11941/Maps, Halls, and Dictators, Like Old Times

Maps, Halls, and Dictators, Like Old Times
Date of Scene:	07 August 2020
Location:	Operations, The Triskelion
Synopsis:	Steve and Peggy catch each other in comms and control when she returns from Latveria. A mission debrief occurs just like they used to and the pair talk around how strange life can be.
Cast of Characters:	Captain America, Peggy Carter

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Captain America has posed:
    It might be a strange thing. To see this element of the past square in the middle of the future. There's the hustle and bustle of the modern age in the comms and control room, the great holographic map floating in the middle of the room with all of the computer terminals around it. The people using small hand portable data displays and casually throwing imagery from one work position to the other. So many people. So young. Doing things that would seem so outlandish to most.
    It might be easier to adapt to if it was all from the future. Or the present. Depending on how one looks at it. But for that one relic of the past standing there talking to people in front of several computers, looking as if he belonged there and nothing was out of the ordinary at all. Steve Rogers.
    Perhaps so normally imagined in the past as being surrounded by the ubiquitous olive green World War 2 equipment from that era. Only here he is in the now of the future-present. And seemingly entirely at home.
    He even has the gall to look up from across the room, smile a little and wave when he catches sight of her.
    The cad.

Peggy Carter has posed:
    It feels like a map like that, only far more solid and rolled out on an old oak table, was the place where they truly met. How many late nights had been spent standing across a strategy table, planning the next HYDRA raid until the morning almost was peaking across the horizon? The maps look far different now and, to Peggy at least, everyone looks far younger. Was SHIELD ever this young, or did she simply feel that old? Even if she barely looked aged compared to herself in those early days, somehow she's cheating something, she still feels decades older than most of this room.

Well, other than a certain someone. Who she wasn't expecting to see here but she knew, eventually, they'd run into each other again. She's just returned from a long distance assignment, changed from the gown she was wearing into SHIELD casual -- a pair of wide legged black slacks that scream more of the 1940s style than most modern clothing, a black undershirt and the black jacket SHIELD had given her with the little logo on the arm. A mix between business casual and her preferred vintage style. High heels carry her across the room towards the thrumming heart of it all, command and control. Dark eyes scan across the map, trying to put together what mission they might be planning, but she offers simply, "The team from Latveria has returned. I've got a minor mission report but no one was hurt and the civilians all got out so... Mission was a success." Even if there is something sardonic behind her voice. She's not overly thrilled about it, success or not.

Captain America has posed:
    As if no time was lost, as if everything was just the same and normal and they had said goodbye only a few days ago, he smiles at her. That same small half-smile that lights up the side of his features as he looks at the map, then back at her and asks warily, "Why do I get the feeling there's going to be a mess of footnotes in your report?"
    Since it well wouldn't be the first time.
    He gives a nod to one of the men inputting some data for him and pats him on the shoulder. "Thanks for your help, Perry. I'll check in on you in an hour." And likely he would.
    That done he turns and steps away gesturing with a glance and asking her silently if she'd care to walk with him. And if she seems inclined he'll start to the door of that operations room, hands at his sides until he reaches the control panel for the door, opens it, and waits for her to precede him through.

Peggy Carter has posed:
The smile stops her in her tracks for just a moment. The space of a heartbeat and absolutely nothing has changed. She thought she'd forget, but she clearly hasn't. Some of the sardonic attitude she's already braced herself with for giving command a piece of her mind (something she hasn't had to do in a long time) actually softens at just seeing that. "...Captain Rogers." She greets smoothly, the rant that is on the tip of her tongue held back for the moment.

Footnotes. The way he told her to get command's notice without battering their egos, back when the war was young. It started as an inside joke but ended up too effective an outlet for her temper and her good ideas. The smirk is clear behind her clipped voice as she mutters, "It's been a long time since I had to write footnotes. Rather got used to speaking my mind." But maybe not in front of the children.

