open » audio & text & action

[mucked]

Who: Peggy Carter and YOU
Broadcast: Audio + Text
Action: Aboard the Starstruck.
When: Evening

[ it's been a long day. long week. long bloody month. and tonight, in the rebuilt space of a bedroom now properly shared, peggy carter is reading a book. not just any book, really. but that's a story for another time. for now, she's prepared to proceed publicly as though nothing is amiss.

in the handful of hours before bed, she takes to the network with a brief puzzle. ]

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[ and attached to the text is an audio messsage. ]

I know it's been a little while since the last one -- and some of you lot who most enjoyed them have gone and left. So we'll ease back into it with something simple. Simple, but no less fundamental. Solving it is all well and good but, as always, there are bragging rights up for grabs for anyone who names the source. Fair warning -- English is the native tongue.

And while I've got your attention, I suppose I ought to do my due diligence [ however reluctantly ] and ask whether anyone else has purchased the upgrade which merges two rooms together. It may be worthwhile to swap notes on how those changes came into effect.

[ and that's that. although she'll be awake for a little while yet -- answering messages and putting on a brave face. truth is, things have gone pear-shaped and she's only just realizing how much recovery yet required. those aboard or visiting the starstruck can find her at her desk, hatch left open, in her and steve's newly merged room. ]

( ooc: and because not everyone has the out-of-character time or inclination for codebreaking, here is the quotation peggy's posted using a caesar shift. )

Comments

locked to max »

[mucked]

Max. Solve the damned puzzle.

[ such a sweet apology, isn't it? ]

locked to max »

[theroadwarrior]

No. i don't need your puzzles

I'll be back when the fleet heads out

[Boy, you really hurt his feelings.]

[mucked]

[ she deserves this. she deserves every inch of this. and, in hindsight, with her head screwed on a bit more securely? she can see where her steps went so very wrong. ]

I assure you -- it's more than merely a puzzle.

[ and yet she can't quite come out and say it. i want to apologize.. ]

[theroadwarrior]

getting supplies, busy.

get someone else to solve your puzzles

[mucked]

[ christ. he's going to make her say so. ]

I need you to solve it.

[ need. ]

action »

[uprightness]

[ steve has never solved one of these on his own. Not without a clue or two and a nudge from peggy. But it's been a long week and she is troubled by more than one issue, he knows. So the thought was doing something nice, solve the thing and show her he finally managed one.

So he looks at it during the hour he spends on the treadmill, picking up one letter after another. A mental exercise as well as a physical one. When he finally gets it, he allows himself a break and a coffee and a shower since the words are familiar enough. He knows he encountered them before.

Steve's memory is better than most but he does read a lot. It's only when he finally pulls on a t-shirt and dries his hair that it slips into place. Austen.

Peggy isn't a fan, they talked about it once. But Mansfield Park is not as light as the others. It's Steve's own favorite; in fact, he has a copy of it in their room. Maybe that's where she found the -

oh no.

It's like he's in an elevator that's dropping a hundred miles an hour. He hurries - no, he runs back.

She couldn't have possibly - ]

You don't even like Austen.

[ he exclaims as he barges inside, closes the door behind him. ]

action »

[mucked]

[ it had caught her by surprise when, rearranging his books onto a new shelf, peggy had felt an unevenness in mansfield park. a bump beneath the paperback, and she'd retreated by a step or two in order to investigate the anomaly. that's when she'd found it: a simple ring, almost harmless if it didn't also match the pendant around her neck.

that had been three days ago. between then and now she'd not let slip a hint of her concern, but instead piled it up along with everything else nibbling at her thoughts. in the end, perusing the book whenever he wasn't in the room, hitting upon that particular quotation had inspired her to take this tactic. and run with it.

peggy is 'reading' it still when steve rushes into the room -- sitting at her desk with her feet propped up. she fancies she can see a glimmer of panic in his eyes. without closing the book, she glances up at him over the pages. ]

And you don't even like codebreaking. Seems we're both pushing the boat out today.

action »

[uprightness]

You said I should -

[ try more. But he doesn't even complete the sentence. The book is right there on the table before her and steve's pulse is rushing through his ears. For a moment, it's as if someone had dunked his head underwater.

