gotta get down for a mingle

[redactions]

Who: The crew of the SS Heron and visitors.
Broadcast: nope.
Action: Aboard the SS Heron.
When: After returning to the ship.

[ finally back on the right ship, except the corridors are all mysteriously cold and the ship seems smaller. Thanks, Atroma. New crew, visitors, starters in comments ]

Comments

[reconstitution]

Always right, aren't you?

[ He's not annoyed by it- really, he's grateful. Anyone else probably would have just left the conversation as it was. Peggy wants to make it better in her own way, which is very much a tell of her personality. ]

[mucked]

[ at first, her eyes widen ever so slightly. they betray a shock -- but not a bad one. perhaps from another soul, such an invasive comment would only get beneath her armour. but for a brief and beautiful moment he feels like bucky: quick with his returned fire, and always right in his own intimate way. nostalgia tugs at the corner of her lips. ]

Heaven knows I try. [ lives depend on it, some days. ]

[reconstitution]

[ Bucky is starting to come back one piece at a time, the ice chipping away at the edges. It will be a long time before he resembles anything like the man he used to be. Maybe he'll never be him again, but there are just pieces of himself he'll never be able to completely erase. ]

You don't have to, but you do.

[mucked]

Or maybe I merely have an awful lot to prove.

[ this time, she isn't being smarmy. nor smart. but quiet and confessional. ]

[reconstitution]

..Do you? It doesn't seem like you would.

[ She's strong and commands attention already. What the hell would she need to prove? Peggy is one of the good ones that he's met so far. Who else could dislodge memories long-forgotten with a few kind words? ]

[mucked]

Hah. [ dry. ] Bless Jim for not having breathed a word of it to you but -- I'm afraid the S.S.R. rather more often has me fetching coffee these days, my friend.

[reconstitution]

[ My friend Oh god, it makes his chest hurt. It's a warm feeling, but there's an edge to it, too. She wants her friend back, but with those words, she's deemed him an acceptable replacement.

It didn't really feel like friendship, before. But now it does.. ]

Then you should just show them who is boss.

[mucked]

More than likely, you're right.

[ she won't quibble. she won't argue. she won't sob and sigh over how damned difficult it is to make them see her as an equal, let alone a superior. ] Not that it matters now. They're well and far away.

[reconstitution]

I suppose it is, Peggy.

[ It still feels wrong not to address her as Agent Carter, but it's what she wants. He's not going to dispute that. She gives him the same courtesy and calls him Winter; even though they both damn well know that's not who he is. ]

[mucked]

And changing their minds will take time. [ ... ] Time worth taking, of course. But time all the same.

[ she wonders if perhaps the winter soldier might empathize with that point. ]

[reconstitution]

They'll see they were wrong.

[ The easy way or the hard way, certainly. They'll regret being on opposite sides in either scenario. ]

[mucked]

Or they'll go the way of the dinosaurs alongside their prehistoric thinking. [ a nervous laugh. she hadn't meant for it to sound quite so much like a threat. ]

[reconstitution]

Some people's ideals are harder to change. They think they're right and try to make you believe it.

[ And sometimes, they're so charismatic about it, that they win. ]

[mucked]

Ideology's a bastard to battle. [ she wets her bottom lip. ] From either side.

[reconstitution]

As long as there's one, it won't stop.

[mucked]

So -- in your experienced opinion, Winter -- what would you say we battle here?

[ it's not as simple as toiling against the atroma, because there more like an overseeing power than an ideology. is it voyeurism? is it some bizarre twist on capitalism? she can't be certain. ]

[reconstitution]

They don't seem to like it being called a prison.. But they act like they're a benevolent force. Give us nice places to go-- or nice things-- after something bad happens.

[ He doesn't really know how else to explain, and he's not exactly experienced in this particular brand of crazy.. Anyone that happy all the time is up to something. ]

[mucked]

They pray we have short memories, then. Or that we're like children -- easily bought.

[reconstitution]

I think so. They want compliance, at least..

[mucked]

And they get it. For a given definition of the word, at least. [ she huffs and taps the back of her neck. ] I heard removing them isn't an option.

[reconstitution]

I haven't tried.

[ He honestly tries not to think about it at all, otherwise he may try to remove it. ]

[mucked]

Nor have I. Nor do I want to, really. [ ... ] I heard that someone did make the attempt, and that it didn't end well.

[reconstitution]

That isn't surprising from the people who put it there in the first place.

[mucked]

Tagged and bagged. [ a quasi-angry sigh. she's more pleasant with the others -- but something about winter's bluntness lets her let loose a little more. ] We're more than mere entertainment. We're big game.

[reconstitution]

They brought us here like it was nothing. There has to be a bigger motive than watching us.