video + text + action

[mucked]

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?

Comments

[uprightness]

[ there isn't even a fraction of consideration before he nods. ]

why not - I'm not getting anywhere productive with your riddle.

[ he frowns at his notepad, as if willing to letters to rearrange themselves for his sake. ]

[mucked]

It's not a riddle -- [ she laughs as she stands, popping the lid and holding the box up to her nose so she could inhale a deep dose of the tea's scent. ] It's a code. A rather rudimentary one, actually. A simple single substitution cipher.

[ peggy puts the kettle on. ]

Need a hint?

[uprightness]

This is really encouraging.

[ he laughs, shakes his head as he looks at it, tilting his head. ]

You mean, you replaced A with a different letter and changed all the others after that?

[ what he knows, he knows from books, from hours of reading when his sickness forced him into bed rest. ]

[mucked]

Precisely so. [ child's play. and she doesn't spare his pride by hiding how easy she believes the puzzle ought to be -- nothing is much gained from coddling anyone, especially him. he excels in so much; he can suffer a bit of slip-back on this particular skill. ]

Give it a little patience. Some trial and error. You'll figure it out before the tea's done.

[ and she'll deign to give him that hint, should he require it. ]

[uprightness]

[ he eyes her with a small smile. he is reminded, suddenly, of camp lehigh, of how she had fascinated him with her curtness and her strictness coupled with a strong sort of faith. he huffs an amused yes ma'am that feels incredibly fitting for this moment.

reaching for his pencil again, he sets to work, determined to see this one through. there are scribbling and erasing of letters, one after another and a frustrated little that's not even a word before he fixes his mistake so the entire thing becomes, slowly, more sensible. ]

huh.

[ his smile is victorious. he has no doubt it took him more time to solve the thing than it took her to create this little code and yet. there is an air of surprise there, though and he turns to look at her. ]

It is a bit of a riddle, if one is expected to recognize it. I would never have taken you for an avid Shelley reader. I gotta say I like the story of how it was written more than the book itself.

[mucked]

I wouldn't call myself avid, [ she's quick to clarify. ] But my education was full and thorough. And the sentiment stuck with me.

[ if she flashes a hint of pride in her smile, then it's in his recognition of the passage. ]

Don't much care for the plot itself. It brims over with hubris.

[uprightness]

[ he thinks back to Ultron and shakes his head ]

I think I know what you mean.

[ he had seen far too many monsters for one lifetime even without the fictional ones. ]

[mucked]

I imagine you do. [ she stands near the kettle -- at alert, because it's a few seconds away from bubbling.

clearing her throat. ] But I thought I might put together a fresh code or puzzle every month. Maybe every two months. See if they get any bites.

[uprightness]

Making them harder each time - will they always be classic literature?

[ with a hint of amusement: ]

I'll have to see if the library on the Iskaulit has Moby Dick.

[mucked]

Not always. I can't stomach the predictability. [ the kettle clicks, and so she goes about the business of pouring them a pair of cups. she has a half-tea still sitting abandoned on the table, but she decides she'd rather enjoy this one with him. bad habits pervade, of course, and she steeps each cup with its own bag of tea -- only after the deed's done does she realize she ought to better ration them. it inspires a passing frown which soon disappears. ]

No, I think I'd better keep people on their toes.

[uprightness]

Well, at least this way we will all have practice if another coded message comes.

[ the kitchen is suddenly filled with the familiar scent of earl grey, a sudden reminder of home. ]

Not a bad deal for pinball.

[mucked]

[ practice is exactly her point -- and when he recognizes it as such, she smiles. part of her still feels vulnerable when he reads the fragments she leaves behind in sentences or in silences. but she needs to learn how to trust him more often with the littler things; she'd already trusted him with the big ones. ]

Depends. How many hours?

[uprightness]

Not too many.

[ is all he seems to be willing to say those that in itself is also a bit of a hint. ]

It passed the time.

[mucked]

And that's not an answer, Steve. [ she reaches for a spoon. turns it over in her hand for a moment, biding time while the tea steeps. ] How many is 'not too many'?

[uprightness]

About two and a half.

[ give or take. He meets her gaze and assures: ]

It was worth it.

[mucked]

For tea! [ she almost sputters. peggy shifts as if to cross her arms -- sternly -- but finds the action averted by the simple need to deliver the cups to the table. sugar and cream are already out, and he can help herself. she'll drink hers black. ]

You're mad. That's what you are.

[ except she can empathize. she'd won her own prize at the marsiva, and she won't be handing it over to him until much nearer christmas. ]

[uprightness]

It wasn't just the tea - !

[ said even as he helps himself to one spoonful of sugar. ]

They did have good food there.

[ so there, not entirely unreasonable. ]

[mucked]

Bit of a challenge to stuff your face and play at pinball. Simultaneously.

[ she tidies away her earlier, now-abandoned cup. peggy's all about the earl grey currently. as terse as she's being with him, the gift has clearly put a spring in her soul. ]

[uprightness]

You say the sweetest things -

[ it's hardly scolding. If anything, he's terribly amused. ]

Don't they call it multitasking?

[mucked]

They do, when it pertains to work. Not play. Or snack-time.

[ cutting! but it all melts away when she takes that first lengthy sip of tea -- regardless of how scalding hot the water still is. she swallows her way through the flush of pain, it brings colour to her cheeks, and she sinks back on her chair with an audible sigh.

bloody hell but that's nice. ]

[uprightness]

[ there is a comeback on the tip of his tongue but it seems that their argument is settled without it.

Arching an eyebrow, he offers her a smile. ]

Like I said,it was worth it.

[mucked]

If I shut my eyes -- [ and she does so ] -- I could almost imagine myself back in Britain.

[ the code-work had primed her for it; the tea has pulled the trigger. another sip, and she can nearly hear the chatter of the girls at their desks. bletchley. type-writers clacking and pens scribbling and that acrid drifting cigarette smoke. not the best year of her life, but she hardly regrets it. ]

[uprightness]

[ he knows this well; there are memories right there behind her eyelids. he's not sure of what and who but they are all connected to the simple scent and taste of tea. ]

Why only almost?

[mucked]

Doesn't smell the same. [ she taps the side of her nose, and only then opens her eyes -- goodwill lingers here, and her expression says thank you far quicker than her words ever will. ]

[uprightness]

Makes sense.

[ this world doesn't have that much in common with any sort of home. if there is one thing most people he knows have in common, it's how foreign this place seems to be to them. all aside of jim kirk, who, so far, seems to be mostly at ease with this sort of scenery. ]

You gotta admit, it was nice of them to at least hand out two of these.

[ the boxes, that is. ]