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]

Do we really to explain this to anyone?

[ he was under the impression that most everyone knew already. What's with the unfortunate incident with her pictures and the halloween party. ]

You and me, we're us. I'm not sure there's a term for what we have. Calling you my girlfriend feels like we're sixteen and I'm buying you sodas every Friday. You're more than that.

[ there is a term, in all honesty. But steve doesn't rush into talking of right partners and love over tea in the starstruck's kitchen. ]

[mucked]

[ of course they don't need to explain it to anyone -- and yet, there's this strange new part of her which wants the words best suited in articulating how she feels for him. all they can really do is agree on what they're not. and agree that they're together. so maybe that's enough.

she traces the rim of her cup. caught between a smile and a frown. ] Captain America's girlfriend? [ good lord. ] No, that wouldn't do. Not at all. I got enough of that after the war, [ she admits. ]

[uprightness]

Seems like none of the traditional words fit.

[ he feels as if he had skipped over a whole era of the world's take on captain america. waking up in the 21st century, Cap was an important historical figure but still, history made into something more modern. After the attack on New York, they all got their names and pictures stamped on everything from cereal to birthday balloons but it's steve's infamous distance from any personal relationship that kept him from seeing this side of things. it irks him more than a bit that it turned out to be peggy's burden. ]

I think we're maybe a bit past that.

[ or entirely past that. none of them seem to excel at the entire traditional thing, put them together and well. semantics don't seem to work here. ]

[mucked]

Past it, and stuck in some sort of in-between. [ she grimaces. ] Only, I don't want you to feel like you're spinning your wheels -- missing out, once more.

[ she can't tell him how she'd started to fall for someone else. how daniel had been patient, and interesting. but peggy had wore out his patience all the same, had taken too long to mend a bridge, and hadn't reached out to him until it had been too late. he'd moved on. good for him, but it cemented a lesson in spinning her wheels.

even so, she can't bring herself to say i love you despite having already said it. tapped it out. expressed it, whole-heartedly. she isn't a creature of excess, and it shows even now. ]

[uprightness]

Missing out?

[ he shakes his head and takes her hand more firmly in his. ]

If that's what this is about, there isn't any chance of that happening. If I ever felt I was missing out it was in the time I spent without you. That never happened here and it won't happen just because we can't find an exact definition for what we are.

[mucked]

[ she likes his hand in his, certainly, though it's a kind of tether that still makes her feel a little uncomfortable. she caresses her thumb across his palm. ]

Aye aye, Captain, [ she answers with a crooked smile. the question isn't put to bed, exactly, but it's shored up enough that she needn't worry. instead: ] I suppose that means that -- whatever we are -- it's fair game to ask you for a...possibly awkward favour.

[uprightness]

Possibly awkward?

[ well, that does sound promising. he ducks his head, smiles up at her. ]

gotta say I'm curious now.

[mucked]

I'm going to need you to kiss me -- [ she announces. a little primly, and a lot like she's conducting business. now, it's not like the kiss itself is a source of discomfort.

but: ] I'm afraid it's not going to be very pleasant.

[uprightness]

[ there are so many ways in which he doesn't follow. ]

-- it won't be?

[ the confusion couldn't be greater at this point. ]

[mucked]

One of the clever clogs in the fleet managed to replicate the knock-out lipstick -- that brand I described. Only he went and improved a second formula with enough punch in the pigment, so to speak, to knock even a super-powered someone back on their arse.

[ her smile is edged -- because he must realize, now, what the hitch is. ] But I need to be certain.

[uprightness]

So to be certain that this - newly improved knock-out-lipstick is working, you want to knock me out?

[ there is a second in which he looks as if he expects her to laugh it off but the moment doesn't come and so, a sigh. ]

Right, well. Do you know how long I'll be out for?

[mucked]

Shouldn't be any more than a few hours, provided Ramon's as good as he claims. The same formula unleashed on someone less, ah, enhanced might knock them out for a few days.

[ it's a big ask. she knows it. so, stiffly: ] I can always ask someone else. There's no shortage of powered people knocking 'round the fleet.

[ if she's insistent about this, it's because she's genuinely bothered by the sheer amount of people around her who could squash her. easily. she isn't accustomed to being so thoroughly out-matched. once upon a time, it was only him. ]

[uprightness]

It's ok -

[ maybe a bit too hurriedly. he doesn't really know why he minds her experimenting this on someone else. it's a bit ridiculous, to be honest and still, here they are. ]

I'll do it. Whenever you want.

[mucked]

Believe me, I won't be doing it for fun. [ well. maybe just a little bit of fun. ] I'd feel a lot more confident about it all if I knew it worked -- and knew I could depend on it, in a pinch.

[uprightness]

Makes sense.

[ ish. kinda. in an honest-to-god-weird way. honestly, he used to think about peggy asking him to kiss her and none of those daydreams included a sleeping drug. ]

So, I suppose we'll have to use my room if I'm going to be out for hours.

[mucked]

And it needn't be today. Or even tomorrow -- whenever your afternoon looks clear, we can try it. [ and then, trying to spin a bit of humour on the strange request: ] I promise to be gentle.

[uprightness]

I almost believe that.

[ it's mostly teasing but alright, if only because it it important from a tactical point of view. ]

I don't have much going on and we're no where near another planet. It's fine, Peggy. We'll try it. Sooner rather than later with these things, right?

[mucked]

[ she nods. that sharper-edged smile settles into something warmer. she's grateful, although she doesn't quite know how to best express it. ]

Tonight, perhaps? When you're bound for sleeping, anyway, and so I'll take less of a chunk out of your waking hours.

[uprightness]

Tonight.

[ he agrees and then adds: ]

it's a date.

[ what. does knocking out someone through kissing doesn't count for one these days? ]

[mucked]

That's two engagements in one evening, good God. [ she cards her fingers through her curls -- it's late in the afternoon, and they're starting to lose their shape. ] Winn's coming over to show me a few tricks. He says it'll go smoother if I can borrow your...phone.

[ a cautious pause, because she's not certain if that's the right way to describe it. ]

Once he's done with his first lesson, I'll come find you.

[ so. many. favours. ]

[uprightness]

Oh.

[ he gets up, reaches for his back pocket before handing her his phone without a big fuss. it's a much simpler request than the first one, after all. ]

Here - what is he teaching you?

[mucked]

Something to do with computers. [ her explanation is almost similar to a luddite's. peggy gives his phone a perfunctory examination -- here's a thing from the future. the actual future. and if it's anything like the communicators they're allowed by the atroma, then she is well and truly humbled by how casually he puts it under her care. were the situations reversed, peggy isn't so convinced she'd easily do the same.

thoughtfully, she traces the phone's edge. ] Coding. Programming. Something of that nature.

[uprightness]

No one knows more about that than Winn.

[ he confirms as he sits back down. the good thing about winn is how simple he can make those things seem. steve learned a thing or two from him, too. though nothing as complex as programming. ]

Sounds like it'll be right up your alley.

[mucked]

Maybe. Hopefully. Either right up my alley, or well above my head. [ it's something she's not afraid to admit, given the distance between the decades. ] But it might be a useful skill. Who knows.