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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. ]

VHOILVKQHVV PXVW DOZDBV EH IRUJLYHQ, BRX NQRZ, EHFDXVH WKHUH LV QR KRSH RI D FXUH

[ 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. )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You know, if we follow that logic, few things ever really require one.

[ another way to say, if this doesn't justify one, what does? but hell, he's smiling. almost as if her objections are somehow charming or endearing or god help him, cute. for a start, this isn't a bad one.

so that in mind, he shakes his head and decides that it's quite enough for one evening. ]

Alright, now with that out of the way, I'll make you some tea and then we can figure out the rest. can you not move anything else anymore? I still want you surprised come Christmas.

[ he's so serious about it. but surely there isn't a christmas present somewhere in the room.

right? ]

Out of the way? [ she sits up. properly, now, without a slouch in sight. ] Just like that?

[ truthfully, peggy had expected a bit more of a fight. might have welcomed it, maybe. she certainly hadn't anticipated her non-answer to his non-question being met with a smile and an offer to prepare a cuppa. and perhaps that bothers her more than the ring itself. ]

That's remarkably not stubborn of you, darling.

[ darling. so, she can't be that uneasy. surely. ]

Just like that.

[ he affirms, nodding a little. there's a surge of something light and happy bouncing beneath his ribs at her tone of surprise but he tries to keep it quiet, to busy himself with going through the little box where he knows she hides tea bags. ]

Well you know what they say, you're never too old to learn.

[ could be a pod person, really, who knows. ]

[ maybe she's spoiling for a fight -- even now. because as he gets his fingers into the tea bags, she pushes back onto her feet. ]

I won't stop moving things around, you know. It's my room as well as yours. I have a right to shift things about.

[ he turns back to look at her, considers for a moment and - ]

Okay then.

[ and then a firm nod, because after all. ]

You're right.

[ wait. she's right? she doesn't really know what to do with his concession. it makes her bluster (just a little) and causes her brow to crease.

what is this fresh strategy? peggy watches him -- and takes a step toward the door because, in the end, she's rather eager for a cup of tea. especially if he's making it. ]

-- You'll have to find a better spot to hide it, I suppose.

[ because she assumes he'll hide it. again. why wouldn't he? ]

I was just kidding about the Christmas gift, it's safe to poke around.

[ he says with a rather easy smile. apparently, he thinks she's talking about the fake christmas gift he mentioned and not about the ring. ]

You can move as many of my stuff as you want.

[ oh, be careful. now he'll end up coming home some day and finding his art supplies rearranged more to her liking. or his wardrobe organized. or god knows what.

peggy shakes her head -- ] I don't mean Christmas presents. [ ... ] You'll have to find a better place for the ring.

[ she's baiting him. probably. she wants to know what his intentions are with it -- will he keep it? save it? try again? ]

Well, not really.

[ he shrugs as an answer before clarifying: ]

You already know about it. No point in hiding it anymore. It's a bit of a relief, really.

[ trying to find a place she won't stumble across has been difficult the first time and look how that turned out. ]

I'll just have it on my table.

[ openly, that is. ]

What? [ she turns in the doorway -- and her expression isn't all that different from when she'd turned on him in the london bunker to remind him how he still didn't know a bloody thing. ] You'll be leaving it there?

[ on his table. in his (their) room. ]

Are you mad?

[ he might be mad. ]

[ back then, steve had quickly realized the severity of all of his mistakes. all his bravado was gone the minute she turned around to look at him.

now, he at least manages to school his expression. ]

well, it came with a box, I just gotta find it and then - yeah.

[ he arches an eyebrow. ]

why?

Seems a bit -- [ what? ] -- odd, don't you think? Leaving an unused...[ don't say 'engagement' ring ] bit of jewellery just lying about.

[ taunting her. reminding her, every morning and every night, what he hadn't asked and what she hadn't answered. ]

It won't be lying about, it'll be in its box.

