["A wander" will be good, regardless of the circumstances. Speaking about the laws of space and time might draw some attention. Still, she has the sense that talking over this is meant to be about people she can't see, not people she can. Her brief calls to Bellamy before she was pulled away feel as if they're evidence of that.
As it is, she shows up soon enough, awkwardly holding a jacket in her hands because of the frequent reminder that it's never quite that warm out here. There's something about New Amsterdam that has a knack for making her feel young and out of place. She can't do much about it. Certain conversations with certain Strange doctors likely haven't helped with the impression.
She offers Fitz a nod when she sees him, along with a smile, but there's the sense that Clarke means business. (Soon, everyone will know that Clarke means "business" most of the time. Even when she doesn't.)]
Do you know this area well? [It reminds her of parts of the city they moved through during the monster attack, but she has no way of telling if it's the same part. New Amsterdam is massive and, in a lot of ways, more identical in structure than stretches of the forest where the dropship landed.]
[ For his part, Fitz dresses professionally. Black slacks and smart shoes, offset by an asymmetric blazer. Faintly on trend, as he hesitantly embraces the future of fashion. He returns Clarke's smile, a slight quirk of his mouth. Despite the undercurrent of anxiety at their ongoing situation, he finds himself comparatively at ease in the city — and flattered, too, by her interest in talking theories with him.
It helps that Clarke has made a positive impression, if only because of network presence. Her apparent age is noted, naturally, but it's about the same as when he and Jemma started at SHIELD Academy, so it's old enough to help. And she doesn't appear keen on faffing around. ]
Yeah, actually. [ He ducks into the cafe, holding the door for her to follow and queue up. ]
[ then, with a casual air. ] Engineering's my specialty, [ which is worth pointing out, despite his varied knowledge. ] so I'm looking for work in the tech sector around here. [ lowering his voice. ] Though it seems like every company's a subsidiary of the same few corporations.
[ Ah, the capitalist oligopoly of the future! It's not sensitive information, but it might indicate just how green he is. No need to broadcast as much. ]
[Her eyebrows raise and she nods. It makes sense that he'd want to go for something he's accustomed to—and that there may be some kind of corporate illusion of difference, all when everything is just the same. Clarke is even greener when it comes to that. She can recall all the different places that Becca's corporation managed to touch, but it's really the only one she's familiar with.
Still, that may be enough of a reference point. Becca was rather prolific when it came to Polaris.]
It sounds like it's easy to lose track of who's doing what. What values are where. If there are values at all. [It sounds like the perfect network to hide and lose things through the cracks, and everyone else's perspective on capitalism has helped her toward feeling that's true.]
I'm always surprised by all of that. [Casual, less whispers. Hopefully she's feigning "young adult understanding capitalism" quite well. Clarke has no way of knowing if she's nailed it.]
[ Easy in some ways, but the entry-level status and digital bureaucracy keeps Fitz from doing anything off-the-books just yet. as much as he'd like to build something on his own time, he won't hand over the IP for his designs to an amorphous corporate entity.
He puts in an order for herbal tea (seeing as caffeine went the way of the rest of the planet) and a colourful pastry. This strikes him as a potentially lengthy conversation, hence snacks. ]
No need for differentiation with a captive market. [ rah rah corporate whatever. ]
[ Getting off-world seems 'spensive. He imagines importing good is much the same, given the disparate megacities left on this earth. ]
Are you finishing up Uni? [ which is asked more as "how are you settling in," but he ballparks her apparent age as in the educational range in New Amsterdam, regardless of her actual background. Maybe people will think he's, like, an older relative of hers. ]
The equivalent, [she says, offering it after a pause. She bumps her elbow into his, as trying to understand the ways of this world is like trying to understand ... a foreign language, she supposes. There weren't a lot of points where people needed those on the Ark. Previous identities largely went to hell for what remained of humanity.
So, her point, the elbow bump—what follows is a shake of her head. Wrong terminology. She knows about college and the like, but it was a distant thing. PhDs and doctors were what made it up into space, but those credentials stopped mattering. It's similar here, in a weird way.]