He could have pretended it's nothing, that he simply kept it there for her next birthday or for Christmas. Making them into a set would have been a nice surprise, after all.

But steve was never quite good at pretending. ]

Where is it.

action »

[mucked]

Where's what--?

[ because there's no hope in hell of her making this easy on him. only now does she let the book fall shut, setting it aside atop a notebook where she must have planned the simple cipher out. with a huff of breath, she pulls her heels off the desk's edge and finds her feet.

she'll never be as tall as him -- not with the serum in play -- but what she lacks in height she more than makes up for in a steely gaze. ]

[aspearing]

... A word puzzle? I've never quite seen one like this before.

[mucked]

It's a cipher. Each letter stands in for another.

[aspearing]

A cipher...

... I was right. I hadn't seen a puzzle like this one. Still, I'd like to try it. The letter that one stands for doesn't change through the puzzle, does it?

[mucked]

No, the value stays constant. [ a beat. ] More than that, this particular sort of cipher is called a Caesar shift. It's the same alphabet, only nudged a few letters over.

[ which might help give the answer but -- that's the point, right? peggy wants the people of the fleet to learn these little things. ]

Video

[pb_n_jocular]

[It took her a while, because she's not as familiar with human-style cyphers, but Peebee loves a good puzzle.]

Oh well so that's a thing. [Holy hell that quote could apply to her and she's consciously aware of it, giving a nervous little chuckle as she thinks of some of her arguments with Liam back in Andromeda. These people don't know you Peebee it's not about you.] So, uh ... I don't actually know what it's from. What is it from?

[Jane Austen probably wouldn't have held her attention like the romance-murder mysteries she so very much enjoyed.]

Video

[mucked]

It's from a novel. Not a very good one, alas.

[ -- don't listen to her. she's just cranky. ]

Video

[pb_n_jocular]

[Fortunately Peebee is immune to grumpy. Which may or may not be a good thing, because it means she doesn't exactly know when to pull away.]

Oh really? Why include it? Do you just like the quote itself? I mean, I've read some pretty awful books with a couple gems tucked here and there, so I could get behind it.

Video

[mucked]

It's not the worst sentiment I've ever read. [ she aims to obscure her reasoning. ]

Even if the book is a bit of a stinker.

text

[interstices]

So who are you mad at?

text

[mucked]

I'm not angry with anyone.

[ true enough. it's not anger she's feeling. ]

Unless you count the author of this particular quotation.

text

[interstices]

They're not wrong about part of it.

Then why did you share it?

text

[mucked]

Habit, I suppose. It's less about what's encoded and more about the code itself. The last few times I took passages from what I'd been reading at the time.

It just so happens that what I was reading this time was something of a disappointment.

[ so it's not the most honest answer. ]

anon text;; as if it won't be a dead giveaway

[reconstitution]

Who is the selfish party in this instance?

[ It's been...long enough since he's initiated contact with Peggy, that he feels like he should at least make some sort of effort. Even though it feels like he shouldn't be. With everything she's probably been told? There's no reason for her not to hate him, right? He's thought about it from every angle, and honestly, it's what he's expecting. ]

[mucked]

[ she can guess, maybe. but she's not certain.

not yet. ]

The speaker, I imagine.

[ tricky, that. who's the speaker? her? the character who said it? peggy doesn't illuminate the answer. ]

[reconstitution]

Must have been pretty selfish, seeking forgiveness for it. It's a pretty human problem.

[ Does it need much illuminating? He doesn't know many people who make gestures or codes without reason. Simply wanting to is a luxury most of them don't afford themselves. ]

[mucked]

Which part? The quest for forgiveness or the inevitable selfishness? Both pose considerable problems.