driftfleet | ✮ video.

Entry tags:

✮ video.

Who: Steve 'belated bday boy' Rogers
Broadcast: fleetwide
Action: the ss star(spangled)struck
When: current

[ after the incident which involved steve rogers, a misunderstanding regarding technology and some ( very flattering ) photos of one Peggy Carter, Steve tried to avoid addressing the entire network regarding anything less than a security threat.

And then today happened.

The video opens up to the Starstruck though the ship looks drastically different due to the large number of red, white and blue balloons and confetti that seems to be everywhere. To make matters weirder, there seems to be a rather big cake reading 'Happy 1776th birthday, your Highness' and a song that seems to be playing every few minutes and rather loudly.

And in the middle of it all, there sits Steve Rogers himself and his smile is absolutely long suffering. He looks up and waits for the song to end before speaking rather hurriedly, mostly since he's worried it'll start over. ]

--- My birthday was last month but - thank you. Tony. For arranging alla this.

[ is he saying it through gritted teeth? Oh yes. And why? ]

And more importantly to Pinkie Pie who dedicated her time and effort to doing all of this. It's - very kind of you. Can't say I've ever had that much done for my birthday before.

[ and now if you'll excuse him, he's off to kill Iron Man. ]

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[ she's right, of course, it dawns on him that she must be right. he allows himself a second longer to humor the annoyance. ]

He can have as many jokes as he likes at my expense but involving Pinkie Pie or anyone else is unnecessary.

[ ....a bit of a scoff and then, alright, fine. ]

I've seen Tony in action and though he does have his -

[ he gestures around them ]

flaws. I know his heart is in the right place and he's a good teammate when he's acting his own age. He's protecting people's lives, he's no less of a hero than I am and no less of a genius than Howard was but if I tell him any of that, he won't that seriously either.

[ he takes another forkful of cake ]

[ steve speaks of him so...tenderly, despite it all. despite what happens. will happen. from peggy's vantage point, all of it is so far in the future.

she snags a fork and steals a bite of his cake. ] I've been talking to Wanda. Has she been talking to you?

[ it's related, honest. all this infighting. ]

The Sokovia Accords.

[ he smiles, takes another bite and shakes his head. ]

She didn't. She looked so miserable about the future that I told her she doesn't have to talk about it, she seemed almost relieved.

[ a moment passes ]

Winter remembers. He told me. Something happened on the planet that spiked up the memories, he has journals where he wrote it all down. Vision knows too.

-- She told me about it. All on her own. [ peggy savours the taste of cake, and treats it almost as a separate incident to this whole conversation. ] She was brave about it, and I didn't push her to say more than what she wanted to say.

[ but frankly: ] It sounds messy. Inevitably messy.

It will be. It is. It was.

[ future present and past, it's all such a mess and he doesn't have time to think about how it all can't be changed, not here and not in his future. It seems that his lack of control over time and its tricks are a running motif in his life. ]

I'm glad she has you.

[ he nods and means it. someone who is not involved in this mess. he thinks if perhaps he fails here. you were meant for more than this, she told him once and he took her words and followed because Peggy was calm and collected and whenever he thought about the right thing to do, it was always her input would have mattered. ]

-- I don't know what to do.

[ it's a quiet admission. ]

Whatever you do, you've already done it. By some measure of the future, at least. You planted yourself like a tree and you did not move. [ peggy settles in a seat next to him, her knee just barely about to touch his. close, but not too close. they aren't peggy and steve in this moment; instead, they are agent carter and captain america. ]

It's not a bad thing to have done, or to eventually do. It seems as though the Accords asked too much of you -- you would have disagreed with anyone, not just Tony.

Wouldn't you have?

Edited (i actually never meant to leave the full quote on the top of the tag whoops.) 2016-08-12 21:13 (UTC)

-- Yeah.

[ and in a way, this makes him feel a lot better. her approval and also - the thought that maybe they're still able to make sense of the future, even if none of them has lived it. ]

I guess I never expected myself to be in this position against a friend. Me and Tony always had out disagreements but not so much to split the team.

