[ She woke up with a phantom bullethole in her shoulder and feeling like half a ceiling caved in on her. No grogginess here. God, she wishes. (But now sleep feels like a dangerous gamble, too.) ]
If you could even call them that. That word sounds far too innocuous for what we endured. Are you all right?
'nightmares' seems like it would give them too much credit.
[ 'them' being the experiences shared while asleep... or 'them' being the still anonymous benefactors to their shared cerulean glow cubes? coin's still in the air, but daisy thinks it's stupid to ignore the fact that she only ran into other displaced in her dreams. ]
my leg's a bit pinched and i feel like i ran a marathon in my sleep, but no trips to the new tokyo urgent care in my future today. i'm assuming you've seen the news?
It was the first thing I checked once I got my head on straight. That, and the passenger manifest. Everyone present and accounted for — and when I say everyone, I meant quite literally every one of our number.
[ Headache. It's a headache and a half. ]
The city was never attacked. Neither was New Johannesburg. That was one of the last news alerts I received on my implant before I passed out.
[ on the network. which means that they're not hallucinating a memory of being spurred to action by news of yet another massive monster attack taking over the shores of a foreign city. the words are still there, the discussions still posted.
wildly, daisy wonders: is this some kind of timeline hell? but she's not the kind of scientist to figure this out. this is more fitz' expertise, what with multiple dimensions and parallel universes, and she's not even sure how to bring it up.
she shoots a text to fitz while she's thinking about it, and charges forward. ]
those things really happened, but now they haven't. only thing i can connect between the two is the fact that we all passed out at once. either we all slid universes while unconscious or the rumor mill had it right all along.
did anything change for you while you were asleep? apparently i inherited some real estate.
[ Yes, she did notice that about the network. The news doesn't match what they know, what they remember, what they've done up until this point. Peggy knows she's lucky to have woken up precisely where she fell asleep, Daisy too. They were meant to be on this train all along. But everyone else... bloody hell.
This is overwhelming. But she sorts through it a bit at a time and keeps her wits about her. Needs must. The matter of universes will have to be for later and for someone else (they're thinking of the same man). ]
We can theorise until we're blue in the face; but it will only get us so far until we're back in New Amsterdam to compare notes for ourselves. As for the immediately obvious changes, apart from our little relief group doubling in size? It appears I was promoted at work — and it isn't recent.
[ All these emails addressed to her that read more like inquires for a woman in charge rather than the one taking down the minutes of a meeting. A bit of digging and there it was: Head of the Committee for Customs and Border Protection Policy. ]
I was an overqualified secretary last I checked. Now I'm in charge of policy reform at City Hall.
[ an understatement. a confusing change that's likely got more questions than answers behind it, but daisy can't deny that putting someone as smart as peggy carter in a position of government influence is a good thing. a very good, very convenient thing to happen while they're being shifted across megacity borders, no less. ]
probably not the way you want to find out your au self is higher up the food chain, but it's better than finding out you're one of the bad guys.
[ thanks, framework. ]
i've got a lease i don't remember signing in a building i definitely can't afford. it's not much to go off, but i'll see what i can find out. maybe the patch job's not perfect, and we can find what's underneath.
Yes, Head of the Committee for Customs and Border Protection Policy sounds much too mundane to be threatening.
[ But maybe she wants to be one of the bad guys, in a sense. This promotion, while surprising, is a good thing — it's one step closer to making the leap from City Hall to the UN. She just has to play her cards right and then she'll be able to see what the UN is gunning for and why. ]
The patch job is certainly imperfect. According to my records, my promotion predates my arrival in New Amsterdam. I started work in September but I've been with City Hall since at least June, if not earlier — I don't need to tell you that's an impossibility.
Your address has changed? Just for yourself or does that include your roommates, too?
[ being a bad guy a la morningstar is one thing. waking up to find out you're hydra in an alternate life's another altogether — and not one daisy wants for peggy. or anybody else, for that matter. ]
june's the first group. you think that's connected?
[ she was the second. a handful of people, no more than three, of which she's pretty sure she's the only one remaining. the others have disappeared. ]
just me, as far as i know. and my new roommate — have you met jyn erso?
