text & action » fleetwide

[mucked]

Who: Peggy Carter + YOU
Broadcast: text, fleetwide
Action: aboard the starstruck
When: the days following winter's glitch

Damage report, please. Who did the Winter Soldier hurt? Casualties?

[ her thumb hovers. she nearly adds I am so sorry but thinks better of it, in the end. peggy carter is confined to her bed in the captain's quarters aboard the starstruck, propped up on a small mountain of pillows with most of her torso bandaged and wrapped. a pair of broken ribs, at least. she hasn't properly listened to her own damage report, yet. but the consistent throb in the side of her skull suggests winter's initial blow landed harder than she'd first anticipated. one eye is still puffed up, bruised, and swollen to the point where it doesn't see a thing. one half of her face is streak of black and blue now that the blood's been cleared away.

she doesn't use the network's voice or video function. her texts are slow, business-like, and methodical. and she'll text for as long as she can before someone with a busier body than her own shows up to confiscate her device. but she hasn't been able to adequately parse the information that flew quickly and efficiently in the hours following her own fight and black-out and lonely struggle to an empty shuttle.

even now, it's about all she can manage to toggle the privacy settings and message her first mate individually: ] Ahsoka. Please see me in my room. ASAP.

[ a torch must be passed, for the time being. and peggy has a lot of healing to do. visitors are welcome, whether they are aware of her bashed-in state or not. ]

Comments

[theroadwarrior]

[It may be a relatively small thing, names, but it's also absolutely not. And it's still a long ways to go before it's anything decent, anything remotely sociable. Max feels practically nauseous at the sound of her speaking his name, but with it comes some strange relief. He's not sure why. Maybe because he knew it was inevitable, and it's nice to get it over with.

And he's surprised that no voices chime in to mock him for it.

He sighs softly, not looking at her face. He stares at her arm instead.]

Like I ever really keep track.

[He's not going to apologize for it. Apologies are special, very special, and running away is as far as he's concerned something they should expect. That's what he does. He runs.

... Except when he can't run without looking back.

Then -- then he's fucked.]

[mucked]

[ a snort -- half-derisive, and half-adoring. she's turned it into an art, she has: laying on her criticism as thickly as she does her friendship, and building a sort of bizarre over-seasoned sandwich of regret, of unyielding support, and of deft care. almost as though an associate might come to believe her sterner moments communicate more affection than her smiles. ]

No, of course not. I'll be doing that for you, hm? [ keeping track. ] Not that it would have much mattered had you been here. The Atroma really outdid themselves. I'd --

[ not want that younger version of max to get in over his head. ]

I'd not want to see you hurt by Winter.

[theroadwarrior]

[He waves a hand.]

Better me than someone smaller, weaker. I break a lot of things, bounce back easy. Heal fast.

[Fast, not clean. Physically, not mentally. But he's had just about every injury you can have in the wastelands.]

S'long as I have at least an eye and a ear, maybe most of my limbs, m'fine.

[He says it so flippantly, it may very well be a joke.

Maybe.]

[mucked]

Oh, shut it. You're not some commodity to be used up until you're skint. [ she defies the lines inked on his back -- vehemently, and with a sharpish tone peaking in her voice. ] I'll not have anyone being my meat-shield.

[ least of all you. ]

[theroadwarrior]

[....

He huffs, soft, cupping a hand to his ear. With all the surliness in the world:]

What was that? This ear's kinda tinny.

[This bastard right here.]

[mucked]

[ oh, she squints at him. except half the glare is lost in how swollen shut one eye has become. even so, the attitude is palpable. ]

You heard me. Don't be a boor.

[theroadwarrior]

[You got him, as expected. He gives a little shrug, content with her tragically ineffective glare. He's being a bit more genuine now, figuring he owes it to her since she's the one who looks completely awful this month. Ha.]

Really did only half-hear you, though.