I have a job, and I'm using it to pay for some courses. Medical training. I hate not knowing what I'm talking about when people come in.
[ Right. It's open source blah blah blah now, probably funding by the companies interviewing him now. The university gone the way of paper and tea, except for a few holdouts. He wrinkles his nose, annoyed at his mistake and the idea of the system that got him as far as SHIELD being replaced by something new. Bit old-fashioned of him, to be sure, but he'd also like to live in a cottage in Perth with Mrs Simmons-Fitz, so.
Fitz picks up his food for the road, nodding along as he walks. ]
You'll catch up in no time. [ said with a sureness indicative of how much she reminds him of himself, Jemma, and the students he mentored at the Academy, on occasion. Clarke's clever and willing to pursue her hunches, as the biological samples proved. ] Did you find a place, too? Nice neighborhood? Cleanly flatmates?
[She hopes so. Clarke knows that she excels in places that don't necessarily involve knowledge. Yes, she's smart. She's aware of how to go about things, but she's learned from the trials of her life. She's felt utterly useless before, and hates any situation that might remind her that she ended up there for a reason.
It's not that she excels where and when she's indispensable, but that's one way to see it.]
I moved here with some friends from home. [Technically the truth.] I'm not sure how we'll do as roommates, but there's a first time for everything. [She takes her food in a small, cloth bag, one that she picked up for her picnic with Markus and Connor. Totes like that seem to be rather prevalent here (for likely obvious reasons).]
What about you? Have anyone like that to help you get started?
[ They're out the door, then, nearly free of the small talk zone and into the sparsely occupied streets. Most people work long hours in this district. ]
Yeah. [ offered in-between bites of pastry. ] I've got friends from home as well. Makes it easier.
[ At least for Fitz, who hadn't seen his friends for six months when he arrived here. He leads with even strides, taking them on weaving journey through the maze of upscale buildings. If anyone tails them, it'll be obvious to him. ]
So, what's on your mind?
[ He has guesses. The amnesia versus time travel debate had come up when he first encountered Bobbi, years behind him in the timeline. ]
You were the first one to make it apparent that time travel was even theoretically possible. That it's been proven—at least where you're from. [Not where Clarke's from. If there were time travel, she would give up her entire life to ensure that the Earth was survivable. The problem would be giving up all the other lives: making it so that so many others never lived.]
It led to me thinking that—well, my friends are actually a good point to start with. They ... last recall a time in my past. But I know they were there in my future, and never here.
[It's a complicated thing to start with, but she feels like that's enough of a conversation opener. She had been content to assume it was weird time travel, but other people's insistence had led her to think differently. It could be some type of induced amnesia, but she doesn't feel comfortable considering that outcome quite yet.]
[ Oh, so the Bobbi Paradox exactly. Fascinating that it's occurring to other universes and timelines. Perhaps he'll pursue the spacetime angle with his fellow captives, although theorising explanations requires a bit of groundwork — and his conclusion could be disheartening, particularly for his dearest friends. ]
You are experiencing a time travel paradox first-hand. [ a beat, for considering if he's allowed to mention Bobbi, even anonymously. ] And so am I.
[ He sips his drink. This, at least, isn't overly taboo conversation. His research into spacetime and interuniversal travel has revealed it as a topic of interest on the neural networks. Though theoretical, some corporations have fringe research projects in progress. Naturally, Fitz aims to join one such project in future, as soon as he gains credibility in the field. ]
If you accept that the past can be changed through time travel, [ "if", seeing as he's uncertain. ] inconsistencies emerge in any given timeline. Colloquially, we call it the grandfather paradox. If you travel back in time and kill your grandfather, preventing the conception of your father or mother, you no longer exist — only if you no longer exist, how did you travel back in time and kill your grandfather in the first place? [ he pauses, letting that settle. ] And yet, we're confronted with potential evidence of inconsistencies in our lives now.
[ How did their friends travel here and return, seemingly unaffected, never mentioning this to anyone? How did the future remain unaltered? Amnesia's a possibility, but Fitz thinks it unlikely. ]
[Clarke considers his words, but mostly, she's glad that she came to him. She's careful to put most of her food away, opening up a bit of biodegradable plastic to take out a fruit-filled pastry. It's far sweeter than anything she's ever had before this—barring some of the things she had in Mount Weather so she could "pass" as she planned her escape—so she'll likely only be able to eat half of it before she moves on to the savory good in her bag.
