Let's all hold hands and sing Kumbaya

[notzubats]

Who: Everybody! It's a planet mingle!
Broadcast: If You want!
Action: On the Holding Hands plant!
When: From June 23 until whenever we need a new mingle.

[At long last, the fleet has arrived to a new planet. This means it's time for a mingle guys! Get in! ]

Comments

[mucked]

[ she takes her sweet time in sitting again -- using her single crutch as a prop, carefully bending knees and looking a little too much like an old grandmother trying to get comfortable. bloody hell, but she's in the prime of her age. she shouldn't feel so banged up. ]

Good. And you can hardly beat this seat for views. [ a nod of her head towards the ocean. ] Been a while since I've seen such open waters.

[winn]

[ he knows that tone she's been using well enough to know better than to comment about it, so he just waits patiently until she's seated. ]

You really did pick a good one. [ there's a nostalgic edge to his voice. ] Reminds me of home.

[mucked]

And where is home? [ now that she's seated -- stationary -- her smile returns. it's ghost-like, and doesn't quite reach her eyes. but that's an old spy habit; it has nothing to do with winn himself. ]

[winn]

National City, California.

[ he nods. ]

What about you?

[mucked]

[ -- she laughs, and it's genuine. follow along if you can, mister schott: ]

England, originally. I imagine that's no surprise. But of late I've lived in America. New York, and then most recently on furlough to California. Blimey, it's hot there.

[ but a very dry heat, yes yes she knows. ]

[winn]

[ he's used to dealing with complicated software, give him a real challenge, ms. carter. ]

Can't beat it, right?

[ it's funny, before he came here he didn't really care about state or city pride, and yet on the fleet he finds himself constantly standing up for national city and california's merits. it's the funnest way he has to deal with the home sickness. ]

[mucked]

National City, however. Can't say I'm familiar with that one. [ and as much as she isn't a local, she's a damned good study with a map. ] It's not handy to Los Angeles, is it?

[winn]

It's a couple hours away, pretty cool place. Well. Weather-wise it's pretty on par with the rest of California - but stuff-to-do-wise, we get all the touring shows, great food, all that good stuff.

[ explanation accompanied with hand gesturing ]

Plus we've got our very own superhero and less traffic.

[mucked]

[ superheroes. sometimes, it was still hard for her to swallow. in her year, the only fathomable superhero remains captain america. and he was lost to the world. but then people here paint a picture of futures filled with capes, with masks, and with secret identities. ]

And, one presumes, good sea-side views.

[winn]

Some of the best.

[ of course, he hasn't really been taking proper advantage of them, locked away with his laptop or his gaming rig as he was. it's something to make up for when he goes home (always when, never if). ]

Moving around for work?

[mucked]

Oh, yes. [ a grim smile. ] Back home, I could be sacked for telling you that much. But being a part of the Fleet has afforded me a certain candor. [ not least of all because it turns out half the heavy hitters in her world's future know her name like some byline in a history textbook. ]

I can't imagine you're familiar with an organization called the SSR? [ so few were. ]

[winn]

I'm guessing it's something top secret I shouldn't have heard about?

[ he can think of several options for those initials, but somehow he feels like one of the s's goes to 'secret'. ]

[mucked]

Oh, yes. Certainly. During the '40s. [ a grim smile. she's come to understand all too clearly how the things that are confidential in her age are common-place trivia in the far future. ] But I've been working under the impression that it changes. SSR stands for the Strategic Scientific Reserve, Winn.

Yet I've also been working under the second impression that it never existed at all in some versions of history. At least, not by that name.

[ but ssr is awfully close to oss. ]

[winn]

You're from the 40s! That's so cool - I'm from 2016. [ he smiles ] I know my secret government agencies [ some of them are real, some of them are internet conspiracies. ] and I'm pretty sure that's not one of them - at least - if it is it's doing a bang-up job keeping itself secret on my earth.

[ but hey, one of those initials is particularly interesting to him! ]

So it's like, tasked with developing new tech? [ are you a scientist, peggy? because there's plenty of room on the nerd squad! ]

[mucked]

Developing it. Securing it. Protecting it. [ and then, with the barest twinkle in her eye. ] How else do you think Captain America came to be?

[winn]

[ his eyes are practically glinting at the possibility of story time. he's a grown man, honest! ]

You were in on that?

[ steve mentioned that the scientist who developed the serum had died, but no great invention is ever accomplished by just one man. ]

[mucked]

You could say I was. [ oh, he'd broken through a measure of her surly disposition. back home, she never much liked talking about captain rogers. but he was lost and gone -- and back home, her association with him had become a source of innuendo. here, with him nearby and alive, she could celebrate her part in project rebirth a little more gladly. ]

I was part of the team tasked with choosing a candidate for the serum.

