6619/The Framework: Through the Walls

The Framework: Through the Walls
Date of Scene:	19 June 2021
Location:	The Framework: Security Containment Level, The Triskelion
Synopsis:	Peggy and Daniel wake up in seperate cells next to each other in the Framework. They speak through the vent, not caring if they are being listened to or not. Tears happen.
Cast of Characters:	Daniel Sousa, Peggy Carter
Tinyplot:	The Framework

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Daniel Sousa has posed:
For the first time since he came to the Framework, Daniel didn't wake up in the real world, when the ICER shots hit he fell into blackness and when his eyes opened again he was still in the Framework or at least he thought he was, he didn't recognize the cell he was in, and if HYDRA had raided the sphere while he was jacked into the system he doubted they'd take prisoners, just blow the whole place up and drop it all on their heads.

"Crap," he breathes, rubbing the place the ICER rounds hit before sitting up gingerly for a better look around. It was a plain cell with light coming in under the door and very little other illumination. The sort of thing they used to have at the Rat just with more modern materials.

He's quiet a moment thinking things through before he calls out. "Hello!" he wasn't going to learn anything from his surroundings so his only hope was to try and get one of the guards to come in and talk some information out of them.

Peggy Carter has posed:
It's not until Peggy hears that familiar voiced hello on the other side of the wall that she jerks up off of the floor where she was tossed, after fighting tooth and nail trying to get back to her son. She doesn't quite remember which punch knocked her out, but eventually it did. She's still tasting blood and it's sticky on her nose, upper lip, and chin. She rolls over onto her back with a little groan, her fingertips reaching out to brush the cold wall at her side.

"...Daniel?" She rasps out, realizing her throat is also thick with the copper that's rolled down the back of her nose. Probably broken. She's had worse. She clears her throat again and smacks her hand against the wall a few times, trying to get his attention while she's waking herself up more. "Daniel?? Can you hear me?" She scrambles down the wall, fingertips finding the built in little grate. Nothing she can pry up, there aren't even edges, just vent lines. Probably as much for sleeping gas as it is air conditioning or heat. "My darling? Are you there?" She finally calls straight into the grate.

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Daniel's head turns at the sound of Peggy's voice and he scurries across the floor till he finds the wall and his fingers sweep along the base of it to find the grate. "Yeah, Peg, it's me are you okay?" he asks her. "I'm not too badly hurt over here, just got that post ICER headache and dry mouth."

He lays down on the cool floor and shimmies closer to the grate to better talk to Peggy. "But something's wrong I woke up here, not in the real world like the other time's I've gone to sleep. Something changed."

Peggy Carter has posed:
Dark eyes flicker around the cell, but Peggy *built* these cells. She knows the security, the triple layers, the multiple locks of different types on the doors. Since she helped break Dottie Underwood out of prison all those years ago, she's built tighter, better cells and higher walls. Any hope of breaking out while that door is secured? It's all left her.

So, she sinks down to the floor instead. Curled on her side, eyes turning towards the grate where his voice echoes through quietly. She has to assume they are being listened to, but part of her doesn't are either. If she closes her eyes, she can almost pretend they are in bed together. Almost. She rests her bruised cheek against the cool floor. "Daniel, thank god. I... I saw Melly *shot* you. They showed me. I don't understand how, or ... Why. What they did to her, but I didn't know what kind of gun... what happened. Oh god, I thought you were dead."

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Daniel suspected they were being listened to, hell, they'd run this same trick on prisoners in the past, put them in adjoining cells and let them talk, recording all the while, but he really didn't care.

Daniel is quiet after talking about Melly. "It was an ICER, I gave her mine to defend herself and the other kid, but I forgot she's part of the simulation, the thing in charge of this place did something to her and Dot to make them turn on us."

Peggy Carter has posed:
A little groan escapes her lips as he's going on about the simulation again. Peggy blinks against a wave of tears behind her eyes, "God dammit, Daniel, can't you just focus for one moment and be HERE with ME? If this is a... simulation, why the hell did I land that jet and give over all our other children when I could have taken off and just gotten OUT of here?" Peggy's not entirely broken, but she's on the edge of it. Maybe broken and trying to push her pieces back together. But her voice cracks as she speaks. The glue is barely holding.

