driftfleet | Marsiva Mingle

Well they have like twenty flavors here. One of them is peanut butter, just throwing it out there.

[ a bit of a suspicious look ]

You know what peanut butter is, don't you?

[ so, so dryly: ] I'm well aware of peanut butter, yes. Thank you. [ she leaves the remainder of her twizzler piece on the saucer, reclaiming her teacup instead. ]

And Bassett's Allsorts. [ peggy points at the prize board. she likes those. can't get them in new york, however. ] They're much better -- proper licorice. Maybe I you ought to be playing for them.

You mean the kind that taste like a balloon dipped in pure mechanical oil? I mean, the only things worse than those babies are marzipan.

[ he makes a face and looks back at it and then back at her, instant mode: despair. ]

You can't possibly compare these to Twizzlers. Twizzlers taste like candy those things taste like jello shots with gummy bears.

[ ... ]

Which I've only done once. Under duress. Pretty sure I can't remember most of that night.

[ smiling so much. ]

I like marzipan. [ -- she insists. ] And frangipane. Ever had a Bakewell tart?

[ now there's a proper treat. ]

Nobody likes marzipan.

[ as for the other thing ]

Is it the younger sister of the Getwell pie?

[ .... ]

Oh my God, you're not kidding.

[ -- the joke's alright. it puts a glimmer in her eyes, if little else. peggy watches him over the rim of her teacup. ]

It's easy to like marzipan when you've had mock apricot flan -- made with carrots, I might add. Anything's an improvement over that.

[ huff. ]

---- ok that's just gross. And a little sad, but mostly gross. I'll try and guess.

[ he bites off three twizzlers at once ]

Cafeteria food? hospital food? really weird plane food?

[ where else in the world would you find flan made from carrots? ]

[ she is (at least) a little accustomed to the way people don't quite understand scarcity -- at least, in the way she'd known it. so peggy puts the poor young fellow out of his misery. after all, he's been kind to her -- even if that kindness tastes like too much sugar. ]

Clever little rationing recipe, actually -- cooked carrots add sweetness when you can't get hold of sugar. [ ... ] It's called making do. There was a lot of that during the war.

[ then again, this fellow might not even be from earth. it's so hard to be certain. he might have no idea what war she means. but rather than over-share, peggy simply waits for a cue from him. ]

Hey I know about making do. I live on savings. I mean, helping superhero these days? does not pay a lot of money. You should see my apartment. Or - you really shouldn't. Ever, nope.

[ but he'll place his Twizzlers down ]

You're a soldier. That's -

[ hot. ]

really cool. So, which one? You know, they say that every era in history is portrayed by one big war so you can put people from different years all in the same room and they'll talk about the war but none of them will actually mean the same one. I took a class in college for some credits.

[ my word, but he talks a lot. peggy doesn't much mind. someone else's talkativeness means more time for her to digest a situation and consider her next move. peggy nods -- twitching her smirk, just a little, when he calls her a soldier. it's an assumption that not many people make. and although it's not wholly correct, it's much nearer the truth than other ones she's heard. ]

The one that started in 1939. Allies, versus the axis powers. The Second World War. [ after all, she's met people here who don't know much about it. ]</small. Which all means next to nothing, I suppose, unless you're from Earth.

I'm from Earth. It happened. on my earth. timeline. Universe.

[ ha, another one to the list of cool ladies he met on the fleet. the atroma may be creepers, but at least they have good taste in people and their resumes. ]

No wonder you don't know Twizzlers yet.

[ chinhands ]

Definitely not next to nothing. This is so awesome and I will mock your weird taste in candy ever again.

[ it happened. peggy drains her cup, sets it aside, and asks the obvious question: ] What's your year?

Way after. 2015. Is it over yet where you are? the war?

[ it's super weird to think he has spoilers for the entire future for those people. he grabs another twizzler and bites into it ]

They really have access to the entire timeline. That's - both really creepy and really cool.

It's done. [ and another, far chillier war begins. ] 2015 seems to be rather popular year, doesn't it? Access doesn't correlate with affinity, it would seem.

Maybe it's easier to take us from that year, you know - we're not really as tough. We're all dependent on computers, smartphones and fast food.

[ and netflix, definitely netflix. ]

Not all of you. [ time to put some of that listening to good use. ] You said something about superheros, Mister Ramon?

Not me, though.

[ he's not sure what the Vibe is but it's definitely not a superhero. ]

I mean, I'm just a part of the tech and support team, really important part, seriously vital. I mean, I made the suit which - if you consider it, is really part of the charm. If he tried to run faster than the speed of sound in a t-shirt and sneakers, they'd burn.

[ look barry isn't here, he might as well appear cool in front of the ladies. ]

The Flash, it's what we call him. He's a speedster and our city's - you can say, local, really awesome superhero.

[ a speedster? she doesn't immediately understand the jargon -- but it's not too difficult to work backwards. the flash is someone who goes fast. very fast, from the sound of it. ]

If I've learned anything, it's that many a hero is only as good as his or her support -- [ a hard-won lesson, to be sure. it's not as though she wanted to believe it until edwin jarvis stubbornly insisted for long enough. even now, she has a tendency to fall back on her lone wolf ways. ]

He'd agree with that. I mean, we make sure to tell him where he'd needed and how to beat the bad guy and we buy him pizza afterwards, he calls us Team Flash.

[ #represent ]

I didn't come up with that name. I mostly come up with names but I can't really take credit for that one. It beats the days when people kept calling him the Streak.

Is that how it works, then? The heroes of the modern day wait for their names to be given to them? [ -- because she feels a great deal of confusion around what some of them carry as names. steve's made sense. it was born in pageantry and propaganda. ]

How is it you don't crack under the pressure of naming them all? [ her laughter is restrained. ]

Well - technically I've never named the superheroes, though I've met them all - I name the villains.

[ .... ]

Hey, this is not a laughing matter. If it weren't for me, the newspapers would read 'Flash vs Rainbow Raider' which, you have to agree, sucks.

Edited 2016-10-17 19:07 (UTC)

I never realized the villains needed naming. [ -- she isn't exactly being earnest. ] Most of the unsavoury sorts I come across already have names of their own.

[ admittedly, there was the red skull. but that was a bit obvious. ]

Most of the out-of-their-minds metas were named by me. Look, when we try to bring these suckers down, we don't always know their real names and we have to call them something. That said, why not a cool something like, ok -

[ wait for it ]

The Mist. That says a lot about a person. Crazy meta or not.

[ it's possible that peggy couldn't disagree more. to provide names -- especially 'cool' ones, as cisco described them, surely offered villains a level of glory and cachet that they didn't deserve.

but they're in an easy, casual setting. there's no reason to argue for argument's sake. instead, amicably: ] The Mist? [ ... ] That's a fine one. Very...evocative.

[ by all accounts, she seems sincere. ]

And fits his powers. The guy can transform himself into poisonous gas. That whole arc was a bit of a headache. I mean, trapping someone who can - evaporate.

[ but he seems so excited about the whole thing ]

Not the weirdest meta I've ever heard of but definitely top 15.

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