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[saviorexe]

@markus.manfred | ■ ▲ ◌ ▼

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[saviorexe]

Yes. That alone makes it worth it, though I'm sure he'd disagree with both of us, considering how much stress I put him through.

[He still feels guilty about that, the look on Connor's face etched into his memory, as if engraved with the tip of a blade. Yet he harbors no regrets; danger was the name of the game, and it followed them as they flitted about from apartment to apartment. There was always a high probability getting hurt, the question was only how badly.]

Thank you, Peggy, that's kind of you. I can think of one thing you can do for me: tell me how you've been doing. I'm guessing you're not sporting any bullet holes yourself?

[revlon]

Sometimes it can be a complicated matter, saving a life. Although not for the one doing the saving, I've found. You're both safe and that's what matters.

[ The next bit has her huffing out a breath. No new bullet holes, she thinks, and the implant types that out — before she hastily deletes it. A concussion, a fractured rib or two. Myriad angry bruises from the hail of bullets she endured but survived. ]

No.
Although I'm quite aware I ought to be.

[saviorexe]

[Perhaps all manner of minor injuries are simply expected from individuals still eager to help, even freshly departed from a successful operation. Even if he didn’t have bullet hole, Markus would still be sporting hurts from altercations that took place afterwards.]

Yet I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s very glad you’re not.

Your power — have you figured out the logistics behind it?

[Other than “can survive close-range bullet impact and other terrifying forces”.]

[revlon]

My best guess is it's some sort of dermal armour.

[ Metal. She can transform selective parts of her body into metal — what kind and whether it's solid all the way through or just skin deep, she isn't sure. Without further tests or her and Fitz pushing the limits of it, this is all she can offer. It rattles her a little to see her own body change so dramatically.

It goes without saying this entire conversation has been marked private. ]

I haven't been able to trigger it before; the first instance was self-defense, as you well know. Pure instinct.
I apologise for causing you any alarm.

[saviorexe]

[Private, it certainly is. Markus expects nothing less, when it comes to information that most people are not keen on sharing publicly anyway.]

I don’t think I have to tell you how useful that sounds, but it might be… difficult testing its limits. I’m going to assume you’re going to want to try [Markus would, after all] so promise me you’ll at least be careful.

You did give us all a start, but it was through no fault of your own. The situation was already starting to crumble beneath our feet. Not exactly the most graceful exit.

[revlon]

[ She's already tested it — several times in the line of fire. But he doesn't need to know that. ]

As careful as I can be.

Retreats needn't be graceful, Mr Manfred. If you manage it with minimal casualties and an accomplished objective, I'd call it a success. Granted, it's a little hazy for me until the tunnels, but a woman knows these things.

[ And what a curious woman to know of these specific things. ]

[saviorexe]

[Peggy...... Peggy no.

But it is curious, though perhaps not unexpected given her stout and stalwart composure as a member of their strike team, never faltering even when the flames had fanned into an inferno.

It warrants a follow-up question at the very least.]

I'll defer to your judgment, since you seem to be something of an expert?

[revlon]

I think we were all quite professional in there, despite it all going to hell in a hand basket.

[saviorexe]

I'm a caretaker android, I wasn't built for combat. Anything you perceived as professional was just the consequence of a cool head and a lot of fortune.

[He has a distinct feeling he might've been the odd one out, but such as it is.]

[revlon]

Both admirable qualities when enduring something like those 24 hours.

Caretaker android?

[saviorexe]

[The term, while accurate, might have been a little too broad.]

I'm a prototype. Not a new one, but the only model of my kind, built and gifted from one friend to another. My original purpose was to act as a caregiver to an elderly artist back home in Detroit. I did so for many years.

So my specializations are generally less strike-worthy and more skewed towards the mundane, you could say.

[revlon]

The quiet life. The longer I'm here, the less I can recall what that was like.

[ She hasn't had a day off since Pearl Harbour. It's been longer than the handful of weeks she's spent in New Amsterdam. ]

Do you miss it?

[saviorexe]

Always.

But time marches on, and who I was in those halcyon days isn’t who I am now. In some ways, that’s for the best.

[It does little for grief, for homesickness, for the longing for a more comforting time when he could talk to Carl. It wasn’t even that long ago. But dwelling on it — giving himself space to breathe and reflect — is detrimental. So Markus doesn’t.]

What did you do in your world, if you don’t mind me asking?

[revlon]

[ 70 years from now or nearly 500 years ago, an older Peggy Carter said: the world has changed and none of us can go back. All we can do is our best. She doesn't say it now, but a similar sentiment crosses her mind. Then they move on. ]

Law enforcement.

[ Her standard answer of working for the telephone company can't apply here. And while she won't admit to working in the intelligence community or being the future founder of the organisation later known as SHIELD, she can offer the next best thing and one that is still very true. ]

Although I spent the better part of the past few years doing administrative work.

[ Filing... fetching coffee... ]

[saviorexe]

[Law enforcement. Certainly believable enough, given all that he had seen from her during their operation. A cool head, coupled with tactical thinking and the ability to adapt on the fly — or at least adapt as much as the armored, machine-like soldiers, cold and swift, would allow.

Later, perhaps, her continued association with Fitz might make him question the simplicity behind the reply of law enforcement. But not enough time or association has passed quite yet for that to transpire.]

Administrative work? A definite waste of your talents, according to what I've seen.

[revlon]

I come from a time when men couldn't — wouldn't — believe in a woman's competence in the workplace. I've learned it gets better.

[ The future is a dizzying, alien place. But there are some pros to the cons. ]

[saviorexe]

[An interesting illumination, and it’s a shame that this description doesn’t narrow down the years quite as much as it should.]

What year are you from?

[revlon]

1947. July, to be precise, which is why I thought I'd only lost a month's worth of time at first.

[saviorexe]

And the truth of the matter being that you lost literal centuries instead.

[1947. Just after the end of a great war. He doesn't have to draw up what he knows of that zeitgeist of that time period to confirm what she's said is true.]

For what it's worth, you've been adjusting well. And at least it seems like no one will scoff at your ambitions because of your gender here. Your success should be defined only by your own efforts, ideally.

[revlon]

[ What he says touches her. It may be a common attitude in the future but not so in her own present. Her colleagues only just began to appreciate her contributions and hard work and it was as hard-won then as it was during the war. But here? ]

It is refreshing to have one less obstacle out of the way. We'll see what happens when my work is allowed to speak for itself with little bias.

[ Come through, City Hall. ]

What about you?

[saviorexe]

Only good things, I’m sure.

[Peggy’s smart, possesses a commanding presence, and Markus has no doubt that she works as fiercely as she fights. City Hall better pull through.]

2038. I’m very outdated technology here.

[Ah, that’s an android joke.]

[revlon]

I suppose you mean that as a joke. But given your current circumstances, I'd say you're the most remarkably advanced being here.

[saviorexe]

[That's... a nice thing to say, honestly.]

That's either very high praise, or you're assuming that much of my android heritage has transitioned itself into this body. Unfortunately that isn't the case.

[revlon]

Let's say I meant it as both. Although now you've got me curious as to why you would say so.

[saviorexe]

Because a multitude of my functions, defining me as an android, are gone now. I could move faster, think faster, calculate and preconstruct scenarios instantly, could run several billion billion basic operations within the confines of my own programming in just seconds.

But the human brain doesn’t work in the same way. I’m lucky now if I can multitask two things at once.