driftfleet | may-time mingling (starstruck!)

[ there are a few tinny sounds before the speakers rattle into life, and peggy carter's familiar stiff and british syllables address the crew with a brief message: ]

As far as it can be ascertained, Captain Yosuke has left the fleet. Fate -- or the Atroma -- would have his rank fall to me. I have every intention to serve the Starstruck and its crew with good sense and heartfelt duty. Having arrived just under a year ago, I'm not certain I could have said the same thing back then but...

Good God, I fear I've grown fond of you lot. [ she speaks tenderly for a moment before business seeps back into her words. ] If you've any concerns, come knock on my door. I'd rather not get caught up in some fatuous speech. Brevity, the bard said, is the soul of wit.

[ and the feed goes silent. but true to her word, peggy will leave her bedroom door open for the remainder of the day. she sits at her desk with minor busy-work scattered across a few pages -- something to keep her occupied but not too occupied, in case someone takes umbrage with her 'promotion', so to speak. ]

Edited 2016-05-09 15:33 (UTC)

[Ahsoka drops by not long after on her way to the bridge, knocking on Peggy's open door and dropping her cheery little head in.]

Captain. Congrats on the promotion.

Ahsoka. [ chipper in her own right, peggy smiles. she stands smoothly from her cramped vanity-cum-desk ] I was hoping to catch you, today. Stay a moment, won't you? Have a seat.

[ and for moments just like this one, peg has tracked down simple chair -- nothing extravagant -- down in the poisoned moon's markets. the small quarters barely accommodates it, so she tucks it away behind her locker when it's not being used. just now, she pulls it free and places it so it might face her own chair. ]

[Ahsoka looks like a deer caught in the headlights for a moment, her large eyes going even larger.]

... Oh. Uh. I'm not... in trouble, am I?

Far from it, my dear. [ she can be chilly, at times. downright cold. but not today -- because she at least has the foresight to approach a person kindly with a request like this one.

peggy takes her own seat. ] Quite the opposite. You conduct yourself most admirably.

[Only after Peggy sits does Ahsoka sit as well.]

Oh. [If anything, Ahsoka sounds even more confused.] ... Thank you?

[It sounds more like a question than a statement. And if the question could be formed, it would be "Where are you going with this?"]

The Starstruck will be needing a fresh first mate. [ she delves straight to the heart of the matter, seeing no reason to dither. to speechify. ] Someone strong, but centered.

[ it's no secret that she shows a doting fondness for their more...loosely hinged crewmates. but peggy would never dare to promote a man like max. no, she's watched ahsoka from a distance. that's her pick. ]

Me? But we've hardly spoken! And I'm just--

[Just what? "A padawan," she'd been about to say. But she isn't. Not anymore.]

--a teenager. [She finishes lamely.]

So were we all, once. Ahsoka, I've only lately left behind a war where good young individuals lied through their teeth to join up despite their age. After a certain threshold, sourage and capability comes at all numbers.

But by all means, you haven't got to accept it. [ a slow smile. ] But if you turn me down, I expect you to furnish me with a suggestion for an alternate.

[Ahsoka pauses for a moment to seriously consider Peggy's alternative, running through the crew in her mind. You can almost see the little cogs ticking behind her eyes.

Max is too gruff, and though she'd trust him with her life, she knows he still has bouts where he's not always all there. Foster is too irresponsible. Feilx she still doesn't trust, and Wanda and Lauralae seem unused to command. Ramse might be able to do it. And so might Alistair. But at the end of the day, she doesn't know either of them well enough to be able to say with certainty. She does, however, know herself. She's held command before, and she's done well at it. She just isn't quite so used to adults that aren't Anakin, Obi-Wan and Plo Koon having so much faith in her.

Eventually, she breathes in deeply and looks back at Peggy again. With renewed confidence in her eyes, she gives her assessment with the trained neutrality of a soldier giving report:]

... No. You're right. I'm a good choice. I have experience having to take command when needed, and I'm intimately familiar with spaceships and space travel. Though-- hopefully, none of it will ever be necessary.