After swallowing a bite, she looks thoughtful.]
And we're absolutely ruling out amnesia, even though we're all experiencing it to some degree. I assume you've already gone over that yourself?
[The inflection in her voice makes it apparent: she's relieved and grateful, but also firmly willing to believe and take any theory he has to offer.]
Can't rule anything out, I'm afraid. There’s no disproving in science — you can only ever prove your theory. [ he tips his hand this way and that, bagged food still clutched in his fingers, even as he indicates his uncertainty. ] Retrograde, post-traumatic, or dissociative amnesia have merit as theories. perhaps individuals were specifically stripped of their memories through outside meddling.
[ their captors are prone to meddling, it must be said ]
We've all travelled through spacetime, regardless — from 1891, 2017, Earth, other planets, and so on — to now, here. [ that seems substantiated by the multiple accounts of divergent universes. ] If it is a case of our friends being pulled from earlier points, it could be that the inconsistencies right themselves in some way through further interference. [ so this never happens etc etc. ] Could also be that our friends are from a parallel timeline — a parallel universe, even, rather than the ones that perfectly match our own.
[ if it's not amnesia, it's that. you can't change time. it just is, so any discrepancies indicate one of many the infinite, parallel universes. ]
Okay, if we're not ruling things out, we have to determine why that level of tampering happened. Every answer seems to lend itself to us being watched still. Why would they erase months of Murphy and Bellamy's memories? [A beat, slow, steady. She doesn't like the next thought the occurs to her. Clarke's steps slow as she closes her eyes with the realization.] Unless whatever it is that they used to keep us from remembering that time has side effects. Some people have experienced further ... damage.
[Like a concussion, but lasting. Clarke had ruled out potential trauma and psychological effects with her friends, only because she feels that they'd already have shown signs of that. They've been sent to a "different world," so to speak, and told to survive. That's the strange part of this, how they're both prepared and ill prepared.]
I'm not even sure if there's a way to test for that. If there's some past trauma to the brain? [It seems like it could be possible, if they're including the possibility of erasing time from someone's mind. That's seemingly impossible on its own.]
Why not watch us? [ he waves his hand, still clutching his half-finished pastry. ] We've been experimented on and provided with a means of integrating with society. I doubt they expected us to die after the drop-off. If anything, it seems they'd like us to disperse.
[ why bother giving them implant otherwise? ]
As for the trauma... In my experience, there should be other symptoms beyond amnesia, if it's related to that. Think short-term memory issues, loss of motor skills, trouble with everyday speech. [ his mouth thins as he considers his own brain injuries and subsequent symptoms. ] Only that's Strange's territory, not mine.
[ Fitz is an engineer, mad doctor, quantum physicist, and crime scene investigator. His knowledge of neuroscience is limited to research done on he and the team's behalf. ]
[Her mind flickers to Jasper. Lost. Trying to find a reason to live. His trauma and his reaction to it was definite. No one could deny the cause. They may have been frustrated with him, but they knew how he got there. Even Clarke couldn't hold it against him. He forced her to act at times, but she knew why he was the way he was, as well as the path he took there.]
Yeah, Murphy's not the type to forget anything recent. I'd have noticed if anything changed that. [Minor slights. Little points of humor. Ways to be critical and slyly correct. Murphy in a nutshell. He's a better point of reference than even Bellamy in that regard.]
I don't think we need to ask Doctor Strange to confirm that. I was already pretty keen to rule it out in the first place.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Not a bad surprise, as they go.
You want to talk here or meet somewhere?
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no subject
This afternoon works for me. We can grab a bite and have a wander.
[ there must always be snacks. ]
no subject
["A wander" will be good, regardless of the circumstances. Speaking about the laws of space and time might draw some attention. Still, she has the sense that talking over this is meant to be about people she can't see, not people she can. Her brief calls to Bellamy before she was pulled away feel as if they're evidence of that.
