[ a small sigh. she's within her rights to question the situation, but boy if he doesn't wish she wouldn't. still. patience is a learned skill just like any other: by now, when he needs it, he's got it in spades.
his answer is calm. but there's no humor in it. ]
Each stone made him more capable than the last. Attempts were made to remove the gauntlet, but those attempts were unsuccessful.
[ she knows, deep down, that what he is telling her is true. it has to be. there's no reason for him to make this up, or for him to deliberately deceive her. strange has never been anything other than honest with her, even when he knows she doesn't want to hear it. she can't expect that to change now. ]
Nobody... I mean, nobody told us anything. People just — we could have helped. [ could help, in future tense, if daisy was paying attention to the timeline. but it's in the past for strange, so she follows suit. ] We could have tried something.
[ what, she doesn't know. but shield had some of the greatest minds on the planet, and god only knows what they were doing when this was going down. ]
[ that much he can spare her. the wondering. what could be done, what could we have changed, how much of a difference made if only we'd had the chance?. there was no chance. and it wouldn't have made a difference significant enough to change the way things went. not for the better, anyway.
all this he knows, not as supposition, but as fact. ]
[ it's meant to be reassuring. it's meant to be some small comfort in the face of unthinkable loss — that it isn't her fault, that her failure to act or inability to do so didn't completely skewer the scales one way or the other. but it doesn't feel reassuring.
if anything, it only makes daisy angrier, more defensive; her arms cross over her chest as if warding off invisible arrows, mouth setting in a firm line that's only mirrored by the set of her brow. ]
How is that even fair? We don't get to know what's happening, and we don't even get to try and help? We're just, what? Supposed to sit around with our heads in the sand and then go 'well shit, guess the world ended'? You know that's bullshit!
[ it's a fair stance. if he were in her shoes, he'd be taking it too. there are a lot of things he might've done were he in anyone else's shoes.
but people don't get that luxury. he played the role that was needed of him. having played that role, the corners of his mouth turn down slightly before he specifies. ]
That wasn't a platitude. If you'd been involved, the entire outcome would've come off its axis.
[ he's not trying to baby her. these are the facts as he knows them, cold as they might be, unsatisfactory as they might be. ]
I don't see what the point of going back is, then, if it's better that we're not even involved.
[ maybe that's snippy. maybe that's defensive on a personal level that strange isn't making this conversation about. maybe it's not about daisy johnson at all and more about whatever special skills the avengers have that she doesn't.
or, alternatively, maybe she's right. maybe figuring out how to go back is a waste of time and effort on her part if her presence is literally meaningless in stopping the end of the universe. maybe her efforts can be spent elsewhere. ]
I guess I should just be grateful you're telling me anything, at this point.
[ A jump in his brow indicates surprise at that, a flash of shock that this is where she's taking them. But it's a fair reaction to being told your input would do worse than nothing, isn't it?
He swallows down the lump of complicated something risen hard in his throat. She lays her gratitude on the table like a sharpened knife and Stephen lets it sit there, untouched. If she feels the need for a weapon, so be it. He has no idea what it's like to stand in her shoes.
She wants to know.
After several seconds of steadily watching her, Stephen finally opens his mouth. Expression saying little. The face of a sentimental man who hasn't been afforded the luxury of sentimental choices, and who won't be afforded the luxury of them now. ]
Before Thanos added it to his gauntlet, I used the Time stone to see the future. Every possible future, every potential sequence of events from that moment until it was clear that everything that could've been done had been. There were fourteen million, six hundred and five potential timelines. In just under eight million of them, only half the universe died, and the rest were left to cope with the aftermath. In the rest we cycled through a variety of nightmare scenarios. In the two most popular, either half the universe's sentient life was wiped from existence and the Earth's leftover population murdered or enslaved before Thanos swept across the universe stamping out hope wherever he found it, or Thanos cut out the middle man and took out all sentient life with the infinity stones and started over.
There was only one where things went anything resembling our way. One. The half of all sentient life that Thanos had removed from existence was brought back and he and his army were destroyed before he could put things back how he liked it.
[ Billions across the universe still irreversibly dead, but billions more saved. He has to hold on to that. Billions more saved. ]
You weren't part of it.
[ Not any kind of comfort, and he doesn't expect it to be. But it is a fact. And compared to the size of the reality from which it stems, it's one of the kindest facts there is.
There's no point in her leaving here angry, resentful of her part in a future she doesn't understand. It's too much bigger than her. Too thoroughly impersonal, even at its ideological core.
The upside is worth more than the down. ]
And that means that none of you died in a battle that was only a fraction of the story. I cannot effectively describe to you how much they're going to need you now.