I'm only worried that my age might be a factor in the rest of the crew taking me seriously. [It had rarely been a problem back home, but back home she'd been recognisable as a Jedi. Here, everyone treats her as the kid she is.] Especially if there's ever an emergency.

[ It's been a few days since the masquerade, offering a brief cool-down period from all the people. Something's been on Winter's mind since then, and he wants to get Peggy's opinion on the matter. It makes him a little uneasy, but Wrath had asked him about something of the same recently.

You can find him in the cargo bay leaving the shuttle or throughout various spots on the Starstruck, looking for Peggy. ]

Perhaps they won't. [ take you seriously. ] But all it should take is one emergency to prove them wrong. Hopefully, it won't come to that.

[ of course, she's acutely aware that she may be setting the young woman on a difficult path. but wasn't her own path uphill? peggy taps an idle thumb against her knee. ]

I won't tell you to send them my direction if they take umbrage with you, Ahsoka. Mostly because I rather doubt you need someone else to be your keeper or your shield. [ her small smile persists. ] But let it be understood that I have a very low tolerance for for those who might begrudge you your opportunity to prove yourself.

[ he catches her in a short break -- eschewing her office/quarters for a handful of minutes so she might pour hot water over a tea-bag, and shock some flavour into the concoction. she's in the hallway, cup in hand, when she sees him turn the corner. ]

-- Everything alright? [ she pipes up. her first thought is that perhaps something's wrong. after all, he so rarely visits without an invitation. ]

Nothing is wrong.

[ He frowns, realizing that he probably should have asked before simply showing up. Winter pushes past that, as he's already here and the damage is done. ]

I wanted to ask your opinion about something. [ He looks around the area that they're in for anyone else that happens to be around. ] Can we talk in private?

Of course we can. Here -- [ yosuke's old quarters aren't far. and peggy hasn't yet moved into them, proper. so the captain's room stands ostensibly empty. she backtracks by a few steps, and nudges the door open. ] No one should bother us.

[ He follows her, moving into the empty room when she opens the door. Winter doesn't sit, but he moves to lean against the wall. This doesn't feel like a place to make himself at home. Once Peggy is in and the door is closed, he feels inclined to talk. ]

I've been thinking about this for a few days.. Since the masquerade. [ He bites his lip as he tries to figure out how to word everything. ]

Talked with Charles-- he's part of the crew. [ He shakes his head. Not important to what he has to say, merely background information. ]

He thinks he can fix me.

[ fix him.

it isn't generous the way her heart leaps -- all at the thought of a regained friend, claimed, perhaps, at the expense of this particular man who stands before her. she crosses one arm across her chest and rests her curled knuckles under her chin. thoughtful. quiet. ]

By what means, Winter? [ she lets her concern take point. ]

[ Lauralae has not been a widely visible figure upon her own ship; she keeps to herself as much as she can, sleeping in the lab when possible and curling in on herself so she looks more like a ball of fabric than a person. At times she is less a girl and becomes a wolf instead, hiding under beds and keeping herself away from the stares and the wonderings of the people she has been forced to reside with - she had no interest in being around them, in learning about their names, their homes, their natures. She simply wished to exist until she returned home and back to the life she sought to change.

Now, however, with her mind somewhat changed and conversation hovering in her thoughts, she moves with a little more curiosity. She had been told that there might well be some aboard this fleet that would offer her some information that might cure her, save her, and that is the only thing that makes her entirely willing to go out of her way to speak to another. She isn't comfortable with it, and it shows in the tightness of her lips and the quick movements of her eyes, but she tilts her head up and stays strong all the same, determined despite her own fears and the twisting mistrust she harbours.

