time for some spring-mingling!

[mucked]

Who: Starstruck crew and guests!
Broadcast: N/A
Action: Aboard the Starstruck
When: All of April

[ oi, crew! we've got some upgraded bathrooms this time 'round, so enjoy your extra hot water! and a comfier tub! and some privacy curtains in the changing area, thank goodness. everyone please remind max to actually use the curtains, of course. (right after you remind him to shower!)

mingle away, starstruckers! don't forget you can still toy around with some of the rumours! ]

Comments

[uprightness]

( A; pumpkins! )

[ a few planets back, just before Halloween, Steve Rogers planted a few pumpkin seeds at the garden on the iskaulit. today, finally, a result comes through and he's carrying in five pumpkins. if you ask him, they're very good-looking, thank you very much.

except, growing pumpkins is one thing and cooking them is another so you may find him frowning at those very pumpkins in the kitchen. ]

( B; rumors! )

[ aside from the various rumors about steve's upbringing, ranging from canada ( no ) to new jersey ( absolutely not ), there is another one hanging on the fridge.

steve rogers is a wanted man in 100 countries ]

A few more than 100, I think.

[ he's not impressed. ]

( C; wildcard )

[ anything else goes here. ]

A; pumpkins!

[outstandingbalance]

[Steve has only himself to blame, when Natasha comes by. He wanted her to visit more often. That's how he ends up with a redheaded spy peeking around his shoulder to get a look look at what he's doing with his haul.]

That's going to be a lot of pie.

[uprightness]

Beautiful, aren't they?

[ look at him, Natasha, look how proud he is. ]

Want one? I doubt we'll use them all and I gotta admit, I'm not sure what to do with them.

[outstandingbalance]

They look good, but I wouldn't know the first thing to do with them. Think you'd be offended if I used one for target practice.

[Teasing.]

[uprightness]

[ he aims an elbow at her side. ]

Very funny. I didn't spend all these months taking care of these just to give you something to shoot at.

[ come on, Natasha, we can't not do pumpkin-related things. ]

Maybe soup.

b.

[mucked]

[ ah, yes. she'd witnessed the fridge-rumour earlier, but she'd left in place. after all, it's meant for him. but when he comes nose-to-nose with it, she's leaning against the kitchen counter with a mug of tea in one hand and one of stefan's shortbread biscuits in the other. she dunks the shortbread in her tea, holds it for half-a-heartbeat, and then bites the soggy half. ]

Oh, I'd not yet considered that angle. [ an almost smile. ] The one that has me shacking up with a man of considerable infamy.

[uprightness]

Oh c'mon. Only a hundred or so countries.

[ he takes down the note, crumples it between his fingers. ]

That's hardly considerable infamy.

[mucked]

[ peggy laughs -- perhaps a little pleased to see the shoe on the other foot, even if steve had been nothing but gracious about her own rumour. ]

I was being charitable. Truthfully, it's a bit beyond considerable. It's downright international.

[uprightness]

You know me.

[ he smiles, tries to make for the other part of that shortbread biscuit. ]

I never do things halfway.

[theroadwarrior]

[Max at some point will enter the kitchen to get some gel-whatever, or maybe some fish jerky he'd made from what people brought in from the fish planet that shall not be mentioned ever again.

And he gives pause and stares at the hoard of pumpkins. The herd, if you will.

His eyebrow lifts as he chews slowly on a strip of dried meat, gaze slowly moving toward Steve.]

......... Tea party with your friends?

[uprightness]

I'm not really a tea kind of guy.

[ there's an ongoing battle about exactly that, Max, where have you been in the last five months? ]

Picked these up today. Figured we might do something with them. Could make a change from all the protein.

[theroadwarrior]

[Well, you know. Max likes to blame you for missing tea. So.

Anyway.

He points at them lazily, thoughtful. Memories of brown curly hair and white smiles and bright seaside windows call back to him.]

Don't throw out the seeds. Can bake them.

[uprightness]

I thought about that, they used to sell them in paper bags in Brooklyn.

[ before the war, that is. it's not often that his mind wanders that far, not anymore but it doesn't sting here as it did at home. ]

Any other ideas for these? They're for everyone.

