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]

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. ]

[winn]

[ admittedly the hair care routine of the royal family is a blind spot of his, so he'll take her word for it. ]

...okay, that is totally nowhere near my meaning of wise.

[mucked]

I know, I know -- [ a puff of her cheeks. her interpretation had only been in the service of dodging a compliment. ] Thank you, Winn. It's kind of you to say.

[winn]

It's the truth, Peggy. Talking to you is making me a better person, I'm the one who should be thanking you.

[ dodge that. ]

[mucked]

Oh, hush. You're starting to sound like Steve.

[ not the worst thing, really! but she makes it sound like end times. ]

[winn]

Thank you.

[ he takes that as the highest of praise. he knows how she feels about steve (and no, he doesn't mean the romantic aspect, you know he doesn't). ]

[mucked]

[ huffy: ] I didn't mean it as a compliment, actually. You've no idea what a pain he can be.

[ not that you're a pain, winn. just -- she copes so poorly with admiration. she's prepared most of her life to bear the brunt of criticism, not praise. ]

[winn]

[ well too bad, peggy, you're going to have to learn a new skill. ]

I'll take Steve's worst over mine.

[ he shrugs, he can be a major pain, peggy, you have no idea. he deals with frustration and disappointment extremely poorly and when he lashes out, well, he has more in common with her than steve. ]

[mucked]

I'll spare you from hearing about his worst, then -- for fear of tarnishing him beyond repair.

[ this is good, she thinks. peggy likes keeping steve's profile humble. let him be the man, not the shield. ]

[winn]

I'm pretty sure I heard worse.

[ his girlfriend used to be an assassin, yo. and while he never blamed her for what her life forced her into, he will never be a fan of that part of her that still looks at killing as an acceptable none absolute last resort. ]

[mucked]

Worse? Likely. [ steve's as good as squeaky clean. ] But perhaps nothing quite so hopeless.

[winn]

At hopelessness I'm sure I've been worse.

[mucked]

Alright. [ she'll bite. ] Do share.

[ -- and, comfortably, it's not about her any more. ]