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ok but I'm assuming there's a welcoming committee? I'd just like to say that I haven't been introduced to the welcoming committee and also, I'm assuming there's a brochure somewhere, something along the lines of 'welcome to wonderland here are 101 ways to get high'?

didn't get that either.

so that said, i'm going to compile a list of every question you must have heard a thousand times before.

✘ this pocket universe is inspired by carrol's wonderland. duh. any signs of a portal? anything?

✘ are the mirrors creepy in a 1984 way or in a creepy-girls-WILL-climb-out-at-night way? super important.

✘ where are the EAT ME and DRINK ME stuff? because I had cookies three hours ago and I'm reporting no change in size. Where do I file a complaint?

✘ how many people's heads have been offed? is that a thing?

✘ is there really a high caterpillar? because meeting the guy's on my bucket list.

✘ HAVE all of the mansion's horses and all of its men tried to put Humpty together again?

also fyi if you see a guy in a flying suit of armor that's just me. don't shoot, it never ends well and also it gives me a serious electromagnetic headache.

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[ well golly gee would you look at that. the whole thing is -- impressive, actually. not that she's quick to tell him so. but maybe there's a look of curiosity in her eyes that gives her away. she's young -- so young, really. and full of vim and vigor. and still open to look upon a stark's creation and see a glimmer of wonder in it, no matter how many turn out awful.

she perches her palms on the window sill and eyes the mask. ]

Something tells me that's a lie. [ ... ] Oh, yes. You've endured far worse. I'm convinced of it.

[ an attitude like that? of course he has. ]

[ she's young. tony doesn't remember ever seeing pictures of her that young, nevermind the woman herself. tony tries to push aside the flutters, a proof tony stark has a heart, pepper would say. but she's gone. tony's lost her around the same time he had lost peggy carter. ]

not on the dead zone, I haven't. nothing's there that I can report, by the way.

Good to know. [ true enough. ] But does the helmet come off? I can't say I enjoy talking to a mask.

[ -- she doesn't know whether the request will work. by now, it's a case of throwing darts at the wall and seeing what finds a mark. she's already realized he can't quite be handled the way howard's handled. ]

Uh, yeah. It comes off with the whole thing and I wouldn't want to drop five floors down to my death, so.

[ it's a lie but he's a very good liar. ]

Then I suppose a hummingbird you shall remain.

[ she makes her position rather clear, then. if he steps foot in her room it will be without his face covered. this is her line in the sand. her condition for entry. ]

[ behind the mask, it's hard to see him roll his eyes ( however fondly ) but it can be heard in his voice. ]

You should still take a step back.

[ because when the suit opens, he'll take a step inside, hopping over while the armor floats outside. ]

Why?

[ but she doesn't ask with suspicion. rather, she's still filled with wonder. it's curiosity that drives the question now -- a desire to know what'll happen once she steps backward.

it's a little too telling, perhaps, that she isn't more mistrustful of him. despite what he'd said, the fact remains: he may as well be a stranger. a faceless one at that. his voice filtered through the suit. ]

I'll need to take a step onto that window sill.

[ he's smaller than the suit, okay. don't make him say it. ]

again, unless you want me to drop to my death, which, since you threatened to follow me I'm assuming is not a Thing.

[ here it is. moment of bloody truth. when steve had told her about tony stark, she'd been flummoxed. and now, weeks later, here he hovers -- moments away from walking into her room via the bloody window.

so she steps back. peggy gestures at the open space with a flattened palm -- as though extending an invite. ]

Come on, then.

[ as though she wasn't the one holding this whole rigmarole up for the last three minutes. ]

[ it's a simple enough trick, the suit opens and tony stark steps out as if he's used to walking into people's rooms through the window. what he's wearing would have been a rather impressive suit, only he's missing the jacket. ]

you're very hospitable, thank you.

[ he'll take a seat without haven't been offered one. ]

[ and voila.

peggy doesn't hide how she watches him -- all interest and apprehension. he's older than she'd expected. somehow she thinks howard's son and thought he might be more in line with...what? the ages of some of the other future-people she's met. but then again, seventy years is a long time. she lets him take his seat. the room itself is awfully plain -- almost as though she's avoided introducing an ounce of personal touch. ]

Of course. [ not you're welcome. ] It's not every day a man brings a flying suit to your window. [ and now that it's opened and sitting there, hovering, she allows her attention to slip back to it. ] It's impressive.

