enter if you dare (i'm kidding we're 80% approachable)

[theroadwarrior]

Who: Crew and visitors for the Starstruck!
Broadcast: None!
Action: The SS Starstruck
When: March! And, y'know, until the next mingle too.


[EVERYONE GET IN HERE AND MINGLE AND STUFF OKAY.]

Comments

[mucked]

[ she doesn't much care for the ease with which he reads her. deceiving others has always been a skill she's possessed, but it's hard to lie to a man who understands social cues in an entirely different dialect. he reads the smaller indications, and lays her true concerns bare.

stiffening, peggy must accept his assumption. but she doesn't let it go without her own particular spin: ] I am the first mate aboard this vessel. It's my duty to worry about absent crew.

[theroadwarrior]

[He still looks utterly confused, scratching at the dog's ear still.]

Ran further than this before, in this ship. You didn't seem to mind.

[Yes Peggy, please do answer, he's interested.]

[mucked]

[ for a moment, her jaw works without a sound. and peggy begins to feel the particular heat of being in the very same position she so often thrust upon him -- the limelight, with questions lurking behind full-stops.

she does him the courtesy of looking into his eyes when she answers. ] Ordinarily, that's not after parting on such...tense terms.

[ not exactly an apology. ]

[theroadwarrior]

[Lucky Peggy, he never expects one.

He considers what she says, tries to think of a way to say what's in mind.]

... Shouldn't waste so much worry on what our parting terms are.

You'll go gray.

[mucked]

[ thoughtful, she touches a curl. ]

There's product for that, you know. [ peggy doesn't smile. but then again, she's not hostile either. ] Besides. Some -- people are worth a few silver strands.

[ she nearly said some things. but all she could hear, still, is the echo of him proclaiming himself a person and not a thing. far be it from her to bulldoze that opinion. ]

[theroadwarrior]

[Can you make him anymore confused? Because... really.]

Don't understand why so many people —

[He huffs, biting his tongue. He wants to be invisible. And that's impossible. And for some reason, people talk to him. Ask if he's okay. Offer to patch him up, or offer him booze, or offer their services as a doctor. Snap him out of his episodes, are willing to cook with him, work with him, pilot next to him —

Why?

What did Furiosa see in him, to offer him refuge with her people?

What does anyone see, when they look at him? Why doesn't it match up with what he sees?

The ghosts always knew better.]

[mucked]

We invest our energy wherever we want to. Perhaps it doesn't require your understanding -- only your respect for someone else's choice.

[ for whatever reason, she's latched upon him as someone worth fussing over. worrying about. hell, even her inclination to argue raw with him carries with it an ounce of affection. she's a spy, after all; she could always deflect if she wanted to. ]

[theroadwarrior]

[He shakes his head, a smile ghosting his mouth.]

Can't tell who's crazier.

[How's that for respect, you rattling nuts.]

[mucked]

[ a snort. a laugh. ]

I assure you, I've passed every psych eval they've ever thrown at me. Flying colours, even. [ ... ] They don't let just any old regular lunatic into the S.S.R.

[ a slip of the tongue, perhaps. or a rare gesture of honesty for which she requires no return. no quid pro quo. ]

[theroadwarrior]

[And fortunately for Peggy and any and all concern for privacy, Max doesn't bat an eye -- he doesn't care what people did. What they do. Nothing really holds any weight anymore, once you live in a society where so little exists in the way of occupations. She's not a slaver, or a cannibal, or a dictator, and for that he rests easy and accepts the rest.

Of course, he does file it away. But that's that.]

Mm.

[His mildly pleasant expression relaxes.]

If I leave -- f'I vanish for a while. It's not anybody.

Just need to clear everything out.

[mucked]

...Even this time?

[ cagey, and her guilty conscience surfaces. peggy does have one of those. but she doesn't trot it out except for on special occasions. ]

1/2

[theroadwarrior]

[He shrugs.]

Left because I was — [He stumbles on the word, bites it back, clears his throat.] worried.

Staying places like this, um. I know m'not... right.

[You know. Not of sound mind. To put it nicely, as far as he's concerned.]

