It's the sort of understatement that would be laughable, if the subject were ever to be a laughing matter with Markus. Given the quickness of the reply, the way a muscle tightens along his jawline as he reads it, it isn't.]
It's not as simple as having learned it. I don't know much was true, just that Peggy and I both experienced it. Haven't heard of anyone else seeing things like we did.
[ he doesn't know how much is fact, when there are so few records, and the dream had been unreal in so many ways. ]
We took one of my portals somewhere. Beyond the walls of the city, I think. Ended up in a desert full of ruins. It's going to sound mad, Markus — but we found Big Ben, half-buried. Quite haunting, for a man of my background.
[ the death of the country he calls home, sunk in shifting sands? the hope for a future there, a place where he and Jemma might be together?
[The waffling realities of the dreamscape, as transient as sand slipping through one's fingers. But there must be fact in it, covered in all the nebulous imagery and experiences that only make sense in the scope of a dream. Markus is not quick to discount anything at this point.]
Haunting and difficult to see, I'd imagine.
[It'd be the same as being thrown headfirst into the wrecked visage of Detroit, or whatever currently remains of his home. Utterly chilling.]
Yeah. Most of this one's water by now, I reckon, [ sea levels rising. continents detonated. strange and stranger still. ] but that could be in alignment with the ruins imagery. Shipwreck sort of thing.
[ throws up hands ]
Stumbled upon this apartment there, preserved like it was plucked out of time. Tablets, manual appliances, 21st-century stuff everywhere. There was this little toy soldier, too, one of those miniature robots kids have? Clockwork motor, with a battery boost. Got it working enough to stumble, but the circuity wasn't salvagable.
[It does sound like they had stumbled into a room preserved in time, as if stuck in amber. Markus tries to envision it and the details come easily enough. 21st century isn't hard imagery to pluck from the confines of most of the Displaced's experiences.
It's the rest, though, that has makes something knot in his chest.]
Like, um, okay. You know how a power surge can overheat and wreck electronics? Happens in thunderstorms, especially if the circuits aren't protected. You can do that manually with an EMP — an electromagnetic pulse. SHIELD uses it to fry enemy tech. Shut down power through direct access or, in extreme circumstances, release it wholesale. Knock everything in a localised area out.
[ Markus is plenty clever, but he wants to be clear. ]
[Oh, yes. An android is very well-aware of what an EMP can do. Being met with one is the same as being hit with a shutdown, usually the irreparable sort that might as well be the same as death. No coming back from utterly ruined insides, unless someone is kind enough to pull a Ship of Theseus on you and practically instigate a rebuild from the ground up.
He’s not certain he likes where this is going, given the context of Fitz’s first message.]
Yes.
[—he says, standing in his apartment kitchen, keeping a distracted eye on whatever’s baking in the oven. Definitely sitting down, sure, just tell him, Fitz.]
[ he leans back against the counter in his own kitchen, arms crossed. in one window, he has his conversation with markus; in another, the public history of elysian; and in a third, he and peggy's notes on the dreams. his information is no kindness, but markus deserves the truth, always. ]
We found a corpse in the sitting room. An android, almost indistinguishable from a human, but I knew what to look for. No signs of decomposition, but she must have been left there for decades, at least. Her implant had burned a hole in her skull — most likely when the EMP hit. I opened an access panel, did everything I could think of, but I couldn't get her back online. Her circuity was unsalvagable.
[As always, the delay of a response is telling in its own way. Markus goes over the message twice, as though the contents might change the second time through.
An android, killed by an EMP blast. The whole of the apartment effected, the implication being that the attack was widespread — and, of course, purposeful. Given the history of this world, his mind jumps to the easiest, most obvious conclusion. The seed planted by the mention of Elysian.]
And you think what you found was a scene from the aftermath of the war?
[Emblematic of his kind being wiped out, electronic disruption tech and viruses wielded against AI life in a war that claimed too many on both sides.]