As it is, she shows up soon enough, awkwardly holding a jacket in her hands because of the frequent reminder that it's never quite that warm out here. There's something about New Amsterdam that has a knack for making her feel young and out of place. She can't do much about it. Certain conversations with certain Strange doctors likely haven't helped with the impression.
She offers Fitz a nod when she sees him, along with a smile, but there's the sense that Clarke means business. (Soon, everyone will know that Clarke means "business" most of the time. Even when she doesn't.)]
Do you know this area well? [It reminds her of parts of the city they moved through during the monster attack, but she has no way of telling if it's the same part. New Amsterdam is massive and, in a lot of ways, more identical in structure than stretches of the forest where the dropship landed.]
no subject
It helps that Clarke has made a positive impression, if only because of network presence. Her apparent age is noted, naturally, but it's about the same as when he and Jemma started at SHIELD Academy, so it's old enough to help. And she doesn't appear keen on faffing around. ]
Yeah, actually. [ He ducks into the cafe, holding the door for her to follow and queue up. ]
[ then, with a casual air. ] Engineering's my specialty, [ which is worth pointing out, despite his varied knowledge. ] so I'm looking for work in the tech sector around here. [ lowering his voice. ] Though it seems like every company's a subsidiary of the same few corporations.
[ Ah, the capitalist oligopoly of the future! It's not sensitive information, but it might indicate just how green he is. No need to broadcast as much. ]
no subject
Still, that may be enough of a reference point. Becca was rather prolific when it came to Polaris.]
It sounds like it's easy to lose track of who's doing what. What values are where. If there are values at all. [It sounds like the perfect network to hide and lose things through the cracks, and everyone else's perspective on capitalism has helped her toward feeling that's true.]
I'm always surprised by all of that. [Casual, less whispers. Hopefully she's feigning "young adult understanding capitalism" quite well. Clarke has no way of knowing if she's nailed it.]
no subject
He puts in an order for herbal tea (seeing as caffeine went the way of the rest of the planet) and a colourful pastry. This strikes him as a potentially lengthy conversation, hence snacks. ]
No need for differentiation with a captive market. [ rah rah corporate whatever. ]
[ Getting off-world seems 'spensive. He imagines importing good is much the same, given the disparate megacities left on this earth. ]
Are you finishing up Uni? [ which is asked more as "how are you settling in," but he ballparks her apparent age as in the educational range in New Amsterdam, regardless of her actual background. Maybe people will think he's, like, an older relative of hers. ]
no subject
So, her point, the elbow bump—what follows is a shake of her head. Wrong terminology. She knows about college and the like, but it was a distant thing. PhDs and doctors were what made it up into space, but those credentials stopped mattering. It's similar here, in a weird way.]
I have a job, and I'm using it to pay for some courses. Medical training. I hate not knowing what I'm talking about when people come in.
[Unspoken: I can't help enough people.
Also: Doctor Strange made her feel stupid.]
no subject
Fitz picks up his food for the road, nodding along as he walks. ]
You'll catch up in no time. [ said with a sureness indicative of how much she reminds him of himself, Jemma, and the students he mentored at the Academy, on occasion. Clarke's clever and willing to pursue her hunches, as the biological samples proved. ] Did you find a place, too? Nice neighborhood? Cleanly flatmates?
[ hmm yep unintentionally nailing fussy, older relative. ]
no subject
It's not that she excels where and when she's indispensable, but that's one way to see it.]
I moved here with some friends from home. [Technically the truth.] I'm not sure how we'll do as roommates, but there's a first time for everything. [She takes her food in a small, cloth bag, one that she picked up for her picnic with Markus and Connor. Totes like that seem to be rather prevalent here (for likely obvious reasons).]
What about you? Have anyone like that to help you get started?
no subject
Yeah. [ offered in-between bites of pastry. ] I've got friends from home as well. Makes it easier.
[ At least for Fitz, who hadn't seen his friends for six months when he arrived here. He leads with even strides, taking them on weaving journey through the maze of upscale buildings. If anyone tails them, it'll be obvious to him. ]
So, what's on your mind?
