may-time mingling (starstruck!)

[mucked]

Who: Starstruck crew + visitors
Broadcast: N/A
Action: Aboard the Starstruck!
When: The merry merry month of May

[ there's been a tiny regime change and doubtless some debriefing after that masquerade! have at it, starstruckers. mingle away! ]

Comments

[mucked]

Apart from those horrid shared dreams, I've only been able to observe some...manipulation of emotions. Of behaviours. [ peggy resists the urge to card her fingers into her hair and touch the augment at the base of her neck. ]

Have they gone further in the past?

[resnipstance]

It was during that time when we were doing the whole shared dreaming thing, actually.

There was something... wrong with the ship. [She doesn't know how else to put it.] But every time I went to investigate, it was like my attention was directed elsewhere. Every time I noticed something, I couldn't remember what it was later.

[mucked]

Mind control is an insidious thing. Were it not still so deplorable, I would almost consider us fortunate that the Atroma appear mostly interested in our entertainment value. [ and yet she still doubts the veracity of that claim. ]

The brain -- human or otherwise -- is a delicate part.

[resnipstance]

You... sound like you're speaking from experience.

[mucked]

[ peggy nods -- patient and welcoming when it comes to ahsoka's assumption, and willing to confirm it for her with more detail than she might have given half a year prior. but if she's learned anything since arriving in the fleet, it's that a shared pool of experience and information may very well be essential to their survival. ]

Well, yes. But before the Atroma's augment, I'm happy to say I dodged that particular bullet and never came under anyone's sway myself. But I've gone up against forces who are not above using hypnosis and brainwashing as tools of conquest. [ ... ] Like the man who wreaked havoc on the Winter Soldier's mind; however, you'll forgive me if I don't delve into the private details.

[resnipstance]

Oh-- no, of course. I just thought... I don't know, if you'd come across it before, maybe you'd have some knowledge of how to combat it.

[mucked]

Perseverance. An emotional connection stronger than the artificial blockades left by the enemy. Patient, painstaking de-programming. There is no easy fix, I'm afraid. But my experience doesn't include technological advancements quite like these augments. God knows, maybe one of our brilliant science types might be able to reverse engineer anything that happens because of the augments.

[resnipstance]

I feel like you'd have to be a neuroscientist and an engineer at the same time...

Or a Force healer. Either way, both of those things are outside my realm of expertise. I know enough about engineering to fix a broken ship or prosthetic, but... honestly, that's about it.

[mucked]

We'd need Stark back. Either of them, to be honest: father or son. They may both be pains in the arse, but they're brilliant.

[resnipstance]

Wait-- there were two? I only noticed Tony...

He was pretty clever though, huh? Even if he was kinda full of himself.

[mucked]

Howard Stark is a colleague of mine. He was here for a brief stint -- and he holds the dubious honour of being Tony's father, and may also be the one person who can give the younger Stark's ego a run for its fortune.

If I'm being honest, I was shocked to learn he even had a son. Howard was never the settling sort. Not as I know him, at least.

[resnipstance]

It's a pity he left. Or-- both of them, really. I was getting his help with an engineering project, but I can't complete it on my own.

[mucked]

What were the two of you working on?

[resnipstance]

[Idly, Ahsoka drums her fingers across the top of Peggy's desk in front of her. Except it's not idly at all. It might look random, but...]

Oh, you know. I wanted to make some upgrades to the ship. See if we could make her go faster, improve our defenses, boost our comms and scanning capabilities so we could better detect and intercept other ships out there before they find us-- you know. The usual.

[It seems casual, but in fact it's a well practiced speech. It has to be, because the pattern she's drumming idly on the table is, in fact, morse code. It's short, but to the point: S I G N A L J A M M E R S.]

[mucked]

[ morse code, she knows. intimately. from her days at bletchley, to as recently as christmas when steve rogers tapped out an I LOVE YOU against her skin. peggy's face doesn't move an inch as she listens both to ahsoka's words and her message.

against her thigh, she replies: ANOTHER WAY.

as in we'll find a... ]

Our resident stoic -- Max -- has shown an interest in taking apart the shuttles. Seeing how they tick.

[resnipstance]

[Message given and received, Ahsoka continues drumming out nonsense on the table as they talk just so as to throw off anyone who might be over-analyzing their conversations.]

Don't think I haven't noticed. Anakin does the same thing. He says it's his way of meditating. [A chuckle.]

[mucked]

I believe it. [ she relaxes -- but only just barely perceptively. ] Max certainly seems more at ease when he has tools to hand.

[resnipstance]

[Ahsoka's expression sobers.]

... It's something to keep his mind busy. Max... mm. I think-- he doesn't do as well as he thinks he does, when he's left alone too long. But he also doesn't like being around other people, either.

[mucked]

No, no -- he well and truly doesn't. I think he's growing to accept the Starstruck, at least. He's beginning to consider himself part of an 'us'.

[resnipstance]

Ha. I knew it. We'll get through that gruff exterior sooner or later.

[mucked]

I hope so. He has a lot to offer us, I feel. And we have a lot to offer him.

[resnipstance]

... Mm. It almost makes me wish ...

[But then she trails off, stopping herself.

She's too old now to be thinking in terms of "wishing" and childish fantasies. She should know better.]

[mucked]

...Wish for what?

[ -- peggy isn't so easily persuaded by silence. ]

[resnipstance]

Wish that... we could take the people we meet here from terrible places home with us. Max's world, it just-- it sounds so ... awful.

[mucked]

That it most certainly does. Honestly, I can't say whether he'd prefer to stay or not -- his home is what he knows. If I had any power over the situation, I'd certainly save him from returning. But...

It's all relative. His home sounds full of horrors, to me. And mine must sound very bleak to someone else. Even so, it's a nice thought.