[ A delay in time, a gap between them that he wishes he could cross with a gesture or touch, but it's better that Markus can process this on his own. As much as Fitz sympathises — has always sympathised, even in the midst of his own piss-poor decisions, from the moment Dr Radcliffe said it, and he countered she — this isn't his tragedy to claim.
His moment passed in that godforsaken apartment, as he scrubbed the back of his hand over his eyes. ]
I do. She was an Elysian model. I checked.
[ always thinking, even when at the heart of something big. ]
Between that and the era of technology in the apartment, we have our timeline. The anti-AI cause likely wouldn't have resorted to EMPs that powerful from the jump, given the high levels of collateral damage. I'd put the scene near the end of the conflict.
Long enough for the perspective of the "enemy" to have been forgotten. If it was ever considered to begin with.
[In the end, Fitz is relaying to him nothing that they don't already know; he's just filling in the details. EMP blast, instead of nebulous battles being fought on a nebulous battlefield. An android corpse indistinguishable from a human, instead of the malleable mental image of AI life, in whatever form it took.
Somehow, though, that makes it worse.]
Thank you for telling me.
It's hard to believe that even now, centuries later, there's no trace of the AI lives that were lost in that war. That mankind wouldn't have stored a few corpses for salvageable parts, or research, in case they'd find a similar war at their doorstep. AI-proof the future beyond just the restrictions put in place.
[Answers, somewhere in this world. That's all he needs, knowing he cannot undo history to such an extent. He wants to know the reason for Elysian's deviation, and the reason behind such a violent reaction.]
[ it's a truth both owed and freely given. Markus deserves to know the whole of it. ]
Speaking as a scientist, I never would have discarded everything. Especially not if I helped make the project a reality. The engineers of a better tomorrow are inclined to choose curiosity over orders and precaution every day of the week.
[ there's a difference between truth-telling and oversharing so, uh, not gonna mention that he put AIDA's head in a fucking SHIELD locker like a creepazoid. his point stands well enough on its own. ]
And life of any kind has a tendency to survive against the odds.
[ he doubts the AI are gone, unless the war ended before it began. ]
[Or someone/something claiming to be an AI and setting the sit on metaphorical fire. That could happen, too.
But for now-]
You're right, we will. Stubborn as our group can be, and just as curious.
We'll see what opportunities open up going forward. I almost hate to say, but there's no guarantee we won't find ourselves dreaming again sooner or later.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
@leo.fitz / early nov / private ms network.
[ which sounds a shade too casual for what he's referring to, so he clarifies. ]
It's about Elysian.
no subject
It's the sort of understatement that would be laughable, if the subject were ever to be a laughing matter with Markus. Given the quickness of the reply, the way a muscle tightens along his jawline as he reads it, it isn't.]
What did you learn?
no subject
[ he doesn't know how much is fact, when there are so few records, and the dream had been unreal in so many ways. ]
We took one of my portals somewhere. Beyond the walls of the city, I think. Ended up in a desert full of ruins.
It's going to sound mad, Markus — but we found Big Ben, half-buried.
Quite haunting, for a man of my background.
[ the death of the country he calls home, sunk in shifting sands? the hope for a future there, a place where he and Jemma might be together?
oh, understatement is his speciality. ]
no subject
Haunting and difficult to see, I'd imagine.
[It'd be the same as being thrown headfirst into the wrecked visage of Detroit, or whatever currently remains of his home. Utterly chilling.]
So a reflection of the state of the real world?
no subject
[ throws up hands ]
Stumbled upon this apartment there, preserved like it was plucked out of time. Tablets, manual appliances, 21st-century stuff everywhere. There was this little toy soldier, too, one of those miniature robots kids have? Clockwork motor, with a battery boost. Got it working enough to stumble, but the circuity wasn't salvagable.
Everything in that place was fried.
no subject
It's the rest, though, that has makes something knot in his chest.]
Fried, like the aftermath of a battle?