She tucks a stray lock of dark waves behind her ear, waiting mostly patiently for the current on duty commander to come while Steve finishes speaking to Perry. Then he's making that silent offer. She arches a single brow, studying his blue eyes to figure out if he's giving her an outlet or he is the commander on duty. Either way, she tilts her head and precedes him neatly into the operations room, her heels clicking neatly in her normal no-nonsense step. "Latveria is a... very interesting place." She begins when the door is shut. She doesn't move for a chair, too much pacing, frustrated energy in her. Three weeks back and she's tossing herself full throttle into the field.

Captain America has posed:
    "Yeah." Steve says in that way when he has his own opinion on something, but isn't entirely ready to express those thoughts. As if he just needs a bit more time to get a handle on it. Then he adds, "Yeah it is."
    Latveria, she can see the mention of it draws his eyes back to the comm room and he shakes his head. "Tell me your findings, I'm curious to get your take on it." As he says this he starts to walk down the hall, moving past the steady hustle and bustle of agents advancing down the halls, following those multi-colored arrows upon the floor.
    He's wearing just that deep navy blue combat suit with the red accents though it's more akin to the SHIELD uniform that everyone is wearing than what he used while they fought in the war. Yet the connection can be seen in the star, the boots. "I know when I got my briefing about it there were parts of it that were hard for me to wrap my head around."

Peggy Carter has posed:
Peggy keeps time with his steps as neat and smoothly as she used to. In the early days, after he got the serum, he sometimes slowed down. After all, she was a deal shorter than him and had nothing in her veins to help. But she quickly corrected that, telling him she could keep up and sticking to her word. Now, it was simply second nature. Even after decades without him to walk next to, they could be clipping down the hallway of the SSR as much as this modern tech marvel of a building. She didn't fall behind. Her hands fold neatly behind her back as they walk, stopping her from gesturing with too much vitriol about what happened.

"The head of their state is... incredibly militant and probably not very stable. I know I didn't have an interview with him or even time to do a proper profile, but he pulled out a massive weapon when his dinner was attacked, without a second thought. Yes, his civilians were being attacked by what seemed to be insurgents, no one *really* gave me a full political briefing about it and I'm cross about that. When we don't have the information, it generally means we're hiding the information. He had some sort of powers as well, which he did use in protection of the crowd. But... there was more than one violation of the Geneva convention in his handling of those insurgents. We should have recovered them and taken them in as prisoner, not left to a government like... That."

Her expression tightens some, the need for control still very much there. Probably more frustrated as she was in charge for so long and now it's back to taking orders. But there's something else -- Peggy is from a time where SHIELD absolutely thought they could do anything and everything for the betterment of the world. Times have changed. She's still adapting.

Captain America has posed:
    "They are a sovereign nation." Steve says quietly as they stroll, and she's heard that tone before. Devil's Advocate in part, but also when he's voicing a standpoint that may or may not entirely be his own. "And their ruler is an isolationist who gives them little freedom."
    They reach a turn and then he frowns, "But." He says that word with a hint of resignation. "He is also extremely popular, and looked on positively by his people because of arguments we've heard before. He makes sure the trains run on time, and all."
    "He hasn't crossed over the line yet, though part of me feels like it's more just a matter of 'when' as opposed to 'if'." That said he stops walking and smiles a little at her even as the few people in the hallway keeping walking along until there's a moment when it's just then and he says to her.
    "It's good to see you, Peggy."

Peggy Carter has posed:
The look she gives him isn't exactly scathing, but it's close. It's the glint her dark eyes which says she knows what he's doing. Knows he doesn't like it any more than she does. She's not buying it. But, she lets him finish his piece, as they step into a slightly more isolated area of the busy upper floors. She just releases a breath of frustration, "So did Mussolini..." She grumbles under her breath. She's not buying it.

She stops when he does, though, looking back up to his sharp blues as he says aloud what she was thinking. "It is a matter of when. I saw the way he reacted. He's... He's a ticking time bomb." But then she stops. Really stops. Her mind ceases turning over itself and the mission a thousand different ways. She actually just lets herself look at him, the fact that this is reality and they are sharing the same space, back at work like ever, it finally hits.

