[Peggy's learnt quite a lot about the TVA in the time she's spent hopping from timeline to timeline. She's had to, in order to stay one step ahead of them. Luckily, her stolen tempad lets her pick up on some of their communiques, and when she catches word of their intended target, she knows that she's got to step in.
Which is how, when Steve shows up in the 1940s and is about to knock on the door, he ends up tackled into the bushes by a red, white, and blue blur instead - and through a door in the air that opens to a deserted planet. The portal snaps shut behind them, but Peggy remains on top of him.]
Of all the bloody stupid ideas!
[She thuds the heel of her palm against his chest as she swears up a blue streak. Is this what you wanted, Steve?]
[ After everything, you would think that something as inconsequential as clothes wouldn't register on Steve's radar. Somehow he still ends up obsessing over what he should wear, both in terms of making sure he fits in with the time and, more importantly, in making his second first impression with Peggy Carter. He doesn't think her so vain that it will even matter, which makes it all the more frustrating when he still loses the better part of the morning switching in and out of clothes.
So, the first absurdly inane thought that Steve has as he gets tackled to the ground is that he wasted all that time pressing his slacks. Then he hears her voice, in that achingly familiar exasperated tone, and the dirt stains on his pants are downgraded to the last thing he could give a damn about. ]
Peggy! [ Steve exclaim-exhales, fresh out of breath in part from the surprise, in part because she so expertly knocked him to the ground. Flat on his back under her weight— which he remembers being substantially less, though he'd go to his grave before mentioning it— Steve can only sit there and wait for the cursing streak to come to its natural end. He's missed her so much that even that puts a goofy smile on his face. ]
[In the middle of the cursing, she looks down at Steve to see the smile on his face. Even though he isn't her Steve, the expression is familiar enough to make her heart ache and her eyes sting with tears, and she loses her momentum entirely. Peggy squeezes her eyes shut for a moment, then opens them once she's certain she won't start crying, and the expression on her face softens. When she speaks again, there's something fond in her voice.]
You're still a damned sentimental idiot.
[Their faces are close enough to kiss, and god, how she wants to. Not your Steve, she reminds herself. It's obvious that their relationship followed a similar path in this timeline, but, well, that's one thing that seems to remain fairly constant, at least from what she's seen. With a sigh, Peggy pushes herself up and off of Steve.]
Do you know how close you came to getting yourself erased from time?
[ Steve notices himself, how close their faces are, how easy it would be for him to just lean up and kiss her. He just about starts to do it, but as he begins to lift himself up on his elbows, Peggy rises off of him altogether. And from this angle, it not only becomes clear but impossible to ignore: Peggy is definitely bigger. ]
Did you get taller? [ That takes him back to a lab under an antique shop in Brooklyn, to gasping for air as he was helped out of the Vita Ray chamber, Peggy the first to ask how he felt. And suddenly, he takes in the rest of Peggy's new appearance, the suit that's just familiar enough to fill in any remaining blanks.
But he doesn't get a chance to confirm anything; Peggy's next question takes him completely by surprise. So much so that he doesn't have any kind of intelligent response. ]
[To answer both his questions. Good thing they've got the time, pun absolutely intended. Peggy sits back on her heels and tucks a few stray hairpins back into place as she speaks.]
Apparently your universe - specifically your universe, because I imagine I wouldn't have made it through the war otherwise - has an agency that's very persistent in regards to eliminating anyone who mucks with what they consider the proper order of time. Which means that they weren't too keen with you reinserting yourself into a timeline that had quite happily moved on while you were frozen in ice, and if I hadn't got there first, you would have been- well. I'm not certain what they do with their so-called variants, but it's safe to assume they get wiped out of existence.
[ Steve has the decency to feel some shame in response to Peggy's explanation; he was explicitly warned not to disturb the timeline and he decided to do it anyway, damn the consequences. Granted, he didn't know that those consequences were complete erasure, but then, Steve can't even say with certainty that knowing the true risk could have stopped him.
Peggy must have guessed he wouldn't be easily deterred, because she pushed him into a landscape so barren he almost wants to ask what she thinks he could accomplish with the odd shrub. ]
So where are we now? [ Steve asks, pulling himself up to his feet and taking a longer look around. ]
[It's not always about you, Steve. In this case, it's about choosing desolate, utterly abandoned places - ones where their presence won't have an effect on the timeline, where they can't be detected by the TVA for causing a deviation. (Sure, you can accomplish the same thing by hiding in apocalyptic events, but that's just overly dramatic.)]
Another planet. I don't know what it's called, or if it even has a name. What it does have is a breathable atmosphere and no native sentient population.
[Peggy stays where she is, sitting on the ground - though it's strange having to crane her neck so far to look up at Steve. She can't say she's surprised by the way he looks, being familiar with the changes the serum work on a body, but...it's different. Certainly not in a bad way, judging by the way he fills out those slacks.]
I can take you back to your own timeline, if you'd like. They shouldn't chase after you if you go back to where you're meant to be. Or when you're meant to be, rather.
