.04 Scars are just places where I used to bleed

[touchofrogue]

Who: Rogue
Broadcast: Text
Action: A corner table in Varrick’s bar on the Iskaulit
When: January 17th

[Around 10 this morning as time is measured, this text goes live across the network, the numbers set to anonymous:]

**Wanted** Pilot with a pilot augment willing to risk a little trouble. If interested, interviews will be held at the Space Bar from approximately 3-6 today. Compensation for time and trouble to be negotiated.


Action
[Rogue sits with her back to the wall with a decent view of the door. She’d asked the bartender to inform anyone who came in and inquired about interviews to point them in her direction, and Nami had graciously agreed. This had been in her mind to determine for a while, but Loki's disappearance had just given her the proper motivation to try it. There is a determined set to her shoulders even as she tries to relax and nurse her drink. This would be what her friends would call reckless if they were feeling kind about things, which would be why she didn't plan on telling them.

...Ugh, waiting for interviews was not the best. Maybe she should have brought a book. She pages absently through her communicator instead.]

Comments

action » the night before

[mucked]

[ tonight, peggy and rogue's appointment with a bar-table has absolutely nothing to do with the covert message she'll send the next day. nothing to do with any sort of false-happenstance or bumped-into-serendipity. instead, this is a meeting well-arranged. one (did it matter which?) had called the other up and asked to share drinks. it isn't a desperate sort of request -- although both women could likely desperately use the company. they meet as almost-friends. it's amicable. ]

All I'm saying is that this nonsense purchasing of upgrades and better sinks and bloody doors for our billets: it's the Atroma, moving goal-posts. Gets us caught up in chasing a minor achievement for a slight adjustment in comfort, and draws attention away from any sort of meaningful strides towards...towards...

[ she trails off. they'd been bandying about this topic for the better part of an hour. peggy took a long sip of something amber-coloured, but not whiskey. not exactly. ]

Something else.

action » the night before

[touchofrogue]

[Rogue gives Peggy a wry sort of smile.]

Somethin' like tryin' ta band together an' find a way home? [She shakes her head.] I only wish it was that simple. 'course, it's not fair ta keep comparin' this place ta Luceti, but I can't help it. Ya know we had ta restart the timeline just for a shot at gettin' home? An' then this [a gesture around them] happens. I don't even know if it's the same universe, but I can't help thinkin' that the Atroma are a sight nicer captives than the Malnosso. 'course, the Mallies were at war most of the time...

action » the night before

[mucked]

Towards thwarting them. By any means.

[ she concludes. eventually. ] And perhaps that doesn't mean finding a way home -- but it certainly means finding a way out of a pattern the Atroma have decided for us.

[ still, she has to concede one point: ] Even if it isn't an entirely unpleasant sort of pattern.

action » the night before

[touchofrogue]

[Rogue shrugs and takes a drink.] At this point, the only thing that really makes me wanna thwart for the sake of thwartin' is that these folk are tryin' ta control our destiny. [She sets her glass back down a little harshly.] Nobody ought ta make those life choices for anybody else.

[Nobody chooses my destiny but me.]

action » the night before

[mucked]

Let's not forget the voyeurism. A sin well worth a good thwarting, if you ask me.

action » the night before

[touchofrogue]

[A crinkle of her eyes at the edges; amusement.] Put out their lights, instead of just ours?

action » the night before

[mucked]

Something like that. [ another sip. this part of the conversation comes to its unresolved end -- the problem still hangs, and yet there is no convenient solution. peggy sighs.

and switches tacks. ] How have things been? [ the question isn't pointed, but merely broad. curious. friendly. she had the tact not to open their evening with such a prod, but after a few drinks it seems like the logical question. ]

action » the night before

[touchofrogue]

Boring. [An honest confession, probably before Loki was taken.] So boring, Carter. Gawd. I reckon I've been here 'bout six months now, an' it ain't like I'm complain' for the lack of life-endangerment, but I'm pretty sure I'm 'bout to start crawlin' the walls. You?

action » the night before

[mucked]

I'm learning to make peace with boring. [ so says the woman who most definitely shared both a dance and a kiss with a certain star-spangled man during rogue's christmas party. boring had its own kind of thrill to it -- the kind that allowed for slow smiles and few disasters. ] But give it another month, and I'm likely to learn how to sympathize.

[ for busybodies, the siren's call of activity always snags them in the end. ]

action » the night before

[touchofrogue]

In Luceti, I ran the Item Shop an' shared responsibility for the stables. There was a giant battle dome an' daily trainin' sims. The drafts an' the monthly experiments... I don't miss those. But my ship has three cooks now, Carter. Three.

[So. Bored. So bored.]

action » the night before

[mucked]

-- Must make for a great deal of spoiled broth.

action » the night before

[touchofrogue]

[Heh.]

Eugene got a job here. [She jabbed her chin toward the kitchen.] Mostly we just take shifts. I thought 'bout switchin' ships right at first when I learned there was a cook on the Vanquish already, but... [Her expression softens.] Clay's a really good captain.

action » the night before

[mucked]

Is he?

[ her voice doesn't harbour doubt. instead, she aims to lead rogue into a description. she barely knows clay. ]

action » the night before

[touchofrogue]

[Rogue shrugs.] Captains don't really have that much ta do here. Paperwork appears out of no where, but for what? There's no real power an' authority but for the ones we let 'em have. But a person who takes on a responsibility like that an' then tries ta just take care of the parts of his crew that he can? I think that's all ya could ask for.

action » the night before

[mucked]

Ours on the Starstruck is a little green but -- but his heart's in the right place. [ on at least one occasion, peggy has provided the young man with a sort of quiet bolster from the background. commands disguised as suggestions in order to protect both of their dignities. that he took them so graciously rather warmed peggy to him. ]

I suppose on some days that's all that matters.

action » the night before

[touchofrogue]

[Starstruck? Oh right, she should know the captains of the other ships, shouldn't she. That would be good general information to have. Oh well, put it on the list.]

Who's your captain?

action » the night before

[mucked]

Yosuke. [ ... ] Hanamura. Young, certainly. But eager to do right by his ship.

action » the night before

[touchofrogue]

I don't know him. [Rogue takes a sip of her drink.] But then, I don't think I've been on your ship either.

[She isn't the most social person.]

action » the night before

[mucked]

I believe it's actually quite nice -- as ships go, at least. Most of the crew are well-behaved. A good smattering of renovations done. Everyone pitches in to make there's a selection non-gel foodstuffs on hand. As billets go, I figure I could have pulled a worse straw.

[ a small smile. ] You could come visit, sometime.

action » the night before

[touchofrogue]

Might take ya up on that. [She lifts her drink in Carter's direction.] Ya know, for a random samplin' of folks, it's kind of amazin' how many people in places like this aren't utter jackasses. I find the percentage's actually much higher on Earth.

action » the night before

[mucked]

[ a sharp bark of laughter. ]

Don't I know it. You would think an organization bent on entertaining the masses might have chosen a few more bad eggs.

action » the night before

[touchofrogue]

[Rogue shrugs.]

Might be they might not have as much control over who comes an' goes as they'd like to make us think.

action » the night before

[mucked]

I wonder -- is that a comfort or cause for further concern?

action » the night before

[touchofrogue]

[Rogue shrugs.]

If it is, then it's another one that we can't control. So... [Maybe another drink? Or maybe junk food. This feels like junk food.]

action » the night before

[mucked]

Control? Likely not. But I confess I have a hard time ignoring an unbroken code. [ a careful look. ] I'm mad for the cryptoquotes they put in the papers back in New York.