Her lips part to speak but, for once, there's nothing there. The wave of emotions diving into work mostly held back are suddenly very present. Through a tighter throat, she murmurs softly, "It... it's so good to see you. We... looked so, so long..."

Captain America has posed:
    "Yeah," Steve says with a small smile, rueful, apologetic. As if he had control of the situation to such a degree when it was all he could to get that great bomber out of the way and into the water. "Apparently I got caught by an under current that..." He stops as he's about to explain it, stops and knows she doesn't care about the details, or the explanation. That it's all just... words and noise.
    He bites his lower lip and then tells her, "I know you tried."
    A beat as he looks back and forth to each of her irises and then smiles a little more. "When I woke up, they tried to convince me only a little time passed. But... I knew almost instantly it wasn't true. Since you weren't there."
    That last word hangs there for a time, then he looks down. Finds himself, and looks back up. Still that warm smile. "But I know a lot of things have happened. To both of us. And I mean. Yeah." He looks up and around as if encompassing everything that's gone on, then back to her. "It can be intimidating."

Peggy Carter has posed:
The blink at her eyes, looking slightly away as her shoulders stiffen a bit straighter to carefully push back that uncertain sting of moisture behind her eyes, it's horribly British. Still no reason or time to show emotions, even if they are horribly raw, a strange crater behind her sternum that only decades of keeping calm manages to restrain. Still, she cannot quite look into his eyes. Not right now.

"I... tried to be. Would have been. Howard took plans up almost every month. When we started SHIELD, I sent... boats... search crews..." She admits softly, basically revealing that she absolutely abused her power to try to hunt his body down. To no success. She tries to find more words but they simply aren't there, for a handful of heartbeats, at least.

"Too much has happened. An entire lifetime, it feels like..." Finally, dark lashes flicker and she forces herself to look back to him. The glassiness in her eyes is the one betrayal to the fact that she's just on the edge of not keeping everything under control. "And yet... we stand their over a map, or talk mission objectives walking down a hall, and it feels like... Yesterday." She breathes out, softer than before.

Captain America has posed:
    His smile is warm, gentle as he looks back down the hallway and nods slowly. "It does." He looks back and tells her, "It really does." Steve turns and then meets her eyes, resting a hand on her shoulder as he tells her gently, "And I know that... you left behind a lot of things."
    His eyes shift between each of her irises before he looks down and takes a breath. Then looks back up and she can see that way he has of girding himself, focusing, being the strength that's needed there as he tells her. "And I know a lot of people are working on figuring things out. Getting you back to... everything you left behind. If that happens, I'll miss you. But I've always just wanted for you to be happy, Peggy."
    As he says that his hand squeezes her shoulder gently...
    And then a group of two SHIELD agents turn the corner of that hallway near and he lowers his hand and gives a nod.
    "I'll. I'll be sure to read your report once you submit it. I need to..." He stops, and then rewords. "I should go and check in with the Avengers. If I'm needed. That's where I'll be."

Peggy Carter has posed:
A trace of confusion cuts through her gaze as he mentions people working on sending her back. Peggy blinks, wariness suddenly there. No one had told her. But she didn't have near the clearance she used to. Still, it's a hard surprise, to realize she's not in the loop. Her ever-red lips press into a quiet line, "But Steve, it's not..." And then they aren't alone. She stiffens just a bit more, not even having realized that she'd leaned closer to him during the conversaion. No, nothing to see here!

"Of...of course, Captain Rogers. And perhaps I'll get to meet some of these Avengers soon. See what trouble you are getting up to without the Howlers behind you." She gives him a smile that is 99 percent sly with just that hint of heartbreak behind it. Then she steps back and snaps into a proper salute. Old habits do die hard.

Captain America has posed:
    That same lop-sided smile is given back then he snaps that salute into place, holds it, then snaps his hand back down as he tells her gently, "Agent Carter." With a nod. He takes a breath, then holds it and instead nods again before he turns and he's starting to walk down that hallway.