[ and the field agent who rescued the scientist who'd developed it out of hydra hands, but she isn't here to toot her own horn too loudly. ]

And I'd like to think we chose rather well.

[winn]

He does kind of seem like...America personified.

[ sometimes it's unsettling - usually it's endearing. he likes steve quite a bit, you know, when he's not jealous of his girlfriend's crush on him. ]

Okay I gotta ask you something -- was he really a 90 pound kid before?

[ or is he just exaggerating to make him feel a little better about himself, because it feels like it should be an exaggeration, what the hell kind of serum could cause that big of a transformation? it must have been administered over years for him to survive it -- and it doesn't sound like it was if it was trying to create a soldier to end the war with; wartime science isn't known for its caution. the scientist in him is having a real hard time accepting it. ]

[mucked]

[ a short laugh. winn asks the right question -- or rather, he asks the question that targets precisely the person she first fell for. it can be easy to get lost in the glistening hero-image of captain america, but peggy first found herself loving the waif-like good-hearted recruit who'd first come to project rebirth.

she nods. ] Just about. I think the official file has him at ninety-five. Five foot, four inches. And a laundry-list of ailments that got him rejected from at least four different army recruitment offices.

[ she'll spare winn the bench press stats. ]

[winn]

[ aw, that is a sweet sort of smile. looks like steve managed just fine, despite his concerns. he's happy for him, he looks like the kind of guy who people think gets everything he ever wants - but rarely actually does. ]

So how'd you end up choosing him?

[mucked]

I knew fairly early on. Steve was cleverer than the others brought up for consideration. He never had much strength to rely on, and so he didn't solve every problem with his fists. But the decision was made when one day during drills, the Colonel tossed a dummy grenade into the troop. The rest of them scattered -- like mice, like spooked lambs.

[ she hesitates for a moment. and then peggy holds out an open palm. this planet has magic, deep in its roots. and she might as well share some of it with a young man with the pointed questions about value, about worthiness, and about what steve had been before the serum. if winn accepts the offer to hold her hand, and should peggy manage to zero in on this one memory in particular, he'll see the moment steve's heroism became clear to all assembled.

count yourself lucky, winn. agent carter doesn't share so easily -- and not unless she can find utility in the process. ]

[winn]

[ clever, doesn't rely on violence to solve his problems - that could describe winn fairly accurately. what he figures she's leading him to with that grenade story, though - that's the sort of man he wishes he could be. kara may call him brave, but that doesn't make it so.

he takes her hand without hesitation, eager to see if he can really see it. on his part, winn exudes excitement and admiration, that become only clearer as he can see the memory in his mind - as if it were his own. excitement, admiration, fondness, and a pinch of understanding. he knows all too well what it feels like to be the smallest, the weakest, to feel like you always have everything to prove. his way of dealing with it is intellectual, but then, he was born at a time when that luxury was more readily available.

he does count himself lucky - to be trusted with such a precious memory, to be trusted at all. ]

I feel like someone screwed up on the screening process there -

[ because clearly the rest of these guys had no business taking part in such an elite experiment. being a superhero is a huge responsibility, it can't be laid in the hands of people who aren't willing to risk it all for the people around them. it's why, even if he did somehow gain powers, he would never be a hero. he's pretty sure he doesn't have that in him. ]

[mucked]

[ it can be overwhelming -- to feel so much, and take on so many feelings that aren't your own. when she holds hands with steve, on this planet, they find themselves so in tune that it's a peaceful experience. memories and sentiments flow freely between them. but attempting it now, with winn, is an entirely different beast. she tastes his admiration. and his excitement. but then, at the end, she gets a hint of that self-criticism. it hits her fast and brief. she breathes in; she lets go. ]

Scientists and soldiers often disagree. It's the SSR's job to bridge that gap, at times. Captain America was the finest bridge we ever built.

[ it's a little simplistic. peggy would be the first to say they didn't build captain america. steve was a hero well before the project. but the general gist persists. ]

[winn]

[ he hasn't really tried it with too many people, precisely because he can't seem to do it without sharing the parts of himself he wishes didn't even exist. he's glad she retracts her hand before he has to do it, and lets his own drop back in his lap. ]

Yeah, good job there. How long'd that take?

[ the transformation is incredible, it doesn't look like the same guy at all. ]

[mucked]

The procedure itself was mere minutes. But the serum took years to perfect -- [ and it wasn't without its failed attempts. ] I could show you that, as well. I was present for it. But...

It might be a little overwhelming. [ she remembers her emotions in the moment. the fear, the shouting. winn didn't need that sort of chaos, perhaps. ]