[ honestly, he has to work hard not to smile at all. ]

and it's unused for now. seems like a good spot to me.

[ and so, he tries to head to the door himself. surely that's all she needs to know, right? ]

[ for now.

oh. bloody hell. the penny drops. peggy's stuck in the doorway for a moment -- long enough to nudge his, easy-like, with an elbow. it's a gentle nudge. not at all like her attempts to throw off his snuggles in the morning hours.

right. she sighs. of course. someone's optimistic. why on earth had she ever thought otherwise? ]

Someone's going to see it.

[ peggy warns him. ]

Doesn't bother me.

[ there's something in his new found crooked smile that makes the words into a dare, or a challenge ( why? does it bother you? ) ]

it'll be in a box. are you going to let many people come here and go through boxes? I don't they'll do it on their own.

-- What sort of box?

[ the question is sharp. decisive. as though the box matters. but now they're walking down the hall together, and so her voice has dropped to something near a whisper.

evidently, it does bother her. ]

You know for someone who doesn't want it, you sure show a lot of interest in it.

[ he whispers back, half amused, half long-suffering. ]

it's just a box, peg. it's not like I got it at Tiffany's.

[ god. ]

[ a snort. yes, she's interested. how could she not be? he's clinging to a damned engagement ring. not only that -- but he's being damned suave about it. easy, confident, unbothered. the only real crack had been as she'd withheld it from him. but since she'd returned it to his care, he'd been remarkably cool about the whole ordeal.

annoyingly so. ]

Steve. What sort of box? [ she asks again, refusing to so much as engage with his comment about tiffany's. ]

It just a box. It's small, it's from metal, it smells like salt. The people who made it live underwater Peggy, I don't think they sell the small, velvet ones.

[ he asked but he knows better than telling her. ]

nobody would know what it is.

Nobody except us.

[ but the way she says it? seems, perhaps, as though that's no bad thing. peggy doesn't much mind a secret shared between them -- even this one. but she does worry (again and again and again) about the pressure that comes with performing those public bits and pieces of their relationship.

it dries out her mouth and tenses her spine. ]

That's the silver lining, isn't it?

[ except us; he's not a public sort of person himself. he rather likes the idea of a ring that will not spill many beans, never mind the box he'll put at in. but at the same time, out in open also means they'll visit the subject again which was, as she had guessed, his intention all along. ]

Alright.

[ he says, moments later, using one of the cups he had given her for christmas for a strong cup of tea he suspects she needs. ]

So, the planet.

What about it?

[ she plays coy. she deserves to, she thinks, after everything he's put her through.(nevermind what she's put him through.)

peggy leans against the counter -- choosing to stay nearby instead of taking a seat.

What do you mean 'what about it'.

[ a scoff, as if the very question is an insult. he places the full cup on the counter next to her and shuffles over to make a strong coffee for himself.

lord knows he needs it, too. ]

I remember you saying something along the lines of - what was it? room service, suite, rest.

[ he may have been....somewhat distracted at the time, but he remembers. ]

I think we should do that.

[ so now he wants to follow through with the plan she'd so easily outlined on the night he'd woken. now he wants to entertain the idea of a suit, of delivered meals, of comfort taken far from these (occasionally) too close walls.

she reaches for her cup -- palming its curve with comfortable familiarity before she takes a sip. doesn't matter how hot it is; she's quick to drink. ]

Are you asking? Or are you merely thinking?

[ she'll make a fuss out of this. maybe. ]

[ he bites back a smile, watching her with a certain something dancing in his eyes, an old sort of mischief, a deep, comfortable sense of fondness. he clears his throat ( perhaps lost, for a moment, in a clear memory of why those plans got postponed ) and turns to fetch his own cup.

his tone is almost cheerful. ]

depends.

[ he says and adds nothing more. mentally, he pictures an arched eyebrow and a somewhat brisk, depends on what?

maybe her hands on her hips, if she didn't have the tea cup held in one of them. ]

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