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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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[ 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?

Around fifty.

[ some were for the iron legions, others were improvements, others were just in case. maybe pepper potts was right about tony's obsession with his iron man armors. ]

This is the latest one.

[ fifty. so either he'd been doing this for a very long time. or he'd gone a bit manic. peggy's still uncertain about the timeline -- everything seems to happen in this vague seventy years on space. she's made a play at avoiding details, but in the end she's nevertheless tried to stitch together a few. ]

So it flies. And it defends. What else does it do?

[ because it must indeed do something else. she's under no illusions. ]

Whatever I need it to do. It'll fly away back to Avengers Tower. It does that because I haven't configured it's inner GPS system yet.

[ ... ]

Global Positioning System. There's a command that's supposed to send it to my workshop.

[ you know what? there's a flicker of gratitude -- a quick nod -- when he goes ahead and defines the acronym for her. amazingly, she can reverse engineer it's meaning from that much. and peggy is left wondering (with a pang) whether tony's instinct to elucidate upon such details comes from working side-by-side with steve.

she figures he would have needed much the same. oh, she's quick to swallow that thought. ]

I assume you've tried it already. [ there's something stiff and professional in this line of questioning. ] Sending it back.

Yes. doesn't work. Shocker, I know.

[ why make anything easy? ]

Once I finish building a landing surface in my room, I could configure it to go there when I tell it to. In the mean time.

[ he looks at his armor hovering just outside her room. ]

it's a Macy's parade exhibit. Could be worse.

You know, I never managed to see the parade. [ there's an almost wistful note to the admission. ] They only started it back up a little over a year ago and...

[ her attention narrows. she'd nearly spilled simple secrets -- the likes of which she's been keeping from nearly everyone in the mansion. ]

And I've been busy.

You're not missing much.

[ but then, tony can say that since he's been to so many. stark industries almost always did something for the parade. Tony once offered a hot air balloon shaped like his face and was denied.

still a good idea, he figures. ]

crowds, loud music, badly uncoordinated shows.

-- Sounds a bit like the USO.

[ and she went there. it's not the most elegant reference to one steve rogers. but nor is it the sort of slip that can't go ignored. peggy almost hopes he will ignore it. then again, she's only assuming steve's career in the chorus line as faithfully survived the following decades. ]

And if so, I suppose I'd happily pass. I hate picking ticker tape out of my hair.

Rogers' thing? not nearly. we've gone a long way since, though some people wouldn't object.

[ even now, even with the man himself on the run. captain america has a way to consolidate and inspire. iron man never rose to the same level. tony's well aware he'll never could.

he's more of a realist than an idealist anyway and steve's ideals serve his purposes more often than not.

funny how that keeps working out for him. ]

It was never my sort of thing.

[ -- she answers with a crinkle of her nose. and, she hopes, putting the subject to bed. parades and parties don't always sit well with her, anyway. ve day has only been around a scant two years and she's already so tired of it. ]

Not going to show up at my very merry unbirthday party, huh?

[ dry. but look he'll take that change of subject. ]

Oh, I don't know about that. [ she's quick. she's decisive. ] But you'll have to tell me when it is first.

Oh don't worry. I'll send you an invite.

[ this probably sounds ominous and for a good reason, too. ]

[ peggy hates how she smiles. she wishes she wouldn't. ]

I've got a terrible busy social calendar. [ oh she so doesn't. ] You might be better off simply giving me the heads up right now.

That's my other allergy. Schedules. No can do.

[ he really is the sort of man who expects everyone to show up when he tells them to. ]

And come on you could skip one afternoon tea and cucumber sandwiches.

[ but he is (at least) inviting her. ]

Is it soon? [ just narrow it down for her, buddy. ]

No clue. Let's see how I feel tomorrow morning.

[ his dismisses the question and the notion of him planning anything ahead all at the same time. ]

Likely about as rubbish as you feel right now. Perhaps worse. [ she knocks her temple with a fingertip. ] What the devil happened to you?

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