text & video » open

[mucked]

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. ]

Comments

[mucked]

I did the thing, also, but not for the reasons my colleagues thought I did. [ ... ] Trying to clear an innocent man's name is dangerous work so long as the authorities still contend he's not innocent at all.

[winn]

[ he nods ]

Yeah, that would be tricky.

[mucked]

So I sabotaged evidence. Stole SSR assets. Conducted my own private investigation. Took out a baker's dozen of agents sent to apprehend me before they finally got the cuffs in place. [ all thanks to a soviet operative and her own selfish desire to see steve's blood saved. ]

But tell me. What did you do?

[winn]

...nothing that exciting. Just, hacked a secret government agency from my tablet.

[mucked]

Oh, I don't know about that. Such a feat sounds terribly exciting to an old war horse who can't imagine getting intel without picking a few locks and risking hide. [ ... ] It's all very remarkable: remote intelligence work.

[winn]

It was pretty ingenious. 'course, it'd be a lot harder now - first thing I did when they hired me was beef up the cyber security.

[mucked]

[ oh -- a glimmer of genuine surprise. ] You 'hacked' DEO before they hired you on. Bloody brilliant.

[ if you think about it, it's a lot like turning an enemy asset. ]

[winn]

[ other than the part where he doesn't like to think of himself as the enemy (he did it at the request of an agent, that's gotta count for something, right?) - yeah, pretty much. ]

I also helped them hack a living internet alien before they hired me. But that was sanctioned, so - [ shrug. ]

[ he looks all cute and innocent with karaoke and t-shirts and parties but - he's done some things. ]

[mucked]

[ whoa, now. peggy holds up two fingers -- as if to silence him in his tracks.

back up a moment, please. ]

Sorry. But -- a living internet alien? Is that exactly what it sounds like?

[winn]

Living code.

[ he nods ]

Reaching out through your monitor and trying to strangle you as you're hacking it. Made me real glad I dabbled in the dark side of virus making.

[mucked]

[ a visceral, bone-deep shiver. it reminds her of something she was told, once -- about zola, and about how he lived on in a machine. pulling strings. ]

Don't tell me that's a common problem.

[winn]

Depends on your definition of common - that specifically only happened to me twice, but - it was the same alien, so, it kinda - counts as one? I mean the first time I wasn't so much hacking as tracking cuz, you know - I'm awesome at what I do, so.

[ he shut it down. for a while, at least. ]

[mucked]

So. You took it down -- with a virus?

[ curious. she's only really grasped the broader strokes of viruses, but winn had said the word just a moment earlier. ]

[winn]

A pretty nasty one, yeah.

[ he nods. ]

Which wasn't easy, I had to translate it into alien code I've never seen before in a serious time crunch.

[mucked]

I never took you for a linguist. [ learn something new every day. ] My fault, I suppose. It fits the profile.

[winn]

[ he's full of surprises. ]

Yeah? So what's my profile? [ it's interesting to see how other people perceive him. when they like him, that is, he definitely got enough views through the eyes of people who don't to last him the rest of his life. ]

[mucked]

[ rather than answer his question so directly, peggy leans back on the chair -- tea in hand. ]

Tell me, Winn. [ a tilt of her chin. ] Did you crack that cipher I left with Kitty yet?

[ her almost-smile suggests she knows he must have. ]

[winn]

[ he nods ]

I've been working on one to reply with. Just couldn't find the right words to encode.

[ everything got long, brevity has never been a talent of his. ]

[mucked]

[ -- hard to say who she's more pleased with: him, or herself. ]

I knew you wouldn't be able to resist it. [ a message, wrapped up in code. better than shiny paper or ribbons. or so she believes.

and that, in effect, offers a puzzle piece of her 'profile' -- she'd made a hunch about the format for her message, and is pleased to think she might have been right about it. ]

[winn]

[ it can be a tie! he's happy with a tie, under these circumstances! ]

You got me pegged. [ his smile radiates warmth. he can't resist a code and more than that - he can't resist a message from peggy. ] You always find the exact perfect thing to say to me.

[ there really are no words to how much her encouragement means to him. ]

[mucked]

I'm glad. Truly.

[ not least of all because it validates what she's said -- but because it is important that her words be precise. targeted as much in kindness as they can be in retaliation. it's one thing to always know exactly what to say to hurt a person; quite another to know what will do the opposite. it's the sort of line that, when walked, spurs a man in a propaganda show to be more than what others have made him. ]

Sometimes, all we've got are our words. We'd best use them wisely.

[winn]

You're one of the wisest people I have ever met.

[ said with utter sincerity. he feels like every time he talks to peggy he comes out of it a better person. ]

[mucked]

Bloody hell. [ she gives her head a shake -- curls bouncing. but it's a brave show to hide the oddity of such a compliment. or, at least, the oddity of how it lands. settling like a stone in her stomach. ] Say it like that and it sounds as though I ought to start using the blue rinse.

[ -- isn't wisdom associated with age? good god, man, don't make her feel old when she's barely older than you. ]

[winn]

-- I have no idea what that means, beyond I unsurprisingly don't have your talent with words.

[ actually kitty and his nerd bros aside, he feels like he has a habit of saying the wrong thing, try as he might. he definitely did not mean to imply she's old. ]

[mucked]

What, blue rinse? [ a beat. ] It's dye. For your hair. Takes the yellow out when you start to go grey. The Queen uses it, I swear.

[ -- she means king george's wife, the queen mother. not her daughter, queen elizabeth. although she, too, might blue rinse. ]