（ ＶＩＤＥＯ ｜ ＡＣＴＩＯＮ ）

[uprightness]

Who: steve rogers + you.
Broadcast: yep
Action: on the starstruck if you're so inclined
When: current

[ there's no need to address the last few weeks. others have done it, offering drinks and comforting words or just a down to business attitude. steve would have normally gone for the latter but today is an exception.

there are boxes scattered around the starstruck's cargo bay and it seems he is slowly unwrapping them all and unpacking a collection of decorations. they're not strictly christmas decorations but one must make do with what one is given.

and speaking of which - ]

I know the last few weeks have been difficult but I also know we're approaching the holidays. Those can be a little rough around here.

[ but look at him gesturing to those boxes ]

I thought we might start making it a little easier. I got these at the Kayanni system a couple of months ago. If you want to take a box for your ship, you're more than welcome to.

[ lord knows they have too much tinsel. ]

and if there's anything else you need help with - you know where I live.

[ oh look, it's a smile. apparently those do happen, still. ]

Comments

[rebuildyourruins]

If we're in need, I'll let him know to call. Hopefully the fleet will head somewhere more agreeable to trade.

[And less murderous. He nods enthusiastically at the mention of Jarvis.]

Oh yes, I met Jarvis. He was the one who let me know the others were here. He has a restaurant on the Iskaulit, he said.

[mucked]

As I said: he's one of the finest.

[ she pours two mugs. it's a strong blackish tea -- not quite like what she knows from home, but close enough that she's gotten used to it. ]

The bistro is a lovely spot. And we're a bit spoiled on the Starstruck [ well, she is ] because he's been known to bring suppers by. On occasion.

[rebuildyourruins]

He sounds like a good friend. I have yet to visit his restaurant, but I intend to.

[mucked]

[ she goes ahead and places a mug in front of thor -- there's milk and sugar on offer, yes, but peggy leaves him to sort that out for himself. hers she takes black, settling down in one of the bench-chairs around the narrow table with her cup wrapped up in her hands. ]

Now. How about yourself? How have you been adjusting to the fleet thus far?

[rebuildyourruins]

[Thor takes the mug with a quick smile. He won't add anything to it either - if he's going to have tea, it will be black, similar to how he takes his coffee.]

Well enough. Since I started out on Lato'li, it makes for a change of pace. I have not yet seen all of the Iskaulit, and since leaving the planet there has been little call for the security duties I seem to have.

[It doesn't help that his armory room is full of laser guns. He can use them, sure, but he's not a fan.]

[mucked]

A security augment. [ well, that's it's own kind of relief. ] Yes, those come in handy mostly during the more difficult times. But then it's far better to have a security officer than not.

In being assigned to your ship, you've made it safer. [ and in that way the augments are rather funny things. ]

[rebuildyourruins]

I don't doubt it, after seeing how things were a few weeks ago. You mean to say that there are ships without someone assigned to security?

[mucked]

Some, yes. [ she takes a sip of tea. ] We were without one for some time before Steve showed up and did me a favour. Transferred over from the Pathstone.

[rebuildyourruins]

That seems ill thought out.

[Or, maybe not. Perhaps it's to raise the danger stakes. Thor sips his tea for a moment, wondering again what the long term goal is for this situation.]

Well, that makes sense. If he wanted to be on the same ship as you.

[mucked]

Oh, for Heaven's sake, that wasn't why he moved--

[ except that was exactly why. there'a s little flare of peggy's indignation. not by much, but she can have a hair trigger around the topic. and as much as steve would love for her to embrace their relationship whole, she still struggles with verbalizing it. ]

Or maybe it was one reason. But the Maximoffs were also aboard this ship.

[rebuildyourruins]

[Thor is completely guileless about making the assumption, so he's a little perplexed that Peggy would protest. It seems pretty natural to him, to change locations to be closer to those you know.]

Wait, both Maximoffs? I only heard Wanda had been here.

[And Pietro is super dead, so.]

[mucked]

Wanda, yes, and for some time. She was part of the Starstruck's crew well before I arrived in the fleet. [ and if she misstepped in the direction of anger earlier, then now she slides towards a kind of sad nostalgia.

she misses wanda. the girl felt almost like a sister or a daughter. ]

But her brother was also here. It was a cold comfort for the both of them.

[rebuildyourruins]

[Thor's smile is a bit melancholy. He hadn't known Pietro for long, but Wanda's grief had affected them all. If Pietro had been here for a time, Thor can guess how Wanda had felt about it.]

Yes... I can imagine.

[Not the least because he knows his own brother had been here at one point too.]

I know them both, though the time I spent with them was quite short.

[mucked]

I wonder if I might ask an indelicate question.

[ a tilt of her head. ]

You can tell me to stuff it, really, if you'd rather I not.

[rebuildyourruins]

[He's not sure what to expect, but Thor nods all the same.]

Yes, of course.

[mucked]

What year was it when you were last on Earth? [ -- she tries to keep tabs on these things, you see. where the avengers are, what they're doing, when they're from. ]

[rebuildyourruins]

The year? 2015 by the Earth calendar.

[mucked]

...Oh.

[ her expression pinches with a moment of surprise. ] You're a touch behind the others. Curious. What's happening? Is it -- is it all that fuss with the robots?

[rebuildyourruins]

You mean Ultron. [It's not a question, since he knows that's the only thing she could mean. Thor shakes his head once, tapping a finger against the table.] No, that was about two months ago for me. And I left Earth not long after Ultron was defeated, so I do not know anything that has happened since.

Natasha has already said that she and Rogers are further ahead. I'm meant to meet her later to talk about it.

[mucked]

[ hmm. fair enough. peggy hums her way through consideration. ]

It's for the best. [ peggy knows better than to try and fill in details she only knows in half-anecdotes and whispers. ] Natasha has a good hand for these sorts of things.

[ managing intel. ]

[rebuildyourruins]

She does - which is good in times like this.

[Being out of sync timewise with his own friends isn't something he's encountered before. So much of what this place is and does bothers him.]

Though I would have been in the same position even if we were from the same time, since I haven't been on Earth.

[mucked]

One would think I'd be more used to hearing something like that -- [ haven't been on earth ] -- considering where we are.

But, God help me, I'm not.

[rebuildyourruins]

[Thor smiles a bit, familiar with the kind of effect that has on people.]

I would think because it's not common to think about on Earth. It still isn't, even in my time.

[mucked]

I once interrogated a man who insisted that aliens were real. [ a tilt of her head -- peggy sighs. ] I dismissed him as a fanatic before we tossed him back into his cell in the Rat.

Perhaps I ought to have listened more closely.

[rebuildyourruins]

Well, maybe. I know that none from the other Nine Realms should have visited Earth these past few centuries. [The other realms had decided long ago that Midgard's relatively low advancement meant they ought to be left alone.] But I cannot account for the rest of the universe.