[A war?]
no subject
You know how a power surge can overheat and wreck electronics? Happens in thunderstorms, especially if the circuits aren't protected. You can do that manually with an EMP — an electromagnetic pulse. SHIELD uses it to fry enemy tech. Shut down power through direct access or, in extreme circumstances, release it wholesale. Knock everything in a localised area out.
[ Markus is plenty clever, but he wants to be clear. ]
Are you sitting down?
[ maybe he should have led with that. ]
no subject
He’s not certain he likes where this is going, given the context of Fitz’s first message.]
Yes.
[—he says, standing in his apartment kitchen, keeping a distracted eye on whatever’s baking in the oven. Definitely sitting down, sure, just tell him, Fitz.]
no subject
[ he leans back against the counter in his own kitchen, arms crossed. in one window, he has his conversation with markus; in another, the public history of elysian; and in a third, he and peggy's notes on the dreams. his information is no kindness, but markus deserves the truth, always. ]
We found a corpse in the sitting room.
An android, almost indistinguishable from a human, but I knew what to look for. No signs of decomposition, but she must have been left there for decades, at least.
Her implant had burned a hole in her skull — most likely when the EMP hit.
I opened an access panel, did everything I could think of, but I couldn't get her back online. Her circuity was unsalvagable.
[ peggy had said, you can't fix everything, fitz.
what's the point of him, if that's true? ]
no subject
An android, killed by an EMP blast. The whole of the apartment effected, the implication being that the attack was widespread — and, of course, purposeful. Given the history of this world, his mind jumps to the easiest, most obvious conclusion. The seed planted by the mention of Elysian.]
And you think what you found was a scene from the aftermath of the war?
[Emblematic of his kind being wiped out, electronic disruption tech and viruses wielded against AI life in a war that claimed too many on both sides.]
no subject
His moment passed in that godforsaken apartment, as he scrubbed the back of his hand over his eyes. ]
I do.
She was an Elysian model. I checked.
[ always thinking, even when at the heart of something big. ]
Between that and the era of technology in the apartment, we have our timeline.
The anti-AI cause likely wouldn't have resorted to EMPs that powerful from the jump, given the high levels of collateral damage. I'd put the scene near the end of the conflict.
no subject
[In the end, Fitz is relaying to him nothing that they don't already know; he's just filling in the details. EMP blast, instead of nebulous battles being fought on a nebulous battlefield. An android corpse indistinguishable from a human, instead of the malleable mental image of AI life, in whatever form it took.
Somehow, though, that makes it worse.]
Thank you for telling me.
It's hard to believe that even now, centuries later, there's no trace of the AI lives that were lost in that war. That mankind wouldn't have stored a few corpses for salvageable parts, or research, in case they'd find a similar war at their doorstep. AI-proof the future beyond just the restrictions put in place.
[Answers, somewhere in this world. That's all he needs, knowing he cannot undo history to such an extent. He wants to know the reason for Elysian's deviation, and the reason behind such a violent reaction.]
no subject
[ it's a truth both owed and freely given. Markus deserves to know the whole of it. ]
Speaking as a scientist, I never would have discarded everything.
Especially not if I helped make the project a reality.
The engineers of a better tomorrow are inclined to choose curiosity over orders and precaution every day of the week.
[ there's a difference between truth-telling and oversharing so, uh, not gonna mention that he put AIDA's head in a fucking SHIELD locker like a creepazoid. his point stands well enough on its own. ]
And life of any kind has a tendency to survive against the odds.
[ he doubts the AI are gone, unless the war ended before it began. ]
We'll find something.
[ a spec, a clue, a trace. ]
no subject
But for now-]
You're right, we will. Stubborn as our group can be, and just as curious.
We'll see what opportunities open up going forward. I almost hate to say, but there's no guarantee we won't find ourselves dreaming again sooner or later.
no subject
I'm too tired to dream, and that sounds bloody nonsensical.
[ SIRI WHY DOES GOD ALLOW SUFFERING ]
Let me know if you need me, Markus.
[ y'know for non TERRIBLE AI NEWS things... ]
no subject
I will. Same to you, Fitz.