[theroadwarrior]

... I mean, I was mad at you, too.

But I'm usually mad at someone for something. Everyone makes it easy.

[mucked]

[ well! then! so long as he was mad at her too, she supposes that makes it all alright. :|

peggy tilts her head back against the wall. her nod comes slow, and she takes her sweet time considering his earlier statement. ]

There's a man on the Heron I'd like you to meet. [ but then, in the wake of what he'd said... ] Not to befriend. And he's no doctor or guru or what have you. I think sometimes he needs to clear everything out, as well.

[theroadwarrior]

[Are you trying to set me up on a date.

No, but Max quirks his eyebrow.]

.... M'not very good with people.

[mucked]

Nor is he, if I'm honest. [ but winter had just lost the three most valuable anchors he'd had to this fleet -- and she could sense the way he'd spiraled away. he draws back from peggy more, now, than he ever did before.

it had taken until now for her to realize precisely what had been happening. winter was treating her like a gamble -- uncertain whether it was worth staying close to her, given how quickly they could be torn apart like the others. an associate lost.

perhaps she'd been going about this all wrong. instead of trying to force either monosyllabic man into a friendship they didn't well suit, maybe they needed to start with a hesitation and suspicion they both recognized. ]

But he wouldn't push you like I push you. It might be better.

[theroadwarrior]

[He looks away toward the rest of the cargo hold, itching the dog's head like it gives his hand something to do. He isn't sure he wants to... meet someone who's like him in that way. If that's what she's implying, anyway. He doesn't exactly figure himself to be a good person in the least. Looking into a mirror is hard enough without it becoming a metaphor when he looks at someone else.

But Peggy clearly cares about this person, or she wouldn't have asked him.

He licks his lips, pursing them.]

Don't know. Maybe. [he huffs, looking exasperated] Feels like I know too many people already. But I'll — consider this.

[mucked]

Thank you. [ for the consideration, if nothing else. ] If you do choose to do so -- he, ah, calls himself Winter. Metal arm. As I said, he's over on the Heron. And he's a hard man to miss when he's not trying to be stealthy.

[theroadwarrior]

[He ducks his head and nods.

There's really no reason to thank him. He's horrible at these things.

But his expression seems to loosen up, a dry humor replacing his hesitancy.]

... Familiar enough with metal arms.

Hopefully this one won't try to shoot in me in the head.

[mucked]

I can't actually make any promises on that front. [ and this is what worries her. with jim here, there'd always been the underlying assumption that he would keep winter in check. that old programming wouldn't take over and bring out hydra's best goon. ] Mention you're on my ship, if you must. That ought to do it.

[ because at least jim had set up directives in place for how to engage with peggy carter. ]

[theroadwarrior]

[He rolls his eyes toward her, the sass radiating despite his nearly neutral facade.]

Hmph. Great.

[So maybe fighting. Him and steel-armed people, he swears...]

You poke him out of a dead sleep with your heels, too?

[mucked]

I did, actually. [ she raises her eyebrows. ] Back home. Before the arm and -- before a lot of things. He was another one of those soldiers of mine, you see. But back then he was a different man.

[theroadwarrior]

[Max nods firmly; this, he's familiar with, even if he wasn't a soldier in the literal sense. He saw a lot of people change, when he was younger. His youth was the biggest turning point, the moment the world well and truly crumbled into the worst case scenario. He doesn't like to linger on his youth, though.]

Usually how it works...

Once you dedicate your life to stopping the darker things, the darker things trickle into you.

[mucked]

I'm afraid the darkness did not merely trickle into him. It -- cracked him open. Hollowed him out for horrible purposes. [ but she knocks her head gently against the wall once again. defeat, and submission. agent carter, you say too much. ]

You know what this place does, yes? Alternate versions of familiar events. Branching choices, with different endings.

[theroadwarrior]

[He nods, patient. That's one small blessing about Max; he doesn't push for anything. If she wants to talk, she'll talk. If she wants to stop, she'll stop. He doesn't expect anything -- anytime, these days.]

I've seen things like it. Before I was even here.