driftfleet | ✮ TEXT;

Entry tags:

✮ TEXT;

Who: Steve 'tech genius' Rogers
Broadcast: accidentally fleetwide
Action: upon the starstruck unless shot by ( 1 ) agent carter.
When: current;

[ at first it might seem like a purely professional document ]

MOON;

Efforts are being made to fix the process that went wrong ( official term: terraforming )

Many years have passed since it did, however, the natives seem unsure if we can help.

They allow people into what they call the Cortex

the technology is unfamiliar.

[ the part that might hint towards this being a pure accident of a document uploaded onto the network rather than onto just one comm device will come next, just a bit more text and a few attached file ]

WAR GAMES MEMORIES; PEGGY; PAINTBALL; WOODS;

( 1 ) ; ( 2 ) ; ( 3 )

[ pray circle for captain america, assemble!

this will remain online for a little over half an hour before the pictures will be, thankfully, mercifully, edited out by one winn schott ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ she nods her agreement -- despite how little she knows of these people. they are spectres of the future, and tiding of things to come. ]

Would that be such a terrible thing? [ admittedly, she'd see the tactical advantage of a fleet dotted with individuals who could only be considered allies in one sense or another. ] Might be easier to find a consensus between the ships.

No, not terrible at all.

[ he has to smile a bit. interesting would be the appropriate term for the scenario he has in mind. especially with some working under tony. ]

Though I always wonder if this is exactly how they wanted it.

[ 'they' being atroma. ]

So many of us? It may be so. It's difficult to say how many of these circumstances are by design and how many are happenstance. [ ... ] There's a peculiar phenomenon that happens -- on occasion -- where a member of the fleet may fall asleep and dream additional life memories. Like going home, only while never leaving.

I struggle to reconcile that with some grand plan on the Atroma's part.

Well, we'll make our own plans, either way.

[ stubbornly. he has been played one time already and the sense of being fooled, of zola's voice coming through a computer, revealing HYDRA where they have been all along had served its purpose in angering him.

he's not angry not, more stubbornly determined ]

Our own plans.

[ it's enough to leave her...compromised. breath drawn, and her gaze cast aside for a mere moment. the concept of having plans of their very own is such an indulgence -- such a fantasy -- that it fills her heart and smooths over some of the more bitter, craggy pieces left behind by so much loss.

she understands his words encompass more than the pair of them. he means -- must mean! -- the movements and designs of the entire group stripped from their shared world, and perhaps the other worlds.

and yet it moves her all the same. ] Yes. I'd...quite like that.

[ by proxy, he means that to, if asked, he'll say of course he does that, too. but when peggy carter sits in his room and they are alone, he does find it hard to think of anything but her and him and this time, all this time that they have suddenly been allowed.

it'll never be enough but it'll always be a blessing. ]

You still owe me a pair of coffee.

[ if there was any other doubt as to what steve rogers might have meant.

he may be captain america but even the greatest man go stupid for their own certain very great lady. ]

[ oh, lordy. she exhales -- and her smile is lost somewhere in the strange uncertainty of their relationship. peggy had read the conversations that had come after the photographs, even if she hadn't seen the photographs themselves. she'd read of his concerns, his uncertainties, and his questions.

so she twists the arrow with a wry smirk: ] What, like a date?

[ there. it's been said. ]

[ oh lord he has to clear his throat at that.

now he has to find a way to do it properly right ]

Yes, I mean -

[ wait, no. that's not really the way to go, is it? think fast, Rogers. ]

if you'd like that. Otherwise it can just be - coffee.

[ erm. ]

It's all a bit academic, isn't it? [ she eases him off the hook -- gently, but not without the constant presence of her eyes upon his. ] Quibbling about what to call it.

[ us. ]

[ he huffs out a breath, smiling a bit ]

If it helps, I didn't know what to call it when we were still at the same timeline. You were always -

[ too much of everything. beautiful and clever and sharp. ]

You.

[ there really isn't another way to explain it ]

Maybe the term isn't important.

[ she smiles -- shy, almost, in the approach to the topic. she swings wildly between flippant and sentimental. he does this to her: sending her like a pendulum between emotions. ]

If not academic, then it must be childish. I -- I never knew what to call you, afterwards. [ a hard swallow. ] So I didn't call you anything. It's as if other people didn't need to know. Had no right to know.

