Ah. [ What's a casual way to mention you've been to someone's hometown without bringing up the war that ravaged it and left the city divided for decades? ] When I visited— [ sure, that's casual, just a friendly visit, you know, like a tourist ] —it was just Berlin.
[ american captain. ah. gaby slides her sunglasses down her nose for a moment to look him over. broad shoulders, damn near offensive jawline underneath that beard. he's much more handsome than daisy's pictures, especially up close.
she'd bet good money that he gave candy rations away during the war. ]
It was just Berlin when I was born, it has been East Berlin since I was eleven. Were you in the war?
I was. My unit was tasked with taking down HYDRA. [ He's learned that, for some reason, HYDRA isn't as universally recognizable between worlds as the Nazis, but if Daisy told Gaby about Steve, he imagines that HYDRA would have also come up once or twice. ]
I wasn't around to see the wall go up and by the time I got back it had been knocked down. I did see a section of it on exhibit at the Smithsonian.
[ the über nazis, right. gaby tries to block that out. ]
You did not miss anything, I promise.
[ gaby watched it go up, she'd only learned it came down (nearly thirty years later!) when she'd come here, she still hates the wall around the city because of living in the shadow of her own wall. ]
Excellent Soviet construction. [ the sarcasm is phenomenal. ]
[ He chuckles a little at the Soviet jab and pointedly does not think of a crumbling Siberian bunker. It's better to appreciate her sense of humor and his luck at running into someone he shares a little more in common with than most. ]
I'll take your word for it. [ He missed quite a lot, actually, and sometimes he worries he'll always be playing catch up, but who wants to dwell on that? At least he can cross Berlin Wall (Up + Down) off the list. ] I'm sorry, I just realized I never got your name.
[ and any sense of propriety because a real lady would never admit to a hangover. luckily, gaby is not a lady, she just happens to be a woman. she drags her sunglasses off, eyes dull from that hangover and too little sleep, immediately squinting despite the cloud cover currently sending fresh smelling rain just outside the awning. she manages a pretty smile anyway. ]
No judgment. I never learned mine in the first place. [ It's just a joke, Steve doing his part to keep the conversation lighthearted now that they've moved past heavier topics, but there is a little bit of truth to it. He usually gets away with it because people confuse politeness for manners, but by the standards of his own time Steve's etiquette skills were sometimes found lacking. ("Sometimes found lacking" here meaning that calling others out on foul behavior could, in some circumstances, be considered poor etiquette, and what is a man to do?)
He does shift over to stand near the edge of the awning, giving her some shade from the glare of daylight and the occasional splash of rainwater, so. Not entirely hopeless. ]
It's nice to meet you, Gaby Teller. [ The smile he gives her in return is more subdued but it's still progress on the 24/7 grimace he's been wearing since he woke up in the future for a second time. ] You know, with almost five centuries of scientific advancements, I'm surprised nobody's cured the hangover yet.
Five centuries of scientific advancements and they have not cured the common cold, either.
[ honestly she is shocked that so many different immune systems with so many different active and inactive viruses haven't completely destroyed the immunity of the natives. maybe that is what their involuntary quarantine is for but it also seems impossible to cover the diseases and illnesses of so many different worlds.
gaby doesn't sleep well, she has time to think about this. ]
They did have the time for a third World War, however.
[ That hackneyed saying about learning from history or being doomed to repeat it comes to mind. It hits just a bit too close to home for Steve, however. If repeating history were an Olympic sport, he would have several gold medals under his belt. ]
They sure did. Who knew that misplaced priorities would be the true constant throughout human history?
At least they did not make the mistake of calling one of these walled cities "New Berlin".
[ can you imagine.
it is recent history to gaby, only a month or so ago, but over five hundred years ago for this earth. their modern history is simply history. how long does it take before they become relics of the new middle age? ]
[ The very idea raises Steve's eyebrows, his mouth pressing together in a moue of distaste. ]
Yeah, we dodged a bullet there.
[ The Berlin Wall should have been in his distant future, but by the time he woke up it was two decades gone. He learned about the wall, the Vietnam War, and the moon landing all in the same documentary touching on highlights of the 1960s. He's suddenly very glad that VR technology wasn't an option at the time, even for SHIELD. ]
Have you been to any of the other cities? I remember hearing about a New Tokyo.
I haven't, no. Recently some others went to New Prague as well.
[ gaby did not go because gaby didn't give a single scheisse about daisy's friend and she isn't a good enough person to go simply because daisy's friend was in danger. she hasn't been here long enough to care.
and she wouldn't.
she didn't even go to the outpost to pick up steve and co. ]
New Prague, [ he repeats dryly. Presumably the new UN-on-steroids is responsible for the common naming convention. Maybe he should count his blessings that there isn't a New New York. At least, not as far as he knows. He'll happily remain ignorant if there is. ] I guess a little creativity was too much to ask for.