Possibly. I found the email that notified me of my promotion and it refers to my "heroic efforts" during the monster attack on the city, along with my more recent push to assist New Tokyo. The latter is true enough, I did put forward the disaster response proposal. But the former?
[ She helped take down a monster in the dreams, but she wasn't even the one who dealt the killing blow. She mostly evacuated civilians to safety or pulled them out of the rubble. ]
I met Ms Erso in the safehouse following her arrival, yes. She'd mentioned meeting you.
Charitable of them, if that's the case. I can't imagine my housing situation has changed any, considering all I've got to my name is a suitcase currently sitting in your former apartment.
[ Daisy knows Peggy's been living out of a motel since the murder fiasco went down. Better to be out of the safehouse than caught in the thick of its occupants' politics. But she'd given up the room when she left for New Tokyo (no point in paying for it while away, not with her salary at the time) and parked her meagre belongings at Casa SHIELD. ]
But you've got me curious now. [ So she's going to go look. And about 30 seconds later: ] Oh.
[ well, if peggy's curious, daisy is doubly so. the woman is almost never at a loss for words, so the one syllable drop at the end there is especially telling. ]
you got a promotion and the digs to go with it, didn't you?
[ She can't imagine what could have caused this. Her new promotion, yes, but why sort a new place for herself then leave for a week or two for a trip abroad? ]
The only thing that comes to mind is that I paid a quick visit to the motel I'd been staying at, but it wasn't what I remembered so I left. I barely set foot in the lobby.
[ She spoke to a landlord to cover up her intruding on what was an apartment building. When she returns to New Amsterdam, she'll realise her new place used to be a hotel and was converted for residential living. But right now, she doesn't have those details. ]
It has been exceedingly difficult to make any sense of it. Unsurprising, since that's the nature of dreams to begin with, but these were different — clearer and more realistic than anything I'd ever drummed up in my sleep. I've never experienced anything like it.
[ It feels like she lived half of another life there. Not a different one, but a new track with familiar faces, different scenarios in this world. It'll take a day to arrange the jumble. ]
the only time i've felt anything like it, i wasn't exactly dreaming. take your time. we can regroup in new tokyo after everything calms down, see if anybody has anything to add.
resident alternate universe expert says it's more patch-job than new life if there's been a shop job, we should be able to find the edges. we'll figure it out, peggy. we always do.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
@margaret.carter
no subject
[ she's still groggy, peggy, please hold while brain cells remember how to operate on this plane of existence. ]
weird dreams for you too?
no subject
If you could even call them that. That word sounds far too innocuous for what we endured. Are you all right?
no subject
[ 'them' being the experiences shared while asleep... or 'them' being the still anonymous benefactors to their shared cerulean glow cubes? coin's still in the air, but daisy thinks it's stupid to ignore the fact that she only ran into other displaced in her dreams. ]
my leg's a bit pinched and i feel like i ran a marathon in my sleep, but no trips to the new tokyo urgent care in my future today.
i'm assuming you've seen the news?
no subject
[ Headache. It's a headache and a half. ]
The city was never attacked. Neither was New Johannesburg. That was one of the last news alerts I received on my implant before I passed out.
no subject
[ on the network. which means that they're not hallucinating a memory of being spurred to action by news of yet another massive monster attack taking over the shores of a foreign city. the words are still there, the discussions still posted.
wildly, daisy wonders: is this some kind of timeline hell? but she's not the kind of scientist to figure this out. this is more fitz' expertise, what with multiple dimensions and parallel universes, and she's not even sure how to bring it up.
she shoots a text to fitz while she's thinking about it, and charges forward. ]
those things really happened, but now they haven't. only thing i can connect between the two is the fact that we all passed out at once.
either we all slid universes while unconscious or the rumor mill had it right all along.
did anything change for you while you were asleep? apparently i inherited some real estate.
no subject
This is overwhelming. But she sorts through it a bit at a time and keeps her wits about her. Needs must. The matter of universes will have to be for later and for someone else (they're thinking of the same man). ]
We can theorise until we're blue in the face; but it will only get us so far until we're back in New Amsterdam to compare notes for ourselves. As for the immediately obvious changes, apart from our little relief group doubling in size? It appears I was promoted at work — and it isn't recent.