[ what you meant to me. still mean to me. ]

[ there is a share of grief here between her and him, perhaps there'll always be, perhaps they'll always have to gently push it away and tell it not today as they drink their coffee, as they sit like this, together.

he will never believe his fortune when it comes to peggy carter. he reaches to touch his hand to hers for a moment. ]

They still don't have to, not unless we want them to.

[ each touch is a blessing -- a small mercy, anticipated, but treasured. she smiles, although not without reproach. ]

Steve. What do you want? [ measured. inquisitive. she'd spoken about how she'd felt in the aftermath of the valkyrie's disappearance. she'd described her reticence. but his conversations with his teammates suggest steve might want more than a nameless, boundless arrangement. ] What do you want them to know?

[ now that is a question is it not? and let us not ask a following one, when was the last time steve rogers really thought or did anything about something he wanted?

and here is peggy carter asking as if she knows it's been a long while.

maybe she does, she had a tendency to see through him since they've met. his eye catches the comm, the picture still on display and he nods towards it ]

That.

[ the smile, that is, her happiness, in other words. ]

I don't care what they know. What I want is for you to be happy, to do right.

[ by her. ]

I don't - you're not my secret, Peggy.

[ he will never hide what he feels for her, if only because others might think he is somehow ashamed of it. ]

[ he reaches for the impossible every time: the back-alley fights he cannot win, and the friends he cannot save. until he does both, inexplicably, and against all odds. peggy's more of a pragmatist. any idealism she possesses has been inherited, in a sense, from him. his legacy, left to her over a crackling radio speaker.

her fingers tighten against his. her smile dilutes by degrees, as though she can't help but see the hard road ahead. perhaps it shouldn't be so hard -- perhaps she makes it harder than it needs to be. ]

Which leaves us at something of an impasse. [ to feel comfortable expressing things to friends and colleagues, but less comfortable allowing the atroma to take front row to those proceedings. ] So perhaps we start with a date. A proper one.

-- I don't have a suit.

[ he might...actually look a bit startled by that. she did say proper and he may never actually had a date before, not one that counts but he knows what's expected.

he'll have to try and get some flowers from the community gardens. paper has gotten him this far but he's not going on a date with peggy carter empty handed. ]

Oh, for God's sake -- [ a spurt of exasperation. her eyes roll, but not without retained fondness. like leading a horse to water, she pats the back of his hand with a gentle touch. ] We're bloody well in space, aren't we? [ light-years away from the stork club. ] I believe we'll survive the informality, Steve.

[ really. although there's an implicit hypocrisy in her protest. after all, she very rarely is seen without her lipstick. space be damned. ]

So - no space chocolates?

[ he has to smile. for all her eye rolling, the sadness is chased away from her, even for a little while and one little while after another, they might build something yet. ]

Chocolates are perfectly acceptable -- provided they're not made with protein gels. [ she pulls a face. ]

Edited 2016-06-01 21:45 (UTC)

[ well how hard can it be.

somewhere on the moon, there are chocolates. if vision found ice cream, those can't be entirely out of reach ]

Hi, those do taste amazingly like chicken.

[ nope. she agreed to this date, he's going to sport this absurdly good mood for a while. ]

[ hah! don't make her laugh. or do -- because it's a drum-skin tight sort of sound, but still melodious. in good cheer. ]

Should I wait on you to inform me of the time and place, Captain Rogers? [ she ribs. she teases. he's easy to tease, some days. easier to tease than to tell him how deeply she loves him, even now. and if she stops too long or breathes too deeply, she remembers all the loose ends back home. jason wilkes, whitney frost, the zero matter. daniel.

there's red in her cheeks, but she'd never confess as to why. ]

[ he smiles a bit, soft around the edges but with the same soft cheer ]

I think I can manage that.

[ think he says since he has the tendency to ramble around her when it's just them and no life threat in sight. ]

Chin up, Rogers. [ her smile ghosts in place a little longer. ] You've stared down HYDRA goons. Aliens, too, according to hearsay. So I believe you're allowed to sound a little more confident in the face of going steady.

I never really wanted to leave much of an impression on them.

[ could this be the biggest test to steve rogers' nerves? ]

[ bless him. ]

I hate to burst your bubble, but the impression has long since been already made.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

✮ TEXT;

action » evening

action » evening

action » evening

action » evening

action » evening

action » evening

action » evening

action » evening

action » evening

action » evening

action » evening

action » evening

action » evening

action » evening

action » evening

action » evening

action » evening

action » evening

action » evening

action » evening

action » evening

action » evening

action » evening

action » evening

action » evening