Gumball Wishes and Taxicab Dreams

[thespaceopera]

[On today's episode of the Drift Fleet:

The cargo holds are full of mysterious crates! The crews are filling beyond capacity with new faces! Official alerts are informing the passengers that they are signed to contracts that they've never agreed to! They are docking at the dazzling FS Starlight, but are flat broke!

What are they going to do!? Stay tuned to find out!


...Meaning, this is a kickoff mingle for you all to enjoy the beginning of the latest plot setting. This is a convenient place to start threads relating to the first week of the event-- meeting new crewmembers, reacting to the mysterious cargo, arriving on the station and discovering that you're all broke, etc.

Tag around, start whatever you'd like, have fun. And, as always, feel free to make your own posts and mingles from here on in, as this will be the only mod-posted one for this event!]

Comments

[enshields]

[Steve rolls his eyes.]

Punk. You just had to ruin the hair. I remember that being quite the offense back in Brooklyn when the tables were turned.

[Yeah he is definitely calling you a peacock, bro. DWI.]

[redactions]

[ Used to be. His appearance now is an act of control over a world that doesn't make sense. Jim, however, rolls his eyes. ]

So what're you gonna do about it, Rogers?

[enshields]

[Used to be. He knows how it sounds, how it'll be taken. But the past is a graveyard, littered with the bones of all the things that'll never be the same. They can't go back. There's only tomorrow, and all the days that follow. Steve sits up and rubs at his mouth, speculative.]

Dunno. Guess I'll need to plan my revenge.

D!

[tothefly]

[Natasha's out doing some window shopping when she sees a familiar face pausing in front of the storefront a few yards away. Not familiar because she knows the woman personally; just passingly familiar thanks to the fleet network's video posts, and again to the fight she'd watched the night before. The lady knew how to handle herself in a fight, definitely. Natasha had made a few credits off that one. So she approaches, pauses, glancing in the window herself at the display of blades.]

Expensive, but pretty. Looking to invest?

[An innocuous question. No mention at all of the possible use.]

[redactions]

Oh, beware my counterattack. Not to mention my contingency plans.

[ He closes the distance between them, leaning the side of his head against Steve's. The remote is next to the robot, and Jim brings it over just for something to do with his hands. ]

[geonomy]

[Now that Clay's slid into the seat beside Allen, he grins as he leans against the counter and looks at the menu on the board. He doesn't like alcohol, so he'll skip over that part, and when the barkeeper comes over, he'll look up at him to order.]

I'll have the Mango Limeade! He's paying!

[He leans over to nudge Allen's shoulder as he says that last part]

[enshields]

Damn cat. Don't forget-- [Which one of us is Captain America. Good sense stoppers up the words before they can escape, and instead, seamlessly:] that I learned from the best, huh?

wildcard, fights

[tothefly]

[She shouldn't be surprised to find him here, honestly. Maybe just a little, but people like them do tend to eventually gravitate towards certain kinds of events. She'd thought it'd be fun. Not the fights themselves, really, she's not a recreational violence kinda girl for the most part, but the betting, carefully playing the odds. That she likes.

So here's a familiar-looking face with a very different look than he's used to, popping up beside him from out of the crowd after the first round, an amused voice murmuring almost in his ear.]

And here I thought my hairstyle decisions were risky.

[redactions]

So did I.

[ Natasha didn't slack in his education, k. ]

[enshields]

Yeah, yeah.

[Steve shoves at his shoulder, and then at length just flops back on the grass.]

Gumballs in your hold too?

[redactions]

[ Jim cards his hand gently through Steve's hair one last time, then lets him go. ]

Yeah. Kinda tasteless. Not poisoned, either.

[enshields]

[His flat look basically says you didn't.]

[redactions]

[ He and Steve used to sneak in to boxing matches all the time when Bucky was teaching him and soon learnt the little tricks to the game. This is familiar only in that respect, a good place to try and practice. He's fallen out of the habit of going undercover, and if he's honest, he's itching to get away from himself. ]

[ He's not surprised she found him almost immediately, either. They have a shared magnetism, similar to but on a different frequency than the one he has with Steve. ]

Maybe you'll like me better with auburn instead of copper red.

[ His voice is altered, just enough to keep Brooklyn out, but the cadence of the words is the same, just for her. ]

[redactions]

[ He raises his eyebrows. ]

What? The serum protects me. I just get real sick, that's all.

[enshields]

[Steve pinches the bridge of his nose. His anger hides the fear.]

Since when were you the reckless one?

[redactions]

Since never. It's a calculated risk, and it was worth it.

[bb_wolf]

[He gives a small rub by her ear. It feels nice without being inappropriate on anyone's behalf.]

Wish I had the option to go rolling about in sunbeams in my real skin. Think I might cause a panic, though.

[enshields]

[Flatly,]

No. It really wasn't.

[redactions]

[ Now you know how I feel all the time. He's not bitter enough. ]

It wasn't a first resort.

[bb_wolf]

[Technically, yes, but what he's really good at is violence and barely constrained malice and there's only so many semi-legal avenues for that.

He gives a sniff and drains the glass of water.]

Bars draw creeps. So do pretty faces. You just seem like you'd prefer something with more challenge.

[tothefly]

What, you aren't tempted to go blonde next? I hear they have more fun, you know.

[She does note the little changes he's made besides the obvious hair color swap. Differences in posture, speech, and subtle makeup. He's wearing the sleeve, too, though that's something she'd assumed he'd do. A metal arm stands out just a little, even in a place like this.]

[redactions]

Tempted to try punk next, actually. How do you think I'll look with a mohawk and some tattoos?

[enshields]

[But Steve hears it anyway, in some small part. He's too self aware not to, and he's seen Bucky's reaction to enough of his stunts. Peg let slip once, about grenades at Lehigh, and even all the way back then he thought Jim was going to have kittens. But Jim didn't live every day with the possibility of dying, he didn't have years to come to peace with that, to act in spite of it, and in this, Steve thinks, he's allowed selfishness.

And if it means acknowledging the fact that he and Jim live the same without each other - on their knees, bereft - then-- he can accept that. It doesn't mean he's pleased about his best friend taking a page out of the Steve Rogers playbook and being a damn idiot.]

Only a little stupid, then. Great.

[But his displeasure is still evident.]

[redactions]

Fine. It's only okay when you do it.

[ Anger simmers under his skin now — yes he knows he's self-destructive. Nat said once, if you disappeared right now you wouldn't cry over it and she's right. She's still right. He has a disregard for his own life that's born of bitterness and hatred. It's a problem. It takes unravelling, and he's not there yet. And if he is, nobody is going to take bullets for him. ]

[tothefly]

[Legality and fun don't always correspond, it's true. Luckily, she's never been overly concerned about drawing a line between the two.]

Do I really look that bored back here? I should work on that. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy a challenge every now and then, though. You're right about that.

[She laughs, even as there's a little flash of interest in her eyes. Does he have some suggestion?]