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Daniel lets out a breath, simulation or not they were both really stuck here, and they could both really die, he tries to be gentle. "I'm here with you Peg, I always am, simulation or not this place is still dangerous, and you turning around saved my life. You did the right thing, we need to get out of this okay, the both of us, we've got a family out there too, it's just different, Michael is a grown man and Sharon, she's our granddaughter, does any of this ring a bell for you Peg? Can you remember how you felt about our Michael and about Sharon?"

Peggy Carter has posed:
"Daniel. I... I love you. I don't understand how they broke you like this. What they put in your brain to think there is another world out there, but... I know our Michael. I know they just ripped him out of my arms and have taken him god knows where. And they broke Sharon's brain too, somehow." The fact that Sharon was spilling the same insanity? That's the first thing that makes her really hesitate. She goes quiet for a few heartbeats, too far from him for him to even really hear her breath. "She's rambling the same things as you and I...don't... Understand."

Daniel Sousa has posed:
"I understand why you think I'm broken Peg, but it's all real, Sharon and I are both from that world and we're hijacking the signal along with Simmons and Daisy, to get into this place and get you out. It's the truth, I understand why you don't want to believe, I've only been here a couple of days and despite all the horror of HYDRA running the place, there are parts of this place I don't want to let go of either," the kids, "I love you Peg, but I need you to wake up, Sharon needs you to, and Michael, we all need you back, /I/ need you back, god I don't even know how much time I've got in this time, and I want to spend what I've got with you, in our world, not in this simulation."

Peggy Carter has posed:
There's silence again. Peggy listens to those words, the utter sincerity behind. There's a hesitation behind her breath now, a tightness in her throat. "God, Daniel, I... I want to believe you. I want to think this isn't how things... End. I haven't flown a quin jet in five years and that felt like I did it yesterday. Maybe... god. I don't know. I just don't remember. If you're honest, if... somehow, that's real, I don't have a scrap of it left in my head. But I know I want to spend my life with you. We need to... get out of here together. Somehow. They took the kids. All of them. I don't know if we'll ever see them again and I don't know... god, I don't know how to breathe, how to... live... Knowing that. That I failed them."

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Daniel puts his hand against the grate even if she can't see it he wants to reach out to her, to let Peggy know he's there. "I know Peg, and I understand. We're going to get out of here Peg, we're going to get home and we're not going to fail the kids either, we need to get us out of here, them out of here and they've been moved we find Daisy and Simmons they've got what we need to find them again no matter where they get taken. We're not going to fail them," simulation or not.

Peggy Carter has posed:
A small sigh escapes her lips. "I... want to believe we can do this, but I don't know how, Daniel. I... I built this place. I know every inch of it. Getting out is..." A slight crack of tears comes to her voice. She's silent again as she tries to stop the shuddering of her own breath. She doesn't want to sob in front of him, even if she's alone in a room. But she's losing the battle to those tears. She hugs her arms across her stomach, trying to wrap it all in. "Hell. I'm...sorry. I failed, Daniel. I failed them. You..."

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Daniel shifts towards the wall by instinct trying to reach out for Peggy, to hug her close, but the damn wall is in the way. "We've figured out how to get out of worse, we just need to think," he shifts closer his voice dropping to a whisper. "Plus the people back in the real world can see what we see, they'll help us as best as they can."

Peggy Carter has posed:
The tears are too much. Now that she's let a few fall, the rest are rushing after in rapid release. She can't close up the dam any more. He can hear the echoing, ragged pull of her breath as she sobs into the floor, curled in on herself as small as her soft body can get. "God, I'm sorry, Daniel. You have no clue h-how much... I love you... Love *them*... and we might n-never see our... Children again, and I can't g-get out of... a prison I built. They wouldn't even l-let me keep... Michael."

