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[ back home, kara would be pissed at him for this. but here...she's been talking freely, openly. every time he's tried to keep her secret - he was told by the person he was trying to keep it from to lay off it, they already know. still, he won't expose her identity, not on purpose at least, but he can expose the acquaintanceship, right? james always got to tell people that he's superman's best friend. he's never gotten to have that moment. ]

Even superheroes need friends.

[ he smiles, shrugging a little. ]

They certainly do. [ funny, peggy doesn't precisely count herself among steve's friends -- that title is reserved for the howling commandos. for sam wilson. for bucky barnes, although he's the reason she's sporting so many bruises and cuts. ] I can't help but imagine they'd be a great deal less super without them.

[ that's what kara always tells him - that he's important, she needs him, she'd be lost without him. he doesn't believe her for one second - kara would be amazing with or without him. she'd just...not look as cool while doing it, and might need to find creative solutions to problems that are easily solved by hacking. ]

I can't imagine a reality where they need to find out. [ they're so easily likable, it's impossible not to want to be their friend. ]

[ peggy could imagine it. but, then again, she's got a cynical streak a little wider than most -- tempered by captain america's influence. he inspires her to be hopeful, even after she'd lost him to the ocean. to the ice. to the slow march of time. ]

Your faith is admirable.

They're easy to believe in.

[ he shrugs. he believed in kara long before she was supergirl. her coming out as a superhero just unlocked exciting new ways for him to believe in her in. ]

-- Touché.

[ except, of course, that hadn't been what she'd meant. rather -- that his faith in himself, and in a world where those heroes did not need to go it alone? that was admirable. but peggy had the forethought to understand how bringing attention to faith in oneself is an awkward path to tread.

so, graciously, she concedes the point to winn. she doesn't feel any desire to clarify or correct out loud. she simply doesn't have the ego for it. ]

[ it's a correction that would've surprised winn because that's not where his faith lies at all. he believes in himself plenty when it comes to assisting kara in whatever she needs - he's got mad skills - and he believes in himself plenty when it comes to standing by her, certainly. but with or without him, she'd never be alone. it doesn't matter which world she ends up in - or even if she goes home without him. it's impossible not to love her, not to want to support her, to stand by her side.

and steve, steve's just as easy to like. and he tried to dislike him because his girlfriend has a very obvious crush on the guy, but it just cannot be done.

he smiles, rubbing the back of his head as he searches for the next thing to say. his eyes fall on that crutch, and again his stomach clenches painfully. he'll never forget that day on the iskaulit for as long as he lives - seeing kitty with blood oozing out of her head... ]

I remember the point about fussers I promise I'm not gonna fuss but - how are you feeling?

Oh, this? [ she nudges the crutch with a toe. ] I've been in worse states. Mind you, I've also been in better. I think the physical damage is peanuts compared to -- to all the other healing that needs doing.

Barnes is a friend. [ she turns her head. looks out at the water. ]

That has to be rough.

[ he doesn't actually know much - or anything - about the guy, except the fact that has been hammered into his head repeatedly that this wasn't his fault. (he understands it, he knows it. but feelings are illogical and the memory of kitty's head covered in blood is not one that'll go away anytime soon. or ever.) ]

Is he...ok? Or I mean - as ok as you can get after something like that...

We haven't talked. [ ... ] Steve would know. They've kept in contact. But I can hazard a guess that he isn't doing too well. There was a lot of guilt there long before his mind was hijacked.

[ that petty angry part of him thinks good. the rest of him hurries to explain that it's good because it means he's back to normal, that he really is a good person like people are saying. ]

That's a lot of guilt to deal with.

More than one man ought to bear. I mentioned HYDRA, earlier. And it was HYDRA who did this to him, initially.

You mean this -- wasn't just the Atroma?

[ is it bad to be relieved, because ever since it happened he's been terrified that anyone could be next but if it's a preexisting condition... ]

[ she shook her head. ] They merely took advantage of dormant programming already in place. He'd overcome it, once, but I suppose the triggers remained. Persistent bastards.

There really needs to be some kinda cosmic law against bastards that big being efficient.

[ he knows there's nothing he can say that would help and worse - nothing he can do because he's getting nowhere on trying to figure out the augments and that's something that's stuck in his head - and he hates it. so bad attempt at humor it is. ]

They ought to have been toppled. [ peggy's lips purse. ] As far as I'd known, before coming here, they had been. Thoroughly dismantled, and their top brass dead or detained.

Secret evil organizations always come back.

[ the conspiracy theorist in him is vindicated. everything else in him is very sad, because that sucks on just about every level in existence unless you're secretly evil. ]

-- Touché. [ her cheeks puff. she sighs. ] And yet when one fights a whole damned war to take down Nazis, one hopes they stay taken down.

It still matters. Every time you take them down matters. It saves a lot of people. A weakened secret organization does a lot less harmed than one controlling the world.

[ he didn't mean to make it sound like he's belittling her life's work, oops. ]

[ -- and yet it sounds precisely like that. peggy steels herself, and swallows her indignation. winn seems so young, though he can't be that much younger than peggy herself. and yet the war made her generation grow up altogether too fast. she's been knee-deep in the intelligence community long enough to have learned what winn now preaches, years prior.

but she has the good grace not to dress him down for his presumption.

instead, she's generous. and she lies with ease: ] You make another good point. [ let him think he's helped her, she decides. she's never needed to hoard accolades for herself. she knows her value. ] Maybe you should consider a career in in tradecraft, hm?

[ a lilting, friendly joke. deflection and redirection. ]

[ he doesn't really need to be told he's fucked up anyway, he knows it all by himself. he offers her a small smile in reply. ]

You know I thought about it, but I'm pretty committed to the fulltime business of putting my foot in my mouth. That and - you know - teching.

Plenty of room for the tech-inclined, I'll have you know. [ peggy doesn't know how far the man's fame has spread outside of her corner of time and space, but it's worth mentioning: ] I, for one, work closely with Howard Stark. From time to time. You'll never meet a mind like his. [ ... ] Nor an ego, neither. Except, perhaps, in his son.

Is he here?

[ he's always eager to meet the exceptionally minded! ]

Tony is. [ ... ] Howard was, once. He -- in that memory, the man who'd been controlling the Vita-Ray distribution during the procedure? That was Howard.

Does Tony take after him in abilities, or is it just the ego?

[ because of giant egos he's had enough. if the mind is really that exceptional, though - he can definitely deal with some annoyance. ]

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mucked - 2016-08-01 23:24 (UTC) - Expand