Someone tried to shoot me in the head 'while back, messed up my eardrum. Used my shoulder as a rifle perch, once. Now I get different pitches sometimes.

[Snrk.]

[mucked]

Tinnitus. [ her answer is too quick -- like taking refuge in fact-based conversation is preferable to discussing other matters. peggy nods, and sits up with ginger movements. ] Not uncommon in soldiers, actually. All that gunfire.

[theroadwarrior]

Mm. Dying sounds. Lucky to be able to use the ear at all; could be worse.

[He likes being able to hear, thank you.]

... Kinda helps. Sometimes.

[mucked]

Helps? [ now, that's curious. she replaces raw pain with a mystery. ] How does it help?

[theroadwarrior]

[He's gotten strangely used to admitting his faults to Peggy. Weaknesses, as it were. Not that they're not blindingly obvious and she can't read them after all the time they're around each other... Hell, that's why he likes to leave before people can pick up on them.]

If I hear voices clearly here -- [He holds a finger up to his ear.] -- I know it's not a voice outside of my head.

[Such an odd thing to discuss. But everyone copes with their illnesses somehow. Max likes to find the cracks in the armor that constantly weighs him down. Likes to figure out ways around it rather than treat it. He's a strange fellow.]

[mucked]

It's a litmus test. I see. [ her gaze sharpens in that way it does when she's decided to eschew her own pain and pick, thoughtlessly, at someone else's. ]

[theroadwarrior]

[He hums. Affirmative.]

Useful when our crew tries to talk to me at length. I can literally block most of it out.

[........... :)

what a little shit]

[mucked]

[ in spite of herself (and of him), she smiles. ]

Bit of a bastard today, aren't you?

[theroadwarrior]

[Hummmmm.]

Usually the case, isn't it.

[He cocks his head to the side, thoughtful.]

You need more medicine?

[mucked]

Heavens, no. If anything, I'm likely a little over-medicated. [ ... ] Captain Rogers makes for quite the nursemaid in his own right.

You've met him, haven't you? [ bit useless as a question. she knows the answer. ]

[theroadwarrior]

[He purses his lips, then nods.]

Your, hn. Significant other.

[Of all the terms, that oh-so-formal title is what he uses.

Way to go, bud.]

[mucked]

[ oh -- she winces. and for a moment it looks like she might refuse the term, and the implication altogether. her mouth opens.

problem is, max isn't exactly wrong. ] The man who's ear I pull, you mean.

[ she jabs back. ]

[theroadwarrior]

[Max blinks, stiffening, seemingly startled.

Then he clears his throat, not looking at her.]

Mm.

Guess so.

[Don't prod at it, Peggy. Don't you do it.]

Seems like a... decent guy.

[mucked]

The single-most decent, in fact, depending on who you ask.

[theroadwarrior]

[His gaze flicks up.]

Mhmm. You?

[But he seems hardly grieved by the idea of giving Steve credit.]

He's fine. He doesn't pry, for a hero.

[mucked]

He minds his Ps and Qs, certainly. And I would sing a great many of his praises. [ she almost-smiles. ] But I'll curse his flaws as well. He's just a man, despite all else.

[ a good man. maybe even a great man. and in her more nostalgic moments, she would call him greatest. but that's the aching heart that speaks, perhaps. ]

I think I would loathe him completely if he were, indeed, the most decent.

[ she smiles. ]

[theroadwarrior]

Most decent usually means they're hiding something.

Never trust a polite wastelander.

[mucked]

Well, luckily for me, he's not a wastelander at all. [ really, max. she raises her brows at him. ] When I first came across Steve Rogers, he barely came up to my shoulder and couldn't get a sentence out without back-pedaling. A funny kind of polite.

[ -- but then again, that had more to do with his inability to speak to women. and less about his manners. ]

[theroadwarrior]

Hmmm. Puny then.

[He knew about the serum thing, but when you put it that way...]

Surprised someone like that would get involved. In what he did.