Nobody ever listens to their elders, [ Steve laments with a slow, unnecessarily dramatic shake of his head. He learned to lean in the old thing roughly ten million uninspired grandpa jokes ago. ]
[ the sunglasses dip down again before she takes them off entirely, tucking them into her short hair like a headband. she studies steve carefully, mouth twisted to the side in thought. ]
Something like that. I haven't done the math in a while. [ He might have been a few years younger at last count, but he also feels like he's recently aged all five of the centuries he missed, so sure, round it out to thirty four. ]
You'll understand if I don't take the risk of guessing your age, I hope. [ There's some things a gentleman should never do. Not that he's ever been much of one, but hey. ]
[ she is a baby child. and she is not a lady so she doesn't care about admitting it since it only serves to prove her point. she is young (spinster age at the same time) and a woman so lord knows no one in 1963 would listen to her. ]
Is there a reason so much mathematics is involved in your age? It's usually simple subtraction..
If I subtract from 2016, I get ninety-eight. But I wasn't conscious for most of those years, so it feels a little disingenuous to call myself a nonagenarian.
[ Not that it ever stopped anyone else.
It feels strange to talk about this with someone who isn't already familiar with the broad strokes of his life story. How much should he fill in? ]
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to confuse you. I'm just not used to having to explain any of this. Where I'm from, it's fairly common knowledge.
You're twenty years older than me. [ or he would be, had he not been unconscious for all that time. he looks good for 98. looks good for 45, as well. either way, he was twenty when gaby was born.
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she'd bet good money that he gave candy rations away during the war. ]
It was just Berlin when I was born, it has been East Berlin since I was eleven. Were you in the war?
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I wasn't around to see the wall go up and by the time I got back it had been knocked down. I did see a section of it on exhibit at the Smithsonian.
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You did not miss anything, I promise.
[ gaby watched it go up, she'd only learned it came down (nearly thirty years later!) when she'd come here, she still hates the wall around the city because of living in the shadow of her own wall. ]
Excellent Soviet construction. [ the sarcasm is phenomenal. ]
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I'll take your word for it. [ He missed quite a lot, actually, and sometimes he worries he'll always be playing catch up, but who wants to dwell on that? At least he can cross Berlin Wall (Up + Down) off the list. ] I'm sorry, I just realized I never got your name.
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[ and any sense of propriety because a real lady would never admit to a hangover. luckily, gaby is not a lady, she just happens to be a woman. she drags her sunglasses off, eyes dull from that hangover and too little sleep, immediately squinting despite the cloud cover currently sending fresh smelling rain just outside the awning. she manages a pretty smile anyway. ]
Gaby Teller.
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He does shift over to stand near the edge of the awning, giving her some shade from the glare of daylight and the occasional splash of rainwater, so. Not entirely hopeless. ]
It's nice to meet you, Gaby Teller. [ The smile he gives her in return is more subdued but it's still progress on the 24/7 grimace he's been wearing since he woke up in the future for a second time. ] You know, with almost five centuries of scientific advancements, I'm surprised nobody's cured the hangover yet.
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[ honestly she is shocked that so many different immune systems with so many different active and inactive viruses haven't completely destroyed the immunity of the natives. maybe that is what their involuntary quarantine is for but it also seems impossible to cover the diseases and illnesses of so many different worlds.
gaby doesn't sleep well, she has time to think about this. ]
They did have the time for a third World War, however.
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They sure did. Who knew that misplaced priorities would be the true constant throughout human history?
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[ can you imagine.
it is recent history to gaby, only a month or so ago, but over five hundred years ago for this earth. their modern history is simply history. how long does it take before they become relics of the new middle age? ]
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Yeah, we dodged a bullet there.
[ The Berlin Wall should have been in his distant future, but by the time he woke up it was two decades gone. He learned about the wall, the Vietnam War, and the moon landing all in the same documentary touching on highlights of the 1960s. He's suddenly very glad that VR technology wasn't an option at the time, even for SHIELD. ]
Have you been to any of the other cities? I remember hearing about a New Tokyo.
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[ gaby did not go because gaby didn't give a single scheisse about daisy's friend and she isn't a good enough person to go simply because daisy's friend was in danger. she hasn't been here long enough to care.
and she wouldn't.
she didn't even go to the outpost to pick up steve and co. ]
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Mm, for a society naming their countries after our countries, they certainly haven't learned from their own history.
[ steve is not included in gaby's list of Old People. it is her and illya and now steve. they need a lawn for people to get off. ]
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[ the sunglasses dip down again before she takes them off entirely, tucking them into her short hair like a headband. she studies steve carefully, mouth twisted to the side in thought. ]
Thirty... four?
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You'll understand if I don't take the risk of guessing your age, I hope. [ There's some things a gentleman should never do. Not that he's ever been much of one, but hey. ]
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[ she is a baby child. and she is not a lady so she doesn't care about admitting it since it only serves to prove her point. she is young (spinster age at the same time) and a woman so lord knows no one in 1963 would listen to her. ]
Is there a reason so much mathematics is involved in your age? It's usually simple subtraction..
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[ Not that it ever stopped anyone else.
It feels strange to talk about this with someone who isn't already familiar with the broad strokes of his life story. How much should he fill in? ]
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to confuse you. I'm just not used to having to explain any of this. Where I'm from, it's fairly common knowledge.
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You're twenty years older than me. [ or he would be, had he not been unconscious for all that time. he looks good for 98. looks good for 45, as well. either way, he was twenty when gaby was born.
just her type. ]