[ All these emails addressed to her that read more like inquires for a woman in charge rather than the one taking down the minutes of a meeting. A bit of digging and there it was: Head of the Committee for Customs and Border Protection Policy. ]
I was an overqualified secretary last I checked. Now I'm in charge of policy reform at City Hall.
no subject
[ an understatement. a confusing change that's likely got more questions than answers behind it, but daisy can't deny that putting someone as smart as peggy carter in a position of government influence is a good thing. a very good, very convenient thing to happen while they're being shifted across megacity borders, no less. ]
probably not the way you want to find out your au self is higher up the food chain, but it's better than finding out you're one of the bad guys.
[ thanks, framework. ]
i've got a lease i don't remember signing in a building i definitely can't afford. it's not much to go off, but i'll see what i can find out. maybe the patch job's not perfect, and we can find what's underneath.
no subject
[ But maybe she wants to be one of the bad guys, in a sense. This promotion, while surprising, is a good thing — it's one step closer to making the leap from City Hall to the UN. She just has to play her cards right and then she'll be able to see what the UN is gunning for and why. ]
The patch job is certainly imperfect. According to my records, my promotion predates my arrival in New Amsterdam. I started work in September but I've been with City Hall since at least June, if not earlier — I don't need to tell you that's an impossibility.
Your address has changed? Just for yourself or does that include your roommates, too?
no subject
june's the first group. you think that's connected?
[ she was the second. a handful of people, no more than three, of which she's pretty sure she's the only one remaining. the others have disappeared. ]
just me, as far as i know. and my new roommate — have you met jyn erso?
no subject
[ She helped take down a monster in the dreams, but she wasn't even the one who dealt the killing blow. She mostly evacuated civilians to safety or pulled them out of the rubble. ]
I met Ms Erso in the safehouse following her arrival, yes. She'd mentioned meeting you.
no subject
[ maybe peggy's more of a hero than she thinks she is. daisy certainly thinks she is, anyway. ]
maybe the monsters in the dream put in a good word for you.
no subject
[ Daisy knows Peggy's been living out of a motel since the murder fiasco went down. Better to be out of the safehouse than caught in the thick of its occupants' politics. But she'd given up the room when she left for New Tokyo (no point in paying for it while away, not with her salary at the time) and parked her meagre belongings at Casa SHIELD. ]
But you've got me curious now. [ So she's going to go look. And about 30 seconds later: ] Oh.
no subject
you got a promotion and the digs to go with it, didn't you?
no subject
no subject
[ genuinely impressed. ]
what'd you do, blow up a landlord's office in your sleep?
no subject
[ She can't imagine what could have caused this. Her new promotion, yes, but why sort a new place for herself then leave for a week or two for a trip abroad? ]
The only thing that comes to mind is that I paid a quick visit to the motel I'd been staying at, but it wasn't what I remembered so I left. I barely set foot in the lobby.
[ She spoke to a landlord to cover up her intruding on what was an apartment building. When she returns to New Amsterdam, she'll realise her new place used to be a hotel and was converted for residential living. But right now, she doesn't have those details. ]
no subject
[ or daisy'd be getting arrested for breaking and entering... and theft... and napping in someone else's bed. ]
maybe you'll remember more as we go. i'm still trying to remember all of mine. if you think of anything else, maybe it'll make more sense.
no subject
[ It feels like she lived half of another life there. Not a different one, but a new track with familiar faces, different scenarios in this world. It'll take a day to arrange the jumble. ]
no subject
take your time. we can regroup in new tokyo after everything calms down, see if anybody has anything to add.
[ team shield? team shield. ]
no subject
no subject
if there's been a shop job, we should be able to find the edges.
we'll figure it out, peggy. we always do.
no subject
[ Even if they haven't found answers for anything else — yet. Always yet. ]
no subject
[ too bad peggy carter's never seen captain planet. she would totally make a great rallier of the five supers. ]
and then i think we'll have all really earned a drink.