driftfleet | ( video )

Who: Peggy Carter and YOU.
Broadcast: Fleet-wide, from inside the Marsiva.
Action: Y, for any other newcomers between now and the Shuffle.
When: This Week.

[ let us not dwell too long upon the awkward silences and humiliating nascent moments of agent carter's awakening. let it only be said that she woke with a start (despite the afforded comfort) and the broadcast didn't quite zoom in close enough to adequately witness the depth of her horror when she first raised a tentative hand to her forehead only to find an empty glass vial still sitting there. steve's blood had been poured away: returned to his native lands by way of the east river. both guilty and triumphant, she pockets the vial in her blazer and tells herself it's a problem for another time. after all--- ]

Bollocks. [ mistaking herself for a person alone, she swears. loudly and colourfully as she crosses the bay and knocks her knuckles against the too-intact viewing window separating herself from the rest of creation -- and no familiar blue-and-green marble in sight. peggy swears again: bollocks, damnit, and hell. unable to peer into the void for much longer, she turns her back on oblivion and is confronted once more with the too-sterile hospitality deck. she may be a tidy and precise sort of woman, but this much tidiness and precision makes her stomach turn. where is the stink of new york? the heat? the mess? the humanity?

feeling charged with purpose, she springs into (moderate) action. feeling alarmingly comfortable with technology she swears she's never seen before, she plays her fingers across a panel she doesn't know will connect her to the rest of a whol damned fleet -- but she's left with the burning certainty that it'll connect her with someone. imperiously: ]

I would speak with the individual -- or individuals -- in charge of this operation. Believe me when I stress there is a whole bloody cavalcade of laws, both domestic and international, you're breaking by holding me here. I demand to...

[ some of the fire floods from her belly. a little desperate, she changes tactics: ] Is anyone there? Hello?

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[ Unexpectedly, he laughs, and it's warm, sincere. ]

You've got a lot of faith in me; I don't think even I could make this up.

But Norse gods, Barnes?

[ someday -- someday -- she might call him bucky again. but not this day. ]

[ He'd protest the name. He's not Bucky anymore — he's gotten used to Natasha referring to him by his surname, and Peggy nearly always used it in the field anyway. ]

[ Playfully, ] I would've found the hats harder to believe.

Fashion changes -- however much we might protest it. But matters of gnosticism -- or should I say agnosticism rarely change at all. Hence the bloody name.

[ once the unknowable becomes known...then what? what's a rational skeptic to do? ]

I had a hard time with it too, but the fella can summon storms.

[ That's science, and it's far beyond anything they're currently capable of. ]

My yardstick for weird just gave up.

So that's one. But you said gods. You used the plural, you know.

[ good grief, does she even want to ask? ]

[ He makes a disgusted face, not the same hatred he reserves for HYDRA, but the fury towards one's enemy. ]

The other one I know of is Loki. God of Mischief. Lie-smith. No prizes for guessin' what he gets up to.

Edited (I can words I promise) 2015-09-08 04:28 (UTC)

So I won't bother. [ guessing. it all sounds very obvious, anyway. ] An enemy of yours?

Yeah.

[ He can explain the Avengers another time — and Tony Stark never. The man can damn well explain himself. ]

All told, it feels like a bizarre dream sometimes.

And this place by comparison? What does that bizarre dream make of...bloody space travel.

[ because that's a thing. and she's not yet certain she's okay with it, even as she's beginning to understand the rudimentaries. ]

[ He opens his mouth to maybe talk about Star Trek, and then closes it. ]

We landed on the moon in 1969.

[ He'd have turned immediately and told Steve if he could, but as he's always thought — Peggy is the next best thing. There's no one in the world closer to the same stuff his friend was made of. ]

[ a complex procession of emotions march across her face: bare wonderment, at first. a spark of disbelief (because she can't quite quell the rational skeptic mentioned earlier). and, at last, a deep and abiding awe. ]

We. [ she repeats. curious and cautious. ] We, as in -- [ america?

the space race might not have quite found its starting line yet, but that doesn't mean there haven't been quiet preparations happening at high levels of security clearance for some time. the ssr has their fingers in a great many pies. ]

[ His face falls, and he scrubs a hand through his hair. ]

Yeah — there was ah. Space race with the Soviets. They put a satellite and a man in orbit first, but America got to the moon.

[ He doesn't add that after that it almost seemed to stop, and the world turned back inwards during the 'Nam years. She doesn't need to know that. She'll live through it soon enough. ]

Right now, none a'that competition left going on. We've got little robots exploring Mars. Ain't it grand?

[ it is (unfortunately) a little dark and telling that she can't think of it as anything but a race. a competition. a war. he tells her of wondrous things, and she needs to know who achieved them. the horror of such a mindset doesn't occur to her -- not, at least, until he talks about little robots.

foolishly (not understanding the scope of any of this) she tries to connect a dot: ] And how far are we from...Mars?

[ she asks it like that because at the moment she can't quite comprehend being further from earth than that much. ]

I have no idea, [ he says, very honestly, with an open expression, open heart, open hands. He's dropped much of the wariness that she might've seen when the video feed first clicked on. Made the centre of attention like this, to be able to tell her the wonderful things that're coming instead of the dark and heavy days she'll have to face, how many times she might come close to the brink of another war, that there's things to see them through. ] it's just exploration at this point. NASA has Twitter [ he gestures ] it's a short message service? Everyone in the world can read it. They post photographs regularly.

-- From Mars? They share photographs from the Red Planet with everyone else across the world? [ she begs assurance. and she smiles a small and incredulous smile -- but a smile all the same, with its corners tugged by an undeniable delight at the prospect.

later tonight (when she tries to sleep) the darker half of her mind will start to fret over the other implications of space travel: of its military applications and its dangers. but for now, she's almost girlish in her awe. ]

[ The smile she gets in return is entirely boyish as well, full of an old joy, kept safe and brought out for her alone. ]

With everyone. You can see it on your phone — oh, phones are now like cameras, teleprinters, telephones, and record players. I have mine with me, I'll show you when you visit.

[ And perhaps that betrays how much he's really missed her, when he doesn't have to worry about her memory fading: that he expects her to come and visit him at the first opportunity. ]

O-of course. I'd love to.

[ visit. the admission is out before she can stop it -- and a part of her doesn't want to deny the possibility. because right now (with his grin and his enthusiasm) he's a lot more like the man she'd once known. the other sharpshooter: the man in the unit who could be counted on to tap her on the shoulder and regale her stories of amazing shots and beautiful sunsets seen while spotting. it had taken a while to see that man beneath his initial oil-slick flirtation and cutting good looks. but there had come a point where the old game had fallen away and they'd been left with a comfortable acquaintanceship. or (dare she think it) a friendship.

and hearing him talk like this reminds her of those times. when he was alive, and steve as well. ]

Sounds handy, actually. Like a godsend in the field. [ these phones of his. ]

[ Not just like to, but love to, and every open and direct expression from her was something to be treasured. His smile lights up. ]

Yeah, they have GPS — means you can find 'em no matter where they are.

[ A useful tool for lost agents, but the reverse is true, the enemy can use it to find them. Wait until they discuss burners. ]

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