[proweird]

[ This is Elena's first ship shuffle so her first priority is exploring with an idea of getting the lay of the ship. That means she'll be all over the place. She's particularly interested in checking out the med bay, but she's going to peruse the kitchen as well as the new bathrooms.

It's definitely shiny which she's not opposed to at all, but it doesn't really impress her. She's more interested in the practical things the ships offers, as well as the people and the shuttles. After all, Stefan had promised to come see her as soon as she got settled on a ship. ]

[stefanged]

[ This week, Stefan's been obsessively checking the crew roster and refreshing and refreshing until he sees her name pop up. That surely can't be healthy, but he misses her. No amount of late-night texting can make up for seeing her in person and knowing that they're traveling together after almost ~2 years apart (on his end) or ~6 years (on hers).

He rushes over to the Starstruck as soon as he can, hastily texting Elena to wait for him in the cargo bay. Of course she would've been shuffled there - second verse's the same as the first. He really shouldn't have tried to guess otherwise.

As he climbs out of his shuttle and re-adjusts the strap of his messenger bag, he catches sight of her and - oh. She's really here. ]

Hey. [ He swallows - fear? hesitation? sheer nerves? - and rushes over to her, immediately enveloping her in his arms and even twirling her around. Y'Allah, he'd forgotten how she could make every little insecurity and worry melt away.] Just like I promised.

[proweird]

[ Elena hasn't been quite as obsessive, but she has been anxious to see Stefan, to affirm that he is alive and well. She writes letters to Caroline in her journal about the late-night texting, about how surreal it is, despite everything they've gone through, to know that she could be seeing Stefan again, Stefan who died as a human in her world. She writes about how she misses him and she knows Caroline does as well, how she wishes that Caroline could be here beside her to see him. She also writes to Bonnie about her unplanned adventure, knowing that Bonnie is travelling as well (though probably not in space). It fills up the time, but doesn't make her any less anxious about seeing Stefan.

Stefan did promise he would rush over as soon as she was shuffled, but she hadn't expected him to drop everything (hoped, not expected). She watches the shuttles land in the cargo bay, twisting her hands and trying to remember she is not a seventeen year old girl anymore. She is a young woman and a doctor; somehow, Stefan always makes her feel like a teenager--a little giddy, a little buzzy and so very alive.

She doesn't know it's his shuttle, but she watches it land, that excitement bubbling up in her when she sees him get out of the shuttle. Of course, he looks just the way he did before; in truth, he looks healthier, younger. He'd been so sick at the end and she is so glad to see him looking this way. She only hesitates a moment when he says 'hey', smiling at him, a smile that is filled with all the nerves she feels, but also with her happiness at seeing him here. That all melts away when he embraces her and twirls her around, nudging a laugh out of her as she buries her face against his shoulder, her arms tight around his neck. ] It's a good promise to keep.

[She has to lift her head, tilt it back ever so slightly so she can look at him. He is a little older (somehow--how) than he had been the last time he was a vampire in Mystic Falls. ] Hey.

[stefanged]

[ Just like that, he feels seventeen again. As if they're still high schoolers, with only exams and college entrance tests to worry about, and not the young adults stranded in the middle of the universe. Stefan doesn't let go, even as he peers down at her and gives her a warm, relieved smile in return. He's certainly taller than when she last saw him (finishing puberty will do that to a guy), but otherwise? He sure hopes he feels the same. ]

I missed you. [ He feels like he's said it before, but he really, really doesn't care as he reaches out to brush back some of her hair. ] Did you get a chance to settle in yet, or uh - am I part of your welcoming party?

[ Either way, he's brought presents in his messenger bag, and he's certainly eager to present them when he's got a moment. ]

[proweird]

[ It's not necessarily a bad thing, is it? She thinks there are worse things than making each other feel like they're teenagers again. Elena is perfectly alright with Stefan hanging on. She's certainly not unwinding her arms from his neck. Even now, she's having a hard time believing that he's real. She'd seen him die; she'd gone to his funeral and yet he's solid and real here. His admission of missing her makes her smile softly, tears springing to her eyes. ]

I missed you too. So much, Stefan. [ For so long. She'd never gotten over missing her parents and Jenna. She doesn't ever expect to get over missing Stefan either, except here, here where he's alive. Her head tilts slightly into his touch, eyes closing in a slow blink. ] I've located my room, but I haven't unpacked. [ sort of settled. He really didn't have to bring presents, but she'll gush over them all the same. ]

[theroadwarrior]

[Most of the people on board are entirely pleasant and nice people!! So very social and open to new company.

