fleetwide video + action »

[mucked]

Who: a newly canon-updated peggy carter and YOU.
Broadcast: fleetwide video
Action: ss starstruck for crewmate and any visitors.
When: beginning today, but feel free to forward date something if you like.

VIDEO (FLEETWIDE)

[ stern-faced, peggy appears upon the network. ] Does 'zero matter' mean anything to anyone? Pointed, I know, and a bit a long shot...but -- if there's anywhere I might find some resource or knowledge about such matters, then the fleet is my best hope. Otherworldly mysteries are not well within my wheelhouse.

[ there are other questions she could ask -- but no, zero matter might be the safest inquiry out of a great many others. and even then, it's barely safe at all. but it must be asked, for now she feels most preoccupied with the work conducted back home. the fleet is almost a secondary thought -- a distant, archaic priority. ]

Alternatively -- [ she sighs. until now, she hasn't been agent cater within the fleet, much preferring to be the more social and civilian version of herself. ] -- I wouldn't mind hearing a bit more about worlds. Different worlds, universes, what have you. I know none have been successful in creating a rift between this place and any other but -- surely, such rifts must exist elsewhere.

ACTION (STARSTRUCK)

[ long story short: peggy carter took a nasty spill inside one of the sr shuttles, and is now back on her feet after being out cold for nearly a day. on the surface, it seems like nothing's the matter. not seriously so, at least. but as she goes about her ship duties, there's a glassy-eyed quality to her gaze. it takes her a little too long to remember someone's name -- as though she's reaching back by weeks or maybe months to recall details she'd been living every day.

find her in the kitchen, where she's preparing one of her two or three or sometimes four daily cups of tea. or find her in the cargo bay where she's trying to use the recreational equipment. she quickly gives up on the punching bag because although she no longer has stitches holding her guts together, there persists a tight ache in the flesh. she settles for the treadmill.

wherever else she might be encountered, her crankiness is persistent. ordinarily patient with her crew, peggy's kindness has been thinning out all week. she appears tightly wound and disengaged. ]

Comments

[mucked]

[ her mind is first and foremost inquisitive. at the whiff of something unlearned, she can't help but chase it. so peggy (without asking) pours celeste a cuppa. the alien-origin creamer and sugar are on the table, should she like either in her brew.

one mug delivered, she takes a seat across from celeste with her own. ] What do you mean -- different purposes?

[nulliverse]

Oh, ta. [She gives a little nod and a smile, adding a bit of both and answering as she stirs.]

Eudio grants wishes, of a sort. They find you in your own universe and offer something - it's completely your choice, but it can't influence another person's life too directly, only in that tangential way that can't be avoided - in return for staying in their city for a time.

[Then, just before she takes a sip of tea, her expression turns wry.]

If I tell you the rest, you shan't believe me. Very few people here do.

[mucked]

[ -- her mouth goes dry. peggy had never before been one to pine, precisely, but she feels the untapped potential of such a promise. wishes, granted? could that even be possible? it cuts her so deeply now because she houses so many quiet secret wishes in her bones. she's forgotten how to excise them. ]

Once I might have bowed to your claim but -- of late, I find my horizons rather expanded.

[ zero matter had been an unbelievable thing. and now she accepts it whole-heartedly as she works against it. ]

[nulliverse]

[It's a fact that hasn't always been taken well here, and for good reason, considering the worlds both trans-dimensional and otherwise that some people came from. The entire thing was so much more complex and confusing than a genie in a bottle, but...

... well, she hasn't been confronted with it this time. Instead, she's essentially been asked to continue, so she lifts one shoulder in a shrug.]

I did warn you. The reason they needed more people there was because they've got a unique power system - it runs on the energy created by physical intimacy. And I suppose the locals weren't creating enough. That was the trade-off, you see, our end of the bargain. Once you'd generated enough energy to pay off your contract, you got your wish.

[mucked]

[ physical intimacy. her lip curls. deep down, there is a gut reaction of disgust -- celeste wasn't wrong to predict that much. but peggy reins it in long before it makes itself too readily known upon her face. after all, there had been the leading implication that these people were volunteers. and who was she to question the lengths to which others might go for their desires? for their wishes?

but: ] Then I would quibble with your description of it being so very different in purpose, Celeste. If only because it seems both your past city and this fleet strain the boundaries of our comfort and our privacy. Different, perhaps, but not very.

[ a very minor quibble! but, rather than articulate it for the sake of being contrary, she uses it as a crutch. it saves her from reacting raw and unfiltered. ]

[nulliverse]

Well, to be fair, they did their best. Holding hands would generate energy, hugging, cuddling, kissing - it was just a matter of how quickly you wanted to go about things. And everyone's comfort levels are different, after all.

[If that last statement sounds a bit pointed, it's only because Celeste took full advantage of the lax attitude in Eudio and had such a good time that some could judge her for it - and she was already being called a slag in hushed whispers around BIAPA before she left, so it wouldn't be the first time.

But since Peggy didn't outright condemn anyone who enjoyed it, Celeste doesn't outright defend herself. There's just that edge to her voice.]

Not to mention that anything not done with the full consent of both parties got you thrown out in a split-second, with no question of your incentive being granted. I've never been somewhere so quiet and peaceful before, with so many people unwilling to find out exactly where the line would be drawn.

[mucked]

[ no boundaries tested -- no emotions blackmailed. oh, she doubts it was ever so simple as that. but celeste paints a pretty picture, and peggy doesn't do her the disservice of questioning it further. instead, she dips her chin and takes a sip of tea. ]

I confess, I like the sound of it better than being watched all day. All night.

[ mercenary affection is a lot easier for the spy to swallow than constant surveillance. ]

[nulliverse]

It was better in nearly every way. [Her voice has the quality of a sigh, sadness rippling through it.] Just a normal city, where you could live a relatively normal life - you had a flat, and a job if you wanted one, and you could go to school and get a pet and make friends...

[She always makes herself sound so strange when she talks this excitedly about the mundane aspects of Eudio, but she can't help it. The experience really was amazing for her, life- (and self-) changing.]

... there was so much freedom. Here, there's almost none, and there'll be less when we're in space.

[mucked]

And yet, it does have it's charms. [ stiff, she doesn't want to give all her cards away. ] There's something to be said for a place where one can see people they never thought they'd see again. Perhaps your other city managed that as well, but...

For me, that's this fleet.