[ Survival was only the beginning. Coming back from this will be bigger than any of the battles they had to fight to survive it, and they're going to need everyone they have. Hope is a critical resource now. People are hope. ]
[ she doesn't sound convinced. she listened to him — really listened. because, for strange, daisy always affords that courtesy. she doesn't cut him off, she doesn't roll her eyes or stare at the ceiling. she listens as he talks, intensely quiet as her eyes watch his every microexpression.
but that doesn't mean she's happy about it. ]
I'm not — [ she pauses, mouth twisting into a firm line; there's a moment in which her lips press in between her teeth, as her head attempts to battle back words she has yet to speak aloud. ] I'm not going to go back.
[ the world will survive without her. it has not missed her, and will not miss her in the future. the avengers will save the world, strange has told her that. shield will continue on, fitz has told her that. no one even knows daisy exists, and thus, no one will miss her if she doesn't. ]
[ ah. that wasn't an impulsive thought. it's something she's considered seriously.
Stephen affords Daisy the same courtesy she did him. earnestly listening, quiet attention. what she has to say doesn't have much of a word count, but that's not to undermine the weight.
she's got a lot going for her here, that much he knows. someone that matters. there are too many variables at possible play here for him to dismiss that out of hand, but he still has to ask. ]
Why?
[ that's a big decision to make. less so if it's a transient one, if they end their entrapment here with the flexible ability to stay or to go, but if it's a one time deal? if it's here or there, this world or that one? no take backs, not ever?
giving up everything you've known for everything you've come to know is a big choice. he wants to know where she's coming from - not to approve or reject, that's none of his business.
but because he's worried. and he'd like to understand. ]
[ it's not an easy thing to explain. it's not even an easy thing for daisy to explain to herself, let alone to someone else, someone whose opinion has come to mean a great deal to her over the past several months.
but she wants to try. for strange, she will give him that much. ]
I have a life here. A normal life, somehow. I have an apartment, I have a job, I have... [ a pause, a hand sweeping across her eyes, fingertips pressing against the lids as if to ward off whatever moisture might be threatening to pool ] I've never had any of that before, you know?
[ he doesn't know. how could he? for all that their goals might align — saving the world that the avengers called home from destruction, for one — they've yet to meet outside this place. she doesn't know if they ever will. ]
I'll never get this kind of chance again. I can't just throw it away.
[ She explains, and he hears her. There is a life she's created for herself here. It may not be bigger than the one she left behind, but it's grounded. It has reality. Some measure of normality. The world they inhabit now may not be a good one but that's nothing new to either of them: the world, when peopled, cannot be inherently good.
Her life within it is wholly her own. Just as the choice is.
Finally, he nods his head. ]
Okay.
[ It feels like the sort of thing he should follow up with a token or a warning. You'll be missed or Just be careful. But he may never know her in the first of their shared worlds, and they don't have any idea whether either of them will ever have the option to choose.
Instead he turns away for long enough to reach over the bar and pull out a bottle of wine, two glasses. He doesn't know her drink of choice, but he does know that this stuff is worth drinking. Crossing with them to the table, he pulls the stopper from the bottle and pours them both out a measure. ]
Let's drink to it.
[ To her happiness now. To crafting a life worth giving up everything for. And to washing away the rest of it. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
his answer is calm. but there's no humor in it. ]
Each stone made him more capable than the last. Attempts were made to remove the gauntlet, but those attempts were unsuccessful.
no subject
[ she knows, deep down, that what he is telling her is true. it has to be. there's no reason for him to make this up, or for him to deliberately deceive her. strange has never been anything other than honest with her, even when he knows she doesn't want to hear it. she can't expect that to change now. ]
Nobody... I mean, nobody told us anything. People just — we could have helped. [ could help, in future tense, if daisy was paying attention to the timeline. but it's in the past for strange, so she follows suit. ] We could have tried something.
[ what, she doesn't know. but shield had some of the greatest minds on the planet, and god only knows what they were doing when this was going down. ]
no subject
[ that much he can spare her. the wondering. what could be done, what could we have changed, how much of a difference made if only we'd had the chance?. there was no chance. and it wouldn't have made a difference significant enough to change the way things went. not for the better, anyway.
all this he knows, not as supposition, but as fact. ]
It's best that you didn't.
no subject
if anything, it only makes daisy angrier, more defensive; her arms cross over her chest as if warding off invisible arrows, mouth setting in a firm line that's only mirrored by the set of her brow. ]
How is that even fair? We don't get to know what's happening, and we don't even get to try and help? We're just, what? Supposed to sit around with our heads in the sand and then go 'well shit, guess the world ended'? You know that's bullshit!
no subject
but people don't get that luxury. he played the role that was needed of him. having played that role, the corners of his mouth turn down slightly before he specifies. ]
That wasn't a platitude. If you'd been involved, the entire outcome would've come off its axis.