Max is not one of those people, though. He's the resident grumpy guard dog.

He sits with his bad leg propped up at a desk in the cargo bay, his leg brace clutched in his lap as he carefully eyes one of the compromised screws where the knee bends at; it's lasted a damn good amount of time, even after one of those space raids, but everything needs maintenance, whether it's people or things. His old mutt, Rock, lays near him; he's seen better days, gray in his hair and nose a bit crooked, as if it had been smashed a little earlier in life, perhaps an old broken nose.

He -- Max, that is, not the dog, contrary to how there's not a huge difference -- doesn't seem to pay Elena much attention, but he is pretty engulfed in his work. Just don't go poking around his shuttle.]

[proweird]

[ Elena dated Damon for years. She's a pro at grumpy people. In fact, grumpy guard dog is a cinch in comparison.

Honestly, it's the dog that gets Elena's attention more than the grizzled older guy working on...something mechanical. As she gets closer, it becomes apparent that the 'something mechanical' is a sort of knee brace. As novel the idea of a dog on board a space ship is, the knee injury trumps it. She approaches, hand slightly extended toward the dog, wariness (but not fear) in her body language. For all she knows, it could be a completely unfriendly dog. ]

ACL, PCL or something else entirely?

[ Max's knee, she means and the reason for the brace. ]

[theroadwarrior]

[Not a problem, Elena. Rock's a good dog. He just sniff-snuffs at her hand but makes no attempt to move or growl or what have you. Perhaps he's just a lazy old bastard. The other lazy bastard looks up at the new face, eyebrow raising. The new person, maybe? Probably. He looks back to his work, twisting out a screw with a screwdriver.]

Kneecapping.

[Such a poet, such a speaker of the house. Truly.]

[proweird]

[ When the dog doesn't growl or move, Elena smiles and scritches behind his ears a moment. Elena frowns a bit at his explanation. It's not much by medical means but...]

So you wear a brace all of the time?

[ She's curious. ]

I'm sorry. I'm new here. Elena Gilbert. I'm a doctor. Orthopedics aren't my specialty, but it's an interesting subject.

[mucked]

[ -- peggy carter makes a point of stopping by the med bay. she's got her device in hand, and it'll be easy enough to write off her familiarity as an attentiveness to the ship's roster. the starstruck's captain (at times) looks more like she'd stepped out of a '40s office building than a space-traveler: starched blouse, pin-curled hair, red lipstick.

she knocks her knuckles gently on the inside of the door. ]

Miss Gilbert? Welcome aboard the Starstruck.

[proweird]

[ Elena is quite busy checking out the medbay and envisioning how she's going to arrange it. The lab augmentation provides her with the skills to use medical technology and medicines that she's not familiar with from home. She's filing all these bits and pieces away in her mind, making a mental list of the things she'd like to get some practical experience with when the click of heels grabs her attention. She turns just as Peggy knocks, smiling at her. ]

Dr. Gilbert [ She says it almost automatically then starts toward Peggy, hand out to shake. ] Thank you. [ She tries not to make assumptions about people because her life has taught her that first assumptions are often wrong, but she is curious who this woman is--the welcome wagon perhaps? She's beautiful, but she definitely looks like someone from another time period--a vampire that got stuck in a decade. ]

[mucked]

Doctor.

[ she's quick to correct herself. the assumption had been made, of course, on the back of peggy's experience with a previous iteration. but she manages to take the correction with grace. after all, she's been in elena's shoes once or thrice.

peggy takes her hand and gives her a good, warm shake. ] Peggy Carter. You'll let me know if you need anything, won't you? It's not every day we get new faces aboard our ship.

[ perhaps because their numbers had once been higher. but once the twins had left... ]