When she walks the corridors she doesn't duck away and try to hide from other people; instead she tilts her head up and watches them to see if they speak. When she's a wolf she moves and sits atop a bed, her chipped ears flat and her dark eyes ever searching, always on edge just in case. At the end of each day she falls into restless sleeps, sometimes waking up with nightmares plaguing her mind, pushing her out of whatever little crevice she'd put herself into and managing to lift herself to go elsewhere, to try and calm down.

She even greets her crewmates with a sharp, barely-there nod - but a nod all the same. ]

[Ahsoka smiles and shrugs innocently.]

It probably won't happen. Things have been pretty uneventful so far, right? I'm just used to preparing for the worst.

[Ahsoka isn't a pessimist-- far from it. But she's been in a war. She knows that anything that can go wrong, often will.]

[ The silence lingers as he thinks about it again. It makes him uneasy, but if it's a means to an end that everybody wants, what reason does he have to argue against it? For now, he's said no, but it was an open invitation.

If he has to go through more pain for the ones who knew him to be satisfied, why deny them that? ]

He's a telepath.

[ His discomfort with the idea is barely concealed. Only the clench of his jaw and stiffness in his shoulders give him away. ]

[Rock, the old mixed gray-and-black mutt, is the first to welcome Winter to the Starstruck; the creature has clearly had quite a life, limping slightly from an injured leg that couldn't heal quite perfect. Regardless, he seems to take immediately to the new visitor. Probably because he's far, far too familiar with Winter's type.

His like-minded owner isn't far off. He's adjusting the straps on his knee brace after applying some of Ino's medicine to his knee, glancing up at the not-so-mysterious man before he yanks carefully on one of the straps.

Be nice, Max. Be nice. Nice. Mhmm.

He doesn't move from sitting, working on the next strap.]

...

He doesn't bite.

...

Not much of a guard dog.

[She can find Max resting with his pooch, Rock. Mixed mutt, sleeping beside the odd Australian fella while he sits at the kitchen table. He's got a selection of gas masks from the planet sitting on the desk, but he's currently fidgeting with what looks like a slightly-dented music player of sorts. He's always had a soft spot for them; reminded him of something you just couldn't get back, back home.

Once he adjusts it, he cranks the small lever, letting the soft melody play throughout the ship.

It's a nice little tune, something like Jack and Jill.

Well, the space equivalent here.]

[Max comes to find her, not because of her message — of course he listens to it, and of course he responds with the usual Max response of just humming and tucking the information away for later (hardly gonna congratulate her for being a captain in a complicated prison life, but you know how it is). No, he comes to her later of his own accord, looking unsure of himself. Truth be told, and from what she's likely seen in the last few days, he's been having one of his poorer weeks; restless, distant, quiet. In fact, he hasn't spoken more than five words to her since, what, Saturday? Sunday? He was a bit of a mess.

Anyway. He breaks his troubling silence today. Thankfully.]

...

Um. Captain.

[He looks like a vampire in old lore, needing permission to wander into her room.]

[ aha. he comes to her of her own accord -- she likes that. there has come a point in their tumultuous friendship where peggy decides she can't chase down his bad moods, but he must bootstrap himself out of them. so when he arrives on her door's threshold, she suppresses a pleased smile. he may likely be here for any reason -- perhaps a pressing one -- but the point is that he's here.

with a dull scrape of her chair against the floor, she leaves her desk. she stands. and she gestures him inside with a brisk flick of her hand. ]

Yes?

[He walks in, but like usual, he looks uncomfortable in his own skin when he does. Going into people's areas has always been a weird thing for him; it took him a lot to even begin to start hiding out in Furiosa's room. In fact, it took punching a doctor in the eye and having a mini-freak out.

At any rate, he rubs the back of his neck.]

... Someone from my world arrived here.

[Might as well jump right to it.]

may-time mingling (starstruck!)

shipwide broadcast + action

action

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

visiting;;

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

action

no subject

no subject

no subject

action

action

action

action