[ He has guesses. The amnesia versus time travel debate had come up when he first encountered Bobbi, years behind him in the timeline. ]
no subject
It led to me thinking that—well, my friends are actually a good point to start with. They ... last recall a time in my past. But I know they were there in my future, and never here.
[It's a complicated thing to start with, but she feels like that's enough of a conversation opener. She had been content to assume it was weird time travel, but other people's insistence had led her to think differently. It could be some type of induced amnesia, but she doesn't feel comfortable considering that outcome quite yet.]
no subject
You are experiencing a time travel paradox first-hand. [ a beat, for considering if he's allowed to mention Bobbi, even anonymously. ] And so am I.
[ He sips his drink. This, at least, isn't overly taboo conversation. His research into spacetime and interuniversal travel has revealed it as a topic of interest on the neural networks. Though theoretical, some corporations have fringe research projects in progress. Naturally, Fitz aims to join one such project in future, as soon as he gains credibility in the field. ]
If you accept that the past can be changed through time travel, [ "if", seeing as he's uncertain. ] inconsistencies emerge in any given timeline. Colloquially, we call it the grandfather paradox. If you travel back in time and kill your grandfather, preventing the conception of your father or mother, you no longer exist — only if you no longer exist, how did you travel back in time and kill your grandfather in the first place? [ he pauses, letting that settle. ] And yet, we're confronted with potential evidence of inconsistencies in our lives now.
[ How did their friends travel here and return, seemingly unaffected, never mentioning this to anyone? How did the future remain unaltered? Amnesia's a possibility, but Fitz thinks it unlikely. ]
no subject
After swallowing a bite, she looks thoughtful.]
And we're absolutely ruling out amnesia, even though we're all experiencing it to some degree. I assume you've already gone over that yourself?
[The inflection in her voice makes it apparent: she's relieved and grateful, but also firmly willing to believe and take any theory he has to offer.]
no subject
Can't rule anything out, I'm afraid. There’s no disproving in science — you can only ever prove your theory. [ he tips his hand this way and that, bagged food still clutched in his fingers, even as he indicates his uncertainty. ] Retrograde, post-traumatic, or dissociative amnesia have merit as theories. perhaps individuals were specifically stripped of their memories through outside meddling.
[ their captors are prone to meddling, it must be said ]
We've all travelled through spacetime, regardless — from 1891, 2017, Earth, other planets, and so on — to now, here. [ that seems substantiated by the multiple accounts of divergent universes. ] If it is a case of our friends being pulled from earlier points, it could be that the inconsistencies right themselves in some way through further interference. [ so this never happens etc etc. ] Could also be that our friends are from a parallel timeline — a parallel universe, even, rather than the ones that perfectly match our own.
[ if it's not amnesia, it's that. you can't change time. it just is, so any discrepancies indicate one of many the infinite, parallel universes. ]
no subject
[Like a concussion, but lasting. Clarke had ruled out potential trauma and psychological effects with her friends, only because she feels that they'd already have shown signs of that. They've been sent to a "different world," so to speak, and told to survive. That's the strange part of this, how they're both prepared and ill prepared.]
I'm not even sure if there's a way to test for that. If there's some past trauma to the brain? [It seems like it could be possible, if they're including the possibility of erasing time from someone's mind. That's seemingly impossible on its own.]
no subject
[ why bother giving them implant otherwise? ]
As for the trauma... In my experience, there should be other symptoms beyond amnesia, if it's related to that. Think short-term memory issues, loss of motor skills, trouble with everyday speech. [ his mouth thins as he considers his own brain injuries and subsequent symptoms. ] Only that's Strange's territory, not mine.
[ Fitz is an engineer, mad doctor, quantum physicist, and crime scene investigator. His knowledge of neuroscience is limited to research done on he and the team's behalf. ]
no subject
Yeah, Murphy's not the type to forget anything recent. I'd have noticed if anything changed that. [Minor slights. Little points of humor. Ways to be critical and slyly correct. Murphy in a nutshell. He's a better point of reference than even Bellamy in that regard.]
I don't think we need to ask Doctor Strange to confirm that. I was already pretty keen to rule it out in the first place.