[ a little sigh ]

Gonna have to think of a way to put us back together. Here. at home. Whatever happened between me and Tony, he's a friend and we have a mission.

[ or had one. ]

I'd like to think we can still keep sight of it.

[ against a friend. peggy thinks about the ups and downs she's experienced with howard, and how there had been a very real moment -- not long ago -- where she'd decided she could never trust him again. how soon that changed when the dust had settled and affection had reasserted itself. ]

Have you spoken to him? [ since this revelation. ]

No, not yet.

[ talking to tony isn't easy on a good day, it becomes nearly impossible when things are dire and Steve fears he may not let him in past the wall of sass he has going on. ]

Don't really know what to say yet. Tony and I work well together but we don't often talk about these sort of things.

[ feelings, emotions. anything that doesn't have a direct connection to a job. ]

What I can't tell, however, is whether he knows what's about to happen. What will happen. [ she gestures to the deflated balloons, to the cake, to the whole spectacle. ] Would he do something like this despite a rift, or because of it?

He wouldn't. At least, I don't think he would. It's hard to tell with Tony. The moment you think you know what he's about to do, he goes and does the exact opposite.

[ but he feels as if Tony would have said something, probably. ]

It may be he likes being unpredictable, as well as liking the illusion of power that unpredictability might give him. [ ... ] One only needs a handful of interactions with the man to understand he doesn't much care for things outside of his control.

[ ... ] You should talk to him about it. About the Accords. Sooner, rather than later. The longer you leave it, the longer it's 'out of his control' -- so to speak. The more hurt he'll be.

You're right.

[ he'll have to think of how to explain it, it'd be easier if he had any recollection of any of it happening but either way, it's something that will have to be figured out. Why should we tell him? he asked Tony about Pietro and the man answered that secrets are never a good thing to keep.

Thinking back of Ultron, Steve knows Tony learned a lesson. He's not sure he learned it himself.

but the Accords will be a good place to start.

He gives her a little smile. ]

You're the smartest person I know, I hope you realize that.

Heavens, no. [ she shakes her head. ] I merely have the advantage of being a semi-independent party to all this.

[ she would never declare herself impartial. her feelings for steve make that impossible. and yet, she isn't wholly biased. she knows in her bones she would intervene if she found steve straying off the path he'd chosen for himself. she'd done it once before. ]

It's all the long-distant future, to me. I don't feel it as raw as you must feel it. As Tony will feel it. [ she cracks a sharp smile. ] No news of the future can trump the day I was told you were still alive. Even this pales in comparison.

[ funnily, he could probably say the same thing but he doesn't speak to Peggy about the time they'll meet again, years and years after she had grieved his death. at times, he thinks he should, tony said there are things people would just like to know no matter how painful they might be and perhaps telling her that even in her world, they will see each other again -

but then, there is always the pang of pain when he thinks about the entire truth of it. was it even fair, coming to see her time after time, putting her through all of that, finding out he was alive, that he came back after all those years? he doesn't know if he gave her more comfort than sadness and so he, once again, keeps quiet.

one day, perhaps.

for now, he covers her hand with his, smiles a bit ]

Still need you to help me see what's right. not a long has changed.

And you still have faith that I will steer you true. [ she slips her fingers between his, and finds she misses the electric connection of the last planet. they had been so attuned to one another during her convalescence, and she had shared of her emotions with only a little hesitation.

but at least the planet had forced them to leave no balconies where they could climb, so to speak. the echo-chamber of their affection had been so bountiful; they can't hide from it any longer. ]

God, what a great deal of expectation to match. When, on my best days back home, I feel like you're the one steering me.

Naturally.

