» we're all starstruck in september

[mucked]

Who: Crew + Visitors
Broadcast: N/A
Action: Aboard the Starstruck
When: Septemberish

[ an open mingle for crew and visitors throughout the month. go wild. just not too wild. ]

Comments

[mucked]

[ peggy pulls a face. ]

Ugh, you can bloody well airlock those as well. [ blegh. ]

[outstandingbalance]

Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.

[Her response light, more joking than serious.]

Guess I'm not the type to get rid of something that might be useful later on.

[mucked]

And what use do you expect to find for your dollish self, hm?

[outstandingbalance]

[Masochism?]

You never know what might come up. It makes for a pretty good story, at least.

[One she never tells, and doesn't want to.]

[mucked]

Perhaps. [ peggy shakes her head. ] But if I were you I'm not convinced I could keep it around.

[ but she is, of course, not natasha. ]

[outstandingbalance]

[There's no denying how different they are in that respect.]

Not sure you'd be wrong to get rid of it either. But maybe if I keep it around, it'll keep me honest.

[mucked]

Honest. [ she echoes with a snort. ] Yes. Well. Do let us know how that works out for you.

[outstandingbalance]

If I find out, I will.

[mucked]

I suppose it was foolish of me to think that sort of thing might have fallen out of fashion. Lunch pails and dolls and comic books. [ and radio shows. ]

[outstandingbalance]

I don't think things like that ever go out of style. They just... evolved. There's always kids who want heroes.

[mucked]

[ kids who want heroes. she can't help it; her nose crinkles. perhaps she should be more sympathetic to the phenomenon, but she doesn't quite manage it. ]

And people who are eager to profit off that desire. No doubt.

[outstandingbalance]

Sometimes it's adults who want heroes too.

[It's a complicated situation, and at the end of the day Natasha isn't invested in defending or hating it; she'd just really rather not be in the spotlight.]

Maybe for different reasons. Sometimes for the same.

[mucked]

It was always the propaganda of it all that I couldn't stand. Steve has the patience of a saint -- you wouldn't think it, sometimes, but the way he stuck with the USO shows...

[ she's saying too much. she knows it. her mouth snaps shut with a shake of her head. ]

[outstandingbalance]

I might be less surprised than you'd imagine.

[In part because she knows Steve, and in part because he didn't entirely stop when he came out of the ice. Not entirely.]

He might have been roped into one or two other PR campaigns since I've known him too.

[mucked]

[ oh, no, now this is interesting. ]

One or two?

[ do elaborate. please. ]

[outstandingbalance]

He might have been convinced to do some community outreach programs. Stuff for schools. Reach out to the youth.

[mucked]

And in costume, I take it.

[ costume. on generous days, peggy calls it a uniform. today is not a generous day. she's seen steve rogers in a uniform, and it's the dress green she thinks of when she remembers mornings, afternoons, whole days spent in the war room next to captain rogers. ]

[outstandingbalance]

Suited up.

[Call it splitting the difference.]

[mucked]

I do dislike the thing.

[ raw, raw, raw. it's not as though her disdain for the moniker and what it entails has ever been secret, but she doesn't voice that disdain so clearly so often. ]

[outstandingbalance]

[Peggy has more energy than Natasha does to dislike some things. It's not a problem; maybe the branding ought to question it more, but she's not all that interested in getting hung up on the question of presentation.

Not when this segues into a more relevant question. One she risks, though she doesn't necessarily expect an honest answer.]

No? How about the shield?

[mucked]

Depends on the shield you're talking about. The round one? [ peggy hums. ] It wasn't even painted when I first saw it.

[ and then she goes on to spill details she'd never mention to steve: ] I'm fond of the bullet marks. I noticed he hasn't had them removed.

[outstandingbalance]

[You know there are names for that kind of kink, Peggy.]

The round one.

[So hostile toward symbolism, Peggy.]

Not surprising he's the sentimental type.

[mucked]

Yes. [ peggy's head bobbles a moment -- as though she has to sort her feelings out on the question. ] I like the round one. It wasn't part of the original costume.

[ and that's it, isn't it? she knows the uso show first. the outfit, the pomp, the circumstance. and she knows that drawing she caught sight of in steve's notebook after a particularly difficult performance. when she sees the 'costume,' as she calls it, it's hard not to imagine the way he'd seen himself in its first iteration. ]

[outstandingbalance]

But there was one. A shield, that is. You could argue that updates are updates.

[mucked]

[ a soft hum. a shake of her head. ]

Not that one. [ peggy's smile is small, but it's there. as though the memory is a good one. ] He was never meant to have it.