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. ]

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. )

Comments

[mucked]

Max. [ she nearly growls -- glancing over her shoulder while the water still runs. she shakes out the dregs; gives the mugs a perfunctory swab. ] That's a bit vile even by your standards, I think.

[ but it does raise the question, doesn't it? ]

Has something happened to make you so keen to frustrate our cook?

[ she turns off the tap and wipes her hands dry on a towel. ]

[theroadwarrior]

Just seems like an easy target.

[Max says it so casually. Really, he's not about to go out of his way to annoy Rip, but it just seems like it'd be a funny way to pass the time if he'd ever had the want or energy. Poor, poor Rip Hunter.]

[mucked]

We finally have got a cook again. Don't you dare run him off.

[ peggy suspects the man mightn't be such an easy target but arguing so would risk inadvertently encouraging max. so, instead, she breaks out her best disappointed schoolmarm voice and holds up a finger in pre-dismay.

she says nothing about how she'd run the cook off for a few days back on the marsiva. nor does she ask whether max thinks she's an easy target. there's some ammunition that's not worth giving. ]

Come on, then. Your room.

[theroadwarrior]

... I don't even know why we have a cook.

[He grumbles, following her.

Huff.]

[mucked]

-- Because some of us like our foods to have taste. Real taste.

[ and because peggy likes to keep useful people close aboard the starstruck, but that's a whole other discussion which she's not prepared to have at this moment. ]

[theroadwarrior]

[PSSHT. He looks unconvinced.]

It all tasted fine to me.

[mucked]

You've been caught eating dog-food, Max. I can be forgiven for refusing to listen to your 'wisdom' on anything related to taste and flavour.

[theroadwarrior]

You say 'caught' like I was hiding it.

[#unfazed!!!]

[mucked]

Maybe you ought to have been.

[ #unfazeder!!! ]

[theroadwarrior]

You get used to things.

[He shrugs.]

Food's food. I don't enjoy it as much as I used to.

[..........

Mochi's really good though.

But it's bad to get used to things that taste good. He can't be that complacent.]

[mucked]

And yet, [ god does it always come back to this? ] You steal my tea.

[ which isn't food, exactly, but it's damn well close enough. ]

[theroadwarrior]

I thought sharing was an important life lesson for me.

[:)]

[mucked]

Stealing isn't sharing. [ ... ] And I know you damn well know the difference.

[theroadwarrior]

... Not if it's just sitting there.

[A pause of his own.]

It's good to keep you on your toes. Didn't know you'd get so British, though.

[mucked]

[ at least the glance she tosses his way is MOSTLY good-natured. ]

And what the devil is that supposed to mean?

[theroadwarrior]

It means if I tossed the tea overboard, there'd be a revolutionary war.

[If I didn't know any better, I'd say he looks humored.]

[mucked]

Gunning to join the Americans, are you?

[ there's only the two of them aboard, really. but one of them makes up for it by being actually captain america. ]

Pity.

[theroadwarrior]

[He's not gonna remind her there's no America anymore.

Instead:]

... Aren't you and the butler American?

[mucked]

Living there hardly makes me one.

[ -- as the duke of wellington once said! just because you're born in a stable, it doesn't make you a horse. ]

[theroadwarrior]

Hmm. Thought America was all about immigrants. And whatever was left of Disney.

So you're gonna go back home?

[He supposed that'd make sense.

He would feel weird anywhere else, really.]

[mucked]

[ she stops to grab a first aid kit on their way -- ducking briefly into her quarters to grab one she keeps stashed under the bed. but as they're rounding the corridor to his room, peggy offers: ]

-- Eventually. I think...[ a beat. ] I think that's where I end up. [ buried. ] In the end.

My funeral will be in a very fashionable part of London, at least.

[theroadwarrior]

Mmmm. Returned to the land you came from. Guess that's fitting.

[A pause.]

British-American, then.

[Hardy har. He enters his room and doesn't quite sit down right away — he can't really help but check the perimeter, make sure nothing's waiting for them in here. But at least he does so with some casual conversation; he figures if anything leaps out to murder him, he at least has decent back-up. Or someone who can adequately get revenge on his behalf (maybe).

His leg really is hurting today, though. He's not gonna be restless too long, what with being eager to get the weight off it.]

[mucked]

-- My passport begs otherwise.

[ is he getting under her skin? possibly. but peggy accepts that as a sign of something good. if he's looking to antagonize her so openly, then perhaps there's hope for them yet.

peggy lets him wander. she hangs back, hugging the kit to her chest. watching him go through his paces. ]

[theroadwarrior]

[If Max has a witty retort to add to that, he keeps it on his tongue. Instead, comfortable with the room now, he moves to slowly take a seat on the edge of the bed; he wears his pain well, hidden in the flicker of his eyes or the slight crease at his lips. Sitting fully, a sort of relaxed state falls over his shoulders. For once. Being at ease has never been particularly easy for him, but he seems to surrender to it for now.

Ah, yes. The spot he'd confessed how screwed up this place has made him.

He looks up expectantly, brows raised.]

[mucked]

[ peggy splits open a little sachet housing an antiseptic wipe. it's all so much more compartmentalized than it used to be -- first aid, that is. no fiddling with bottles of alcohol or fussing with reusable bandaging what needs boiling afterward.

and when she turns to him, she also nudges his knee aside so she can stand a little closer. peggy isn't gentle when she takes his head by the chin so she might turn the cut towards herself, but she is affectionate all the same. personal, really.

she dabs at the gashed wound, tidying it up before the needle. ]

What does the other fellow look like, hm?