[muffled spooky scary skeletons playing in the distance]

[geonomy]

Who: You! Me! Everybody!
Broadcast: idk but we've sure got a pretty broad cast of folks eh, eh
Action: HECK YEAH PLANET MINGLE
When: 10/7 until plot update or recaptcha

It's a deep, deep forest filled to the brim with fungi, mysterious life forms, and pitch black darkness. Explore if you dare and discover all these things and more! Just don't get lost...

Comments

[mucked]

[ -- funnily enough, she's been told much the same. but when she sees the cane, she finds her suspicions are proven correct.

carefully: ] Would you like an arm? Though, feel free to tell me to stuff it if you're just as happy without the help.

[ she doesn't want to seem imposing. or, worse, patronizing. ]

[avocadoatlaw]

[ He has a brief moment where he weighs how difficult it will be to navigate an alien forest while pretending he can't tell he's about to walk into a tree, or the possible repercussions of admitting he can. It's feeling less and less crucial to keep things a secret. ]

How about I reserve the right to ask later?

[mucked]

As you like, [ she answers. these terms are rather agreeable to her, as she hadn't been exceptionally keen on sharing her arm in the first place. it did, however, seem like the dutiful thing to offer. ] Let me know if anything changes.

[ a few thoughtful steps in the forest's direction. ] All that remains is to venture forth, I suppose. Make your peace with civilization -- there doesn't seem to be altogether too much of it ahead.

[avocadoatlaw]

[ Matt moves alongside her. ]

Let's just hope it isn't all space poison ivy.

[mucked]

Oh, hell -- don't introduce that possibility. I might turn coward on you. [ her tone drips with a light (but dry) humour. an old fashioned accent, rarely heard outside of the plainest of parodies.

[avocadoatlaw]

Somehow I doubt that.

[ Matt grins. He notices the unusual speech patterns, but doesn't know quite how to place it. ]

How long have you been in the fleet?

[mucked]

A year, if you'll believe it. A year and nearly a month. [ ... ] The time sneaks up on you.

[avocadoatlaw]

[ He tries to keep too much surprise out of his voice. ]

I think that's the longest I've heard. Do you have anyone from home here?

[mucked]

I do. Fortunately. [ hell, but she can't hide her smile. it sinks into every syllable. ] My aforementioned security officer. And a handful of others, too, mind you. But I find myself rather out of step with all of them.

[avocadoatlaw]

Why's that? Because you're on a different ship?

[mucked]

It isn't so simple. [ -- and peggy decides there's no reason to be coy about it. ] I find myself some seventy years behind others who are purported to be from my same world. Statistically speaking, most people hail from somewhere in the 21st century.

[ not so much me. ]

[avocadoatlaw]

[ That would explain the accent and speech patterns, and based on her heartbeat, it's all true. ]

And you're not. That's amazing. But you're from a version of Earth?

[mucked]

I am -- the only version I've ever known. [ she picks her way with care across the stony mesa, and the treeline gets ever-nearer. ] Except the year I left behind before I came here? 1947.

And you? Do you come from -- Earth, Matt? Or a version of it?

[avocadoatlaw]

I did, but from 2016.

Does that mean the person you know here is from 1947, too?

[mucked]

[ her laughter is sudden -- low, and a little bit brittle. ]

I'm afraid that's a far trickier question than it has any right to be. Technically? No. He never saw '47.

[avocadoatlaw]

[ Matt considers the comment. ]

Because he was brought here? Stop me if I'm prying too much, it's habit.

[mucked]

I don't mind. [ but that's a knee-jerk answer. pausing, briefly, she corrects herself: ] Or I do mind, but it's a rather academic sort of protest -- as it seems everything I might say on the matter has since become a matter of public record.

[ she steels herself. ] The man in question was in a plane crash. [ that's one way of putting it. ] Shortly before the war ended. Everyone thought him dead.

[avocadoatlaw]

[ There's a strange moment where Matt puts the pieces together, but feels silly asking the obvious question. ]

Are you talking about Captain America? Steve Rogers?

[mucked]

You're familiar with the story? [ well. fancy that. peggy hums -- and if she allows herself to look troubled, then it's only because she understands he cannot see it. ] Yes, I served with Captain Rogers. So to speak. [ ... ] And that may mean you and I might very well share a world, Matt, if not a year.

[ sharply curious, because many who have arrived have been: ] Are you a friend of the Captain's?

[avocadoatlaw]

Everyone is. After what happened in New York, he's sort of a household name.

[ He chuckles at the second question. ]

And no. We don't really run in the same circles.

[mucked]

[ a snort. a household name, indeed. softly: ] He was one of those in my time, also. New York's bona fide war hero. [ and yet it was all a little more complicated than simple heroics. but she'd kept mum on muddying those waters. ]

But I've heard a little of what happened in New York. And then with the organization they called SHIELD.

[ they. as if it isn't herself, in the near future, who's destined to chose that name. ]

[avocadoatlaw]

[ Matt nods. ]

It's been a pretty major shift in national security. Global security.

[mucked]

From what I've heard, the organization itself wasn't all that secure -- [ hydra had rotted it from the inside out. it's a failure that isn't hers, technically speaking. but she feels it acutely. ]

[avocadoatlaw]

[ He smiles wryly. ]

I wasn't going to say it.

[ He pauses before speaking again. ]

But I know they mean well. Even with the damage to the city, I think we all know it would have been worse if they weren't there.

[mucked]

That's a very generous perspective. [ and a nuanced one, at that. ] Generous enough to help me feel a little bit better about telling you I work for an agency that is -- as far as I understand it -- the precursor to SHIELD.

[ a tight, unhappy sort of smile. for no one's benefit but her own. ] Or so the Captain tells me.