[ he presses his palm to hers. the compass, he thinks, had been a fitting place to keep her picture. she has been giving him the same gentle directing, after all. pulling him out of his days as a dancing monkey with nothing but sheer faith. in years to come, every single word she'll say to him, he will take and treasure and act upon.

he thinks it's either the most wonderful or the most tragic concept in the world, the way they still effect each other even after their abrupt parting. it's the oddest sort of fate that ties them together. for a moment, steve thinks of the young man he saved that will be her husband and it doesn't grieve him at all. if anything, it gives him the oddest sort of comfort.

but that all belongs to a past-future of a world that's not that one. the multiverse, as Winn explained to him, worlds upon worlds and lives upon lives. somewhere, there might be a world where steve rogers married peggy carter and in another, he had saved the man who would make her happy and in this one, they meet again aboard a spaceship, of all things.

loki had tried to explain it, too and steve didn't understand him or winn but it's the sort of thing that he just decided to accept. ]

That's a pretty big honor, ma'am.

[ for all his captain america fame, he has the highest regard for agent carter. ]

[ something deep and feral inside of her wants to dispense with all the niceties -- to accept each other as the remarkable individuals they are, and revel in that reputation. but her better angels always prevail, and she is left with a mild twitch of her lips. an almost smile.

with her free hand, she digs into her pocket and produces a simple glass vial. it's empty -- entirely so. it's been with her since she'd arrived in the fleet. ]

This, [ she explains, ] was the last sample of your blood. When I said you steer me, Steve, I also meant it literally. Keeping this out of the wrong hands had been quite and adventure.

[ it was gone, now. poured away. but it hadn't been easy to empty. ]

My -

[ he frowns at the little thing for a moment, trying to connect the dots. He has given blood, of course, that was all part of what the project had demanded but how on god's green earth did a vial get to Peggy's hands, for her to carry?

It's a terrible, terrible burden. He tries to guess what she had to go through to keep it safe, what it must have felt like, what she eventually had to do.

The little vial is empty, after all. ]

I'm sorry.

[ he has put her into many turmoils, mores o than he realized. She must have emptied it so it'll never been found and will never be used. All of these goodbyes only to come here and find out the truth of it. ]

I can't imagine.

-- Bloody hell, Steve, don't you dare apologize. [ he didn't ask to be an emotional battlefield even after his disappearance. ] It was Howard. All Howard. Bastard tried keeping it from me.

[ her own miniature civil war, really. ]

[ howard stark. when steve thinks of him, there is nothing but fondness - howard stark would never use it for anything bad, not purposely. but perhaps, much like tony, his father had a tendency to create things meant for good that somehow ended up as trouble for others.

perhaps he hid it from her to shelter her from any more heartbreak, perhaps he did because he knew she would do the right thing. it's hard to tell. still, of everything steve learned about peggy carter's life in his absence -

he never imagined this. ]

How did you find out he had it?

It's a story. Not a long one, perhaps, but a story all the same. [ she brushes a curl off her brow. ] Want to hear it?

[ of course he did. her skin practically tingles at the prospect of sharing with him -- sitting, chatting, being so achingly normal with him. ]

Of course.

[ not because it's about him, a piece of him, anyway. but mainly because it's a chance to learn a little more about her, to sit here and listen, his hand still in hers. on the previous planet, this would have been enough and he might have been able to glimpse into it but this, there is something valuable about this. sitting like this and getting to listen. ]

I always do.

[ and as many stories as she'd care to tell him ]

Howard had it all along. Sort of. [ her palm flexes against his, and she imagines the veins beneath his skin -- pumping super-powered blood, and imagining how precious it is even in his own time. are the vials protected? does he get blood drawn at all? ]

But I didn't come in contact with the vial until a Soviet operative raided Howard's stash -- his real dangerous inventions and innovations. The SSR had him stitched up on treason charges and he leaned on me to recover his things and clear his name. The vial -- he told me the orb holding the vial was some sort of proto-doomsday device. Very delicate. Not to be opened.

[ ... ] I opened it. I was never all that good at following orders. [ and seeing it, realizing what it was? what it meant? and how stark had been lying to her about why it was so important?

oh, she'd been furious. ]

--- I hope you punched him.

[ because for all his glorious captain america patience and good-doing, he would have taken a swing at the man for lying to her like this while she was helping him. the least he owed her was the truth. ]

I can't believe he did that.

[ he likes to think Tony wouldn't. Sure, he invented an evil robot without telling anyone but this goes beyond even that. it's too personal, far more personal than ultron has ever been. ]

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