driftfleet | text & video

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Who: Peggy Carter, some rumours, and you!
Broadcast: text, then video.
Action: y, aboard the starstruck.
When: today!

[ a message materializes on the network around midday: ]

Peggy Carter's got a veritable guy-pile of suitors: Edwin Jarvis, Max Rockatansky, Jason Wilkes, Jack Thompson, Howard Stark, Stefan Salvatore, Steve Rogers, Sam Winchester, James Barnes, Clint Barton, Daniel Sousa, and counting! How many more can you name?

[ and not long after (in a state of utter pique and dismay), that same network registers a rather heartfelt reaction -- but this time with accompanying wide-eyed video. ] Jack -- Jack Thompson? Un-bloody-likely. The only thing he's ever got his eyes on is the next greasy rung on the ladder. [ peggy scoffs, disgusted. ] As pranks go, this one's been truly shambolic. The first of April was days ago.

[ in a few hours, she'll enjoy her meltdown all over again when she finds a box of sponsor gifts in the cargo bay filled with stickers, each with a different so-called suitor's name scribbled into the blank space. all of them are filled in except for an ominous pile with an attached note: in case there's so many you start to forget their names. blanks included for any others that we might have missed. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, you can take as many as want. I haven't been using one since I was eight and I kinda doubt anyone on my ship needs them.

[ between all of them, they can probably shoot water out of their palms. mutants and super-people that they are. ]

As long as no one lets my pilot get his hands on them. He's a terror with a novelty gun.

-- He has a novelty gun?

[ oh wow. ]

Our pilot is nice. I mean I don't know him that much but he seems nice.

It's got these horrid little foam darts.

[ ok, that does get a laugh though she covers her mouth after a moment, unused to the sound. ]

My brother used to have one but I don't think he liked it very much. He and his friends prefer to play pretend games, you know. They shoot fireballs at each other.

...Pretend games?

Dungeons & Dragons. It's -

[ how do you even explain? ]

So there's this board and you pick a character for yourself, you have to make it up and my brother and his friends, they have those characters they made up and they go on adventures. They have monsters and wizards and things.

[ at first blush, this sounds a lot like the games she and michael played as kids. but: ] What's the board for?

I think it's where the little figures go, there are a bunch of them. Oh and there's dice, too. Let's say there's a monster and you'd want to fight it, right? so if you roll more than eight, you win but if you roll less, it eats you - I think.

[ ... ]

Mike would kill me if he could hear this. I'm probably explaining it all wrong.

Mike? [ oh, no, peggy smiles. ] You brother, I presume.

He made me dress up as an elf once. It was a majorly-important-campaign.

[ but alright, her roll of eyes might be a bit fond. ]

He's younger than me, he goes to middle-school. I used to think he's just the annoying little brother who spends twelve hours in the basement pretending to fight monsters.

But you dressed up all the same. [ how thoroughly charming. ] I'm sorry, Nancy. You must be missing him.

I did. Mostly because my mom wasn't at home and there weren't going to be any pictures.

[ the embarrassment, oh god. ]

Mike?

[ oh, well. ]

Yeah. it's like, all we did was fight but lately we sort of started, I mean [ how do you even explain the shared monster fighting experience? ] I feel like I got to know him? I guess? If that makes sense.

It makes perfect sense. [ someone stop her before this tender spot grows too wide for this ambitious, clever girl. ] And I think it's often the way with siblings.

He's still a bit of a jerk.

[ that's important, she takes care to make it very, very clear. ]

I mean, yes , I love him, he's my brother but he can be so annoying.

[ and yes, she misses him, if only because it would help to argue with someone. ]

He puts maple sauce on his eggs.

[ gross. ]

Now, now. That doesn't sound so awful.

[ look, she'll try anything once. ]

-- He puts it on my eggs.

[ which, disgusting. ]

He told my parents about my boyfriend. I've been on house arrest for days.

[ which she broke to go to the woods and find a monster but that's a whole other matter. ]

-- They don't approve?

They wouldn't want me to get a reputation. Hawkins is small so rumors -

[ a line face, since it all connects directly to the matter at hand ]

spread quickly. I don't care, not anymore but they do.

[ a little like the fleet, then. peggy's smile is wry. she doesn't want to imagine what amanda carter would think of the rumours that flew around the ssr after the war. ]

Not caring what anyone thinks is a good step. Apart from yours, no one else's opinion matters.

[ almost verbatim. ]

They all think alike. I mean, if my mom could have her way, I'd probably marry my boyfriend once we graduate and stay in Hawkins forever and cook him dinners while he's out working in some boring job like my dad does.

[ a known path, one that has been decided already. ]

I just don't think it can work like that for me.

Mhm. [ a soft hum. ] My mother had hoped much the same for me. She would have been thrilled had I settled for a comfortable marriage to a man with a comfortable job.

You don't need to be the person she wants you to be.

I don't think I am. I used to be, I think - I tried. It was stupid.

[ it cost her barb; barb who knew who nancy was better than her. ]

They can say whatever they want. It's not the worst thing that can happen. I mean, it hurts but one day, I guess it won't matter anymore.

Rumours are only that. Rumours. Frustrating, but survivable. Plenty of things hurt worse than words

Unless you can't take them back. Then that - that's terrible.

[ it's something she's not about to forgive herself for. The last thing she ever told Barb was to go home on her own. ]