driftfleet | video + text + action

Entry tags:

video + text + action

Who: Peggy Carter & YOU
Broadcast: Y, fleetwide.
Action: Aboard the Starstruck, if you like.
When: Today.

[ a video feed flickers to life, and fights for a moment to adequately focus on its subject. peggy carter sits in the kitchen aboard the starstruck, cup of tea and her elbow and half a biscuit in her hand. dabbing at crumbs, she sets her food aside and offers the network a bright smile. ]

That message -- the ominous one, in the bizarre language? It put me in mind of the sort of cryptograms and puzzles you might see in the Sunday paper. [ her expression is cheery enough, although she's not being wholly honest about her interest in such games. she won't be the one to say the words bletchley and park.] I loved them. Them, and crosswords. I thought maybe some of you might like them, too. [ ... ] We could do a few together. I'm not saying we all join a club, exactly, but back home they were always better solved in good company.

Let's start you off with one that's easy enough. But there's no shame in needing a hint, if needed. For what it's worth, the text I'm attaching is, in its deciphered form, English -- not yet certain how the augments' translation will handle it. We'll see.

BLSTKBC YLBSFKGISRX XL QIYT SL SFVBWIKAKJR STR QKBZ VX V XSRVZU EIFELXR — V ELKBS LB OTKYT STR XLIA QVU NKM KSX KBSRAARYSIVA RUR.

[ -- and then an afterthought: ]

...By chance, has anyone been brewing their own beer?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ WITH GREAT TREPIDATION: ] We do, yes.

[ huff. he's one of those. ]

[ he's king of those. ]

I'll just use that, then.

[ he knows she's judging him. it's ok. he and steve judge her tea drinking. ]

[ one last valiant stand: ] It's quite good tea.

[ sam winchester left her with some. he grew it and dried it out himself. she grasps at straws because, ugh, steve isn't allowed to win. ]

[ whispering ]

Lost cause --

[ sorry peggy, steve winns this round. ]

Fine. [ surrender??? ] But you'll be making it for yourself. I had my fill of brewing bloody coffee back home.

[ it's a good thing you're a guest, winn. and doing her a favour on top of it. ]

No problem, it's the one kitchen thing I'm an expert at making.

[ peggy, peggy this is winn. he'll make your tea too if you want. he prefers not being a bother. ]

[ an expert? a heady claim. but one she's not curious enough to test. ]

So, then. We're agreed. Tea and coffee and codes. [ the nostalgia is awfully fragrant today. ]

Don't forget the fun.

[ dryly: ] The lesson's meant to be fun, is it? Bit different from my school days, then. I look forward to see your teaching philosophy play out.

It's basically the more fun you have doing it - the quicker and better you learn. So, tonight -- what time should I come by?

Half seven works for me, if it works for you.

Sounds good, I'll see you then.

[ -- their stage is set in the kitchen, not long after the dinner mess is cleared away. peggy's already had more than her fairer share of cuppas. the latest steams gently at her elbow when winn walks into the starstruck's kitchen. she, half-smiling, finds her feet and ushers him warmly into the room. welcome, her body language suggests.

peggy has at least left the coffee grounds out on the counter. it's the most she's willing to do. ]

Make as much as you like. [ maybe steve'll run out. ]

Thanks.

[ he smiles warmly, and puts down his pens and paper on the table before heading straight for them. if anyone can drink them out, it's him, but he's a little too nice to run them dry. ]

Any luck with finding a phone?

[ she falls back to the well-set table, and grabs a small device. she waggles the phone (weird though she finds it) with a smile. ]

Steve was quite obliging.

[ clearly, this had made her at least a little happy. ]

[ while the machine does its thing, he walks up to her to grab the phone and examine it. ]

That never happens, you must be pretty special.

[ with a bemused smile, steve is possibly more obliging than he is, he wouldn't so easily give up his phone. he hands her back the device and goes back to the coffeemaker. ]

We can definitely work with that, I'll just transfer you some apps.

[ pretty special? she manages not to laugh -- just earlier today, she and steve had been discussing what, exactly, they were to each other. pretty special might be the closest either of them will come to a well-defined label. other labels paled in comparison.

she wraps her fingers tightly around the phone. holds it like a talisman, almost. ]

Odd, really, because I've been surrounded by all this future technology for a year now -- but it's belonged to the fleet. This is the first piece I've truly held that's come from my future.

[ it's humbling. ]

Humanity manages some pretty badass feats.

[ he smiles as he sugars his coffee. it's so easy back home, to take these things for granted, but smartphones are amazing. ]

Now, of that I have no doubt. [ although you'll find she'd never use the word 'badass' all on her own. ]

[ taking his cup with him, he puts it down on the table and sits by her side, digging out his own phone. ]

Here, let me see it for a sec?

[ he'll start the transfer while they do their work. ]

[ she takes a seat -- next to her mug of tea, of course -- and places steve's phone on the table between them. ]

What exactly will you be doing to it? [ not doubtful, merely curious. ]

I'm transferring software from my phone to his that will enable you to write your own code and test it out.

[ and he does just that, putting both phones down on the table to allow the transfer to take place. ]

[ curious, really. peggy watches him with an always-critical eye. wondering, perhaps, how it is that a genius should come so far without an ego the size of howard stark's? she sips her tea, considers the man across the table, and hums a single note. ]

What sorts of things can these...codes do, by the way?

[ easy, a lifetime of abject humiliation, bullying, and misplaced guilt that led him to bring himself down in every way and trapped him in a dead-end job. ]

Practically everything, it's a way to transmit, receive, and process data. Back home everything is computerized - banking, media, intelligence, you name it. And if you're really good - you can hack all those things. Our network, these ships - they're controlled by a code, it's just not one I can figure out [ he irritably rubs at his augment ] but it's there. It's calculating our trajectory, monitoring our life support systems, comms, code is how we're still alive.

[ she catches his irritation. and she suspects it's something similar to what she feels when her augment -- communications -- fails to take her far enough to muck with the ship's frequency. but to her, it's like a branch she just can't quite reach. only she doesn't know why.

but something winn says catches her attention. ]

Intelligence, hm? [ a stiff clearing of her throat. this, at least, should by now be no secret to a clever mind like winn's. ] That sort of work must become rather different in an age of little telephones in everyone's pocket. Good Lord.

[ she'd be a fossil, indeed. and maybe that's why she's so curious about upgrading this skill. ]

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