[ he's not trying to baby her. these are the facts as he knows them, cold as they might be, unsatisfactory as they might be. ]
no subject
[ maybe that's snippy. maybe that's defensive on a personal level that strange isn't making this conversation about. maybe it's not about daisy johnson at all and more about whatever special skills the avengers have that she doesn't.
or, alternatively, maybe she's right. maybe figuring out how to go back is a waste of time and effort on her part if her presence is literally meaningless in stopping the end of the universe. maybe her efforts can be spent elsewhere. ]
I guess I should just be grateful you're telling me anything, at this point.
no subject
He swallows down the lump of complicated something risen hard in his throat. She lays her gratitude on the table like a sharpened knife and Stephen lets it sit there, untouched. If she feels the need for a weapon, so be it. He has no idea what it's like to stand in her shoes.
She wants to know.
After several seconds of steadily watching her, Stephen finally opens his mouth. Expression saying little. The face of a sentimental man who hasn't been afforded the luxury of sentimental choices, and who won't be afforded the luxury of them now. ]
Before Thanos added it to his gauntlet, I used the Time stone to see the future. Every possible future, every potential sequence of events from that moment until it was clear that everything that could've been done had been. There were fourteen million, six hundred and five potential timelines. In just under eight million of them, only half the universe died, and the rest were left to cope with the aftermath. In the rest we cycled through a variety of nightmare scenarios. In the two most popular, either half the universe's sentient life was wiped from existence and the Earth's leftover population murdered or enslaved before Thanos swept across the universe stamping out hope wherever he found it, or Thanos cut out the middle man and took out all sentient life with the infinity stones and started over.
There was only one where things went anything resembling our way. One. The half of all sentient life that Thanos had removed from existence was brought back and he and his army were destroyed before he could put things back how he liked it.
[ Billions across the universe still irreversibly dead, but billions more saved. He has to hold on to that. Billions more saved. ]
You weren't part of it.
[ Not any kind of comfort, and he doesn't expect it to be. But it is a fact. And compared to the size of the reality from which it stems, it's one of the kindest facts there is.
There's no point in her leaving here angry, resentful of her part in a future she doesn't understand. It's too much bigger than her. Too thoroughly impersonal, even at its ideological core.
The upside is worth more than the down. ]
And that means that none of you died in a battle that was only a fraction of the story. I cannot effectively describe to you how much they're going to need you now.
[ Survival was only the beginning. Coming back from this will be bigger than any of the battles they had to fight to survive it, and they're going to need everyone they have. Hope is a critical resource now. People are hope. ]
no subject
[ she doesn't sound convinced. she listened to him — really listened. because, for strange, daisy always affords that courtesy. she doesn't cut him off, she doesn't roll her eyes or stare at the ceiling. she listens as he talks, intensely quiet as her eyes watch his every microexpression.
but that doesn't mean she's happy about it. ]
I'm not — [ she pauses, mouth twisting into a firm line; there's a moment in which her lips press in between her teeth, as her head attempts to battle back words she has yet to speak aloud. ] I'm not going to go back.
[ the world will survive without her. it has not missed her, and will not miss her in the future. the avengers will save the world, strange has told her that. shield will continue on, fitz has told her that. no one even knows daisy exists, and thus, no one will miss her if she doesn't. ]
If I get the choice, I'm not going back.
no subject
Stephen affords Daisy the same courtesy she did him. earnestly listening, quiet attention. what she has to say doesn't have much of a word count, but that's not to undermine the weight.
she's got a lot going for her here, that much he knows. someone that matters. there are too many variables at possible play here for him to dismiss that out of hand, but he still has to ask. ]
Why?
[ that's a big decision to make. less so if it's a transient one, if they end their entrapment here with the flexible ability to stay or to go, but if it's a one time deal? if it's here or there, this world or that one? no take backs, not ever?
giving up everything you've known for everything you've come to know is a big choice. he wants to know where she's coming from - not to approve or reject, that's none of his business.
but because he's worried. and he'd like to understand. ]
no subject
but she wants to try. for strange, she will give him that much. ]
I have a life here. A normal life, somehow. I have an apartment, I have a job, I have... [ a pause, a hand sweeping across her eyes, fingertips pressing against the lids as if to ward off whatever moisture might be threatening to pool ] I've never had any of that before, you know?
[ he doesn't know. how could he? for all that their goals might align — saving the world that the avengers called home from destruction, for one — they've yet to meet outside this place. she doesn't know if they ever will. ]
I'll never get this kind of chance again. I can't just throw it away.
no subject
Her life within it is wholly her own. Just as the choice is.
Finally, he nods his head. ]
Okay.
[ It feels like the sort of thing he should follow up with a token or a warning. You'll be missed or Just be careful. But he may never know her in the first of their shared worlds, and they don't have any idea whether either of them will ever have the option to choose.
Instead he turns away for long enough to reach over the bar and pull out a bottle of wine, two glasses. He doesn't know her drink of choice, but he does know that this stuff is worth drinking. Crossing with them to the table, he pulls the stopper from the bottle and pours them both out a measure. ]
Let's drink to it.
[ To her happiness now. To crafting a life worth giving up everything for. And to washing away the rest of it. ]