It doesn't -- [ okay this is weird but ] -- shrink down to the size of a tin soldier, does it?

[ look! she's met a man with a suit like that. it, too, was impressive. ]

No, it doesn't. That's a whole other guy and his doesn't even fly.

[ and somehow tony sounds....bitter about that part. he had a very rough introduction to the ant man suit, nevermind the man beneath it. ]

The one I know does.

[ what? it's true! although she'd not seen him in the suit while making use of either function. maybe she's taking a lot on faith, but ray didn't really seem like the lying type.

not with that sort of lie, at least. ]

But I met him here. And I'm fairly certain he doesn't hail from -- well, the same place as you and I do.

[ there. she's said it. ]

If he can fly, then he isn't.

[ and he looks somewhat grateful for that. he doesn't have the patience to deal with scott lang. and yes, of course he knows who he is, only he'll never tell him that. ]

Aw, we're an 'us' now?

Loosely. [ a waggle of her hand. peggy doesn't take a seat -- but rather stays standing near the window. ] There seem to be a number of different "worlds" represented here. It's as good a distinction to draw as any other.

[ a sigh. ] Although I'll point out I never actually used the word.

[ us. ]

But there it is. There are other, different worlds - hopefully friendly.

[ he's still deeply traumatized by the ones who weren't ]

but you know we're from the same one. different times, same earth.

As I said. I've heard tell of you.

[ and she's starting to understand that he's heard tell of her too -- at least, he must have to make the claim that they weren't strangers. although peggy supposes he might be a tony stark from a similar-but-different world. billy kaplan had told her about those.

but when she searches his face and looks for glimmers of howard, she thinks she knows it in her heart. in her hunches. ]

Here, that is. [ a beat. ] Suffice to say I hadn't heard anything back in '47.

But you're more bothered by hearing word of you.

[ he says, stretches in her chair, rubs his temples and doesn't flinch from a nearby bruise, dark and ugly. tony stark is not a popular person if to judge by the fact that someone absolutely punched him in the face. ]

Which, I get. People shouldn't know their own futures. Que sara sara and alla that.

[ ordinarily, she'd find this kind of banter a little too revealing. too incisive; too close to the heart. but peggy smiles when she hears it from him. it's hard not to feel a funny kind of pride. a pleasure, really, that he's quick and clever and bright. ]

I wouldn't say bothered. Not exactly. [ it's deeper than that -- but she digresses. ] Besides, I suspect there's a certain expectation of a Stark having a public face. [ ...by the future. howard might have been the first of note, but the moment she learned about his son she knew he wouldn't be the last. ]

Less so for a Carter.

[ he's getting that electromagnetic headache again. ]

okay, let's get this out of the way. I am giving it -

[ he looks at his watch ]

three minutes. that's it. and we are not going down the whole like father, like son thing.

[ for one, tony think he's cuter. ]

I'm deeply allergic to this sort of conversation. three minutes. after that, I may start hyperventilating.

'This sort' of conversation. [ she echoes him with mild incredulity. peggy only now takes a seat -- but seeing as her sparse room only has the one chair, she's forced to sit on the edge of her bed. nevertheless, she manages to make the moment look poised. ] And what sort of conversation is that?

[ three minutes. she needs to claw back ground. ] I assure you, I'm perfectly happy to avoid discussing Howard. [ ... ] I'd much rather talk about you.

Iron Man.

[ he shoots, points to the suit still hovering outside. ]

that's what they call me. 2016, New York, Avengers Tower. Single, not looking.

[ she pauses a moment to decide whether these are things he think she wants to hear or whether it's meant to be just enough to throw her off a more personal scent. regardless of which, it's all still interesting.

even the bit about not looking. ]

Iron Man. [ her disdain for the name is very thinly veiled. honestly! what's with all the code names? ] And yet something tells me the suit isn't made out of iron.

[ oh yes we're going there. ]

The original one was. The first one I made.

[ all those years ago in a cave as a way of escaping three months of captivity. ]

it got upgraded since. titanium alloy, that sort of thing. makes it easier to fly.

[ you know, they've agreed not to discuss his father. and yet there's a thread of him through every question. she asks what she asks because of what she knows of howard. ]

How many versions have come since?

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