No. [ Steve responds immediately, and rather forcefully. He isn't ready to give up on what he set out to do, and he certainly isn't about to let Peggy Carter drop him off back where he started. Even if it isn't the same Peggy that Steve was trying to get back to, it is Peggy. He can't just let her slip away again. ]
I left that timeline for a reason. [ Peggy should be able to infer that reason even if he doesn't elaborate. He has to hope that they mean enough to each other in any universe that she'll understand. He's not ready to say goodbye so fast. ]
[Peggy pinches the bridge of her nose. She understands his desperation, she truly does. She isn't entirely certain she wouldn't attempt the same, given the opportunity. But she's also not going to stand idly by and let any Steve be a complete idiot.]
First of all, because I'm sure you were thinking 'oh, I can overpower whatever team they send for me', let me just inform you that in the process of eliminating variants, the TVA has handled innumerable copies of every villain you've faced, with wildly differing powersets. I don't know how they accomplish this, but they do.
Second, once you're in the timeline, you begin to contaminate it. Short-term contamination can be reversed fairly easily. Once you, say, spend any length of time around other people, they inevitably become variants as well, and they're doomed to the same fate as you.
[Hopefully he cares enough to not want his Peggy to be erased from the timeline through his own selfish actions. If not, she's got nothin'.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tbh you may not even need to read the wiki because I'm playing fast and loose with canon anyway
Which is how, when Steve shows up in the 1940s and is about to knock on the door, he ends up tackled into the bushes by a red, white, and blue blur instead - and through a door in the air that opens to a deserted planet. The portal snaps shut behind them, but Peggy remains on top of him.]
Of all the bloody stupid ideas!
[She thuds the heel of her palm against his chest as she swears up a blue streak. Is this what you wanted, Steve?]
no subject
So, the first absurdly inane thought that Steve has as he gets tackled to the ground is that he wasted all that time pressing his slacks. Then he hears her voice, in that achingly familiar exasperated tone, and the dirt stains on his pants are downgraded to the last thing he could give a damn about. ]
Peggy! [ Steve exclaim-exhales, fresh out of breath in part from the surprise, in part because she so expertly knocked him to the ground. Flat on his back under her weight— which he remembers being substantially less, though he'd go to his grave before mentioning it— Steve can only sit there and wait for the cursing streak to come to its natural end. He's missed her so much that even that puts a goofy smile on his face. ]
no subject
You're still a damned sentimental idiot.
[Their faces are close enough to kiss, and god, how she wants to. Not your Steve, she reminds herself. It's obvious that their relationship followed a similar path in this timeline, but, well, that's one thing that seems to remain fairly constant, at least from what she's seen. With a sigh, Peggy pushes herself up and off of Steve.]
Do you know how close you came to getting yourself erased from time?
no subject
Did you get taller? [ That takes him back to a lab under an antique shop in Brooklyn, to gasping for air as he was helped out of the Vita Ray chamber, Peggy the first to ask how he felt. And suddenly, he takes in the rest of Peggy's new appearance, the suit that's just familiar enough to fill in any remaining blanks.
But he doesn't get a chance to confirm anything; Peggy's next question takes him completely by surprise. So much so that he doesn't have any kind of intelligent response. ]
What?
no subject
[To answer both his questions. Good thing they've got the time, pun absolutely intended. Peggy sits back on her heels and tucks a few stray hairpins back into place as she speaks.]
Apparently your universe - specifically your universe, because I imagine I wouldn't have made it through the war otherwise - has an agency that's very persistent in regards to eliminating anyone who mucks with what they consider the proper order of time. Which means that they weren't too keen with you reinserting yourself into a timeline that had quite happily moved on while you were frozen in ice, and if I hadn't got there first, you would have been- well. I'm not certain what they do with their so-called variants, but it's safe to assume they get wiped out of existence.
no subject
Peggy must have guessed he wouldn't be easily deterred, because she pushed him into a landscape so barren he almost wants to ask what she thinks he could accomplish with the odd shrub. ]
So where are we now? [ Steve asks, pulling himself up to his feet and taking a longer look around. ]
no subject
Another planet. I don't know what it's called, or if it even has a name. What it does have is a breathable atmosphere and no native sentient population.
[Peggy stays where she is, sitting on the ground - though it's strange having to crane her neck so far to look up at Steve. She can't say she's surprised by the way he looks, being familiar with the changes the serum work on a body, but...it's different. Certainly not in a bad way, judging by the way he fills out those slacks.]
I can take you back to your own timeline, if you'd like. They shouldn't chase after you if you go back to where you're meant to be. Or when you're meant to be, rather.
no subject
I left that timeline for a reason. [ Peggy should be able to infer that reason even if he doesn't elaborate. He has to hope that they mean enough to each other in any universe that she'll understand. He's not ready to say goodbye so fast. ]
no subject
First of all, because I'm sure you were thinking 'oh, I can overpower whatever team they send for me', let me just inform you that in the process of eliminating variants, the TVA has handled innumerable copies of every villain you've faced, with wildly differing powersets. I don't know how they accomplish this, but they do.
Second, once you're in the timeline, you begin to contaminate it. Short-term contamination can be reversed fairly easily. Once you, say, spend any length of time around other people, they inevitably become variants as well, and they're doomed to the same fate as you.
[Hopefully he cares enough to not want his Peggy to be erased from the timeline through his own selfish actions. If not, she's got nothin'.]