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Daniel feels his eyes burning with his own unshed tears as he presses up close to the grate. "I know Peg, you've known them, this life for a long time, and even in these couple of days, but I love them too, I want them back, so whatever it's going to take to get out of here and get them I'll do it, we just have to wait for our moment and make our move. In the meantime, you built this place, try to push everything else out of your head and try to figure out a way we can use what you know about this place to escape."

Peggy Carter has posed:
It takes a good bit longer for Peggy to calm herself. She probably needed the cry. She'd never do it in front of the kids, she barely let herself do it when she thought he was dead. But now she's alone in a cell and trapped. She couldn't help it. So the quiet, shaking sobs come for a long time, just the faint sound of broken breath through that vent. But eventually, she does speak, "I...c-can get us to access vents, back entrances, ways to get o-out if... If we manage to get out of these cells. But these doors are unbeatable. I made them that way."

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Hearing those sobs, Daniel calls out in a gentle whisper, "It's okay, Peg, I'm here with you, let out what you need, it's okay," he knew how Peggy was how little she liked to show weakness but right now with all she's been through he didn't doubt she needed it.

When Peggy speaks again, Daniel glances back at the door, "Then we'll either need to encourage a guard to come in or wait until one does, sounds like the only way to beat the doors right? Let one of them open them for us."

"At least they left the cells dark for us," he says, it'd make ambushes easier.

Peggy Carter has posed:
"Yes. And... you'll just have to trust me. Hell, they are probably still recording this. They know our plans now, or that we're even starting them. Shit, Daniel, I just... I don't know how we get out of this one. And I just want to hold you. We should have run away with the kids, let May get Melly. We... we could have gotten out." But even as her crackling voice says that, she knows it'd be impossible. They love Melinda too much. But Peggy is in that awful spiral of someone who is looking for the one thing that she could have done wrong that would make this better.

Daniel Sousa has posed:
"I want to hold you too Peg, more than anything, and we will get that chance," he says before he shakes his head even though Peggy couldn't see. "Its not your fault Peg, this AIDA thing had to change the rules of this sim to stop us, and we didn't know that was something it could do that fast. The plan was good, we made the right moves including surrendering, and just need to keep ourselves together so when we get a chance to make a move we can take it," he says. "Can you do that with me Peg? I need you for this, and our families need both of us, so I'll lay here talking as long as you can stand it if it helps Peg, but we are going to pull it together and we are going to get out of here."

Peggy Carter has posed:
Silence again, Peggy not willing to lie to him, so she has to think about if she has the fight left in her. It might be the first time he's ever heard her hesitate like this. Finally, she takes in a deep, shuddering breath and he'll hear her thick voice come through the vent, "Yes. O-of course. I'm with you. Life gave me back to you, whatever life it is. Whatever one we have. Twice now, I've gotten you back. I'm not going to give up on us now. I promise."

Daniel Sousa has posed:
Daniel frowns when Peggy hesitates, it's meaning clearly marked, though he doesn't comment on it or her stumbling over her words, he let's that go, sitting up and taking off his jacket to fold it up to use as a pillow as he lays back down next to the grate. "Thank you Peggy, and you have my word I'm going to fight like hell to make sure you don't lose me again," he tells her softly. Here or to time. "But right now it looks like there's not a lot we can do but wait, so if you want to rest go ahead, I'll keep an ear out and yell if anything happens," he says before taking a beat to smile wanly, an expression Peggy would have seen before in similar situations. "Wish to hell I was able to hold you Peg, but I'm here all the same Peg, even with this wall in the way, I'm here."

Peggy Carter has posed:
"I know you are. I love you. I know you're here. I'm... going to sleep, a little. We'll take shifts. I love you so... So damn much." With that promise, exhausted with tears and the day, she curls a bit closer to the wall and folds one arm up beneath her head. "Tell me... the story about the cheese plate you all stole in France during the war? That's... a good story." And Peggy will slowly drop off to the sound of her husband's stories, things she's heard a hundred times, taking her out of this situation and wrapping her up in the warmth of his voice.