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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[ 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. ]

I did. Soundly. He deserved it, and then some -- some of the stunts he pulled [ and yet, she'd managed to forgive the man. he'd been one of her first and fastest friends during the war. and the man was good at what he did. ]

But he didn't deserve the charges. Howard is a lot of things, but he isn't a traitor.

-- but he's Howard Stark. Why would they blame him for treason? He helped a great deal in the war. Why didn't they believe all those things were stolen from him?

[ howard stark was a bit of a womanizer so he heard and yes, they had an awkward start with that unfortunate fondue incident but after that, he was very helpful. an odd thing, to pin him of all people for treason ]

Stark tech started showing up in the wrong hands. Washington found it easier to believe he'd been profiteering after the war. [ ... ] The Soviets are gaining power. It's a paranoid time, back home.

A good thing he had you on his side. It's really too bad, men like Howard Stark being blamed for that sort of thing.

[ a moment later brings forth a frown ]

Didn't you get in trouble with all those goons at your office? They never found out?

They found out. Put me in cuffs. Threatened to deport poor Edwin Jarvis and his lovely wife. [ and howard was nowhere to be found, in the meantime. the butler saved the day, in the end, so to speak. ]

As I said: paranoid.

I can't believe they did alla that. How did you get out? Did they figure out the truth on their own?

[ he, himself was made into a fugitive of a sort but that was all HYDRA, in retrospect. ]

The Soviet operative I mentioned earlier? She and her handler -- of sorts -- showed their hand at an opportune time. [ there's a dip in her voice. a crease of grief that she doesn't explain -- steve never knew the chief, so explaining his death would do nothing but dredge up her own sorrow. her own guilt. ]

The others...they couldn't turn a blind eye. Not any longer. [ she can't meet his eyes when she explains the next point. ] The handler was a doctor. A psychiatrist, by supposed trade. Highly trained in hypnotism. He did a number on some of our best men.

[ but that still doesn't explain why the rest failed to trust her. ]

hypnotism?

[ he wonders if there was a man like that present when HYDRA created the winter soldier. Bucky's mind was taken from him though Steve still doesn't know how. ]

Peggy, this isn't your fault. Stuff like that - hypnotism, it's not something anyone can see coming.

[ -- and there's the rub. because fennhoff was put in in the same holding facility as zola, and peggy can't help but feel responsible for marrying leviathan ingenuity with hydra devilishness. is she at fault for what happened to james barnes because she failed to dispense with fennhoff's punishment herself? there's a tight flicker of muscle in the side of her jaw.

it's the sort of worry she intends to take to her grave. ]

Leviathan. HYDRA. Same monster, but with a different name. [ ... ] Above and beyond the hypnotism, Steve -- what they did to the children they raised as their agents.

[ she changes the subject -- pushing away from what happened in nyc. away from what howard nearly did, and away from a second painful radio conversation. ]

[ there is something there that he doesn't know. thoughts that he can see burdening her but are kept close, so close that he can't even guess it. It's one of Steve's highest hopes that these men she works with will come around sooner rather than later. At times, it sounds as if Peggy Carter carries the burdens of her world on her own.

he shifts, places a hand over her elbow. ]

When HYDRA resurfaced from inside SHIELD, it was a whole mess. Fury was supposedly dead, Natasha and I were fugitives from the organization we worked for. It was bad, very bad but I - you know, I thought about you.

[ he had visited her only days before it all went to hell, confessed that part of the reason he joined SHIELD was because she founded it. and it was also part of the reason he took it down. Peggy Carter created SHIELD and Steve knew she would have done the same, if she were to know.

he never told her. ]

about doing the right thing and when it came down to it, others did the right thing to. They may resurface and they may do all those things but when it comes down to it, I know there will be people who would keep cutting those heads and sending them where they belong.

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