wasted on me. [ which is near to saying she appreciated the offer, lovely as it is, but it's not as though she takes either cream or sugar in her tea. and she doesn't intend to have enough visitors dropping by to prepare for either eventuality.

she crinkles her nose. ] All I need is water heated quickly. Surely, you must have better projects where your time and cleverness can be spent.

[hypoxic]

It wouldn't take long to work on something like that. No longer than a laserpen.. which. I am frequently asked to do, for some reason.

[ someday, someone will make him watch a Bond film. Today is not that day. ]

[mucked]

[ a laserpen. oh, but that sounds intriguing! but by the beat of his answer, she suspects her curiosity won't be best placed in that quarter. instead, she's left weighing the advantages and disadvantages of refusing his offer a second time.

good god, though, he seems keen... ]

Nothing too wild. [ sharpish. awkward, as though she's not the best at settling for favours. ] As I said: water heated quickly. And don't you dare make it a priority.

[hypoxic]

I wouldn't dream of it. [ he'll have a prototype outside her door before the end of tomorrow. ]

[mucked]

[ at which point she'll be deeply impressed he went through the effort of tracking down her room. ]

You must be working on other projects. [ a beat. ] Aren't you?

[hypoxic]

[ they've only been semi-stalking her since her arrival. It was bound to come up eventually. ]

My project load is in a bit of a rut at the moment. As much as I'd like to install some reasonable security measures to tend to our lab's theft problem, I'm told that would infringe on some arbitrary creed about keeping knowledge accessible or some rubbish like that. [ his eyes roll. Civilians. ]

[mucked]

[ she may have procured this conversation with a particular mission in mind -- but peggy's not always intractable. if she sees a path worth following, she will damn well follow it.

she leans forward. ]

Someone's been stealing from your lab? [ it could be harmless, she supposes. or it could be the very opposite thereof. ] What's been taken?

[hypoxic]

It's been a common thread since my arrival here. The thieves have changed, but it's generally someone seeking arms of some kind. Presently, there's a young assassin who's been visiting in the middle of the night. One of the small sorts that the Russians like to use. But before that, we had a number of intruders asking services without being inclined to ask beforehand.

[ he shrugs one shoulder then. No need to bring up the HYDRA issue at the moment. ]

[mucked]

[ -- one of the small sorts that the russians like to use, he says, and peggy has to wonder whether they're still doing that. she has a coil of guilt lingering over one particular soviet asset left in the wind back home. ]

And there's been genuine blow-back over the possibility of you lot locking the place down? [ this surprises her. perhaps it shouldn't -- but it does. it alarms her, too. ]

[hypoxic]

Jemma's for it, of course. But we've been sharing the lab with a colleague who's concerned with leaving the space open to all. We ran into the same issue with Dr. Foster when she was here. They keep trying to make it into an ethics discussion instead of one about common sense.

[mucked]

Having seen first hand what happened when one of Howard Stark's vaults got hit about a year ago, I must say I agree that security is necessary.

[ if it's made into an ethics discussion, then surely it would make more sense to limit the kind of work done instead of limiting access to it -- but that's an even trickier conversation, and one that won't help her ultimate cause today. ]

[hypoxic]

We've had some similar incidents in our time, when Tony Stark's machines were reprogrammed. It's... tricky. The residents don't like to think that any of us might be working against one another. They're a little naive about the human condition.

[ said the pot about the kettle. ]

[mucked]

Perhaps many of them can afford to be. [ naive. after all, not everyone gets a spy's initiation into doubting the human condition. and even then, peggy tries to see the best in another person. even if she doesn't vocalize it.

even if she doesn't trust it. ]

[hypoxic]

Nobody's born evil. But that doesn't mean that people don't choose to be. They're here and they're dangerous.

[mucked]

And who, specifically, would you label as a danger, Agent Fitz?

[ now, this is curious. there's no doubt in the way she watches him -- intent. and eager, almost, to hear his perspective on any possible villains hiding within the crowd. she's not about to start a witch-hunt, but it never hurts to gather a diversity of perspectives. ]

[hypoxic]

The vampires are caustic. Able to turn off the parts of them that makes them human. They seem to be adequate at self-policing, but they present a united front when challenged. The Hydra presence might be gone now, but there's no way to know if he was able to recruit anyone while he was here. We can be fairly dangerous when events drive us out of our minds. And then there's the trouble with the powered people...

[mucked]

HYDRA presence.

[ excuse you. it seems that no one has seen fit to mention this to her before this very moment. fitz makes a great many points -- from the bizarre (vampires!) to the rational (event interference), and as much as she'd like to broach the topic of powered people...

peggy pushes her mug aside. ]

I didn't know HYDRA had anyone here. Was this before I arrived?

[hypoxic]

... I mentioned the mole to you a few times. He was here for at least a few weeks. He visited us all in turns. But he's either gone deep into hiding since then, or left entirely. We have no way to be sure.

[ Klaus verified. But things have been tense with Klaus lately. He keeps too many secrets for Fitz to be sure about anything. ]