（ ＶＩＤＥＯ ）

[uprightness]

Who: peggy carter, steve rogers and all of you guys

Broadcast:  amazingly, yes

Action: on the starstruck, if you're so inclined
When: current.

[ New Year’s Eve has come and gone without anything exploding or going awfully wrong and so today is just safe enough for something else. Steve Rogers doesn’t address the network for no reason, after all. Only today he keeps looking back and eventually, calls: ]

Are you really going to stay there throughout the whole thing?

[ There’s a flicker to Steve’s left: dark curls and a flash of a silk blouse as Peggy leans into view. ] Perhaps. After all, of the two of us, you’re the one with experience in addressing the public.

[ But! Fine! Here she is, framed beside him onscreen, and refraining from making any more jokes about the old USO show. ]

Very funny.

[ but he is smiling, small but amused. For all of his experience, he seems as if he’s been practicing his lines for this one broadcast. ]

I know some of you will say this is long overdue, but after months of asking, mostly on her part, I’ve said yes and we’ve decided to get married.

[ -- and that’s when Peggy slaps the back of her hand against Steve’s shoulder, hissing something (something for him alone) about twisting the truth and tarnishing her well-earned cred. ]

I mean, after a careful observation of mutual interests, we’ve decided to get married. What this is really about is a simple matter of proving me right. I’d like you all to tell her three weeks is a perfectly reasonable duration for a honeymoon.

[ She reaches for the device, tugging its focus onto herself. ] -- For God’s sake, don’t encourage him. We’ve only just got engaged; it’s far far too early to start discussing the rest. [ Aside, to Steve: ] I warned you when I agreed to this ridiculous message. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

[ But she’s laughing. ]

It's not getting too ahead of ourselves. Call it careful consideration of facts.

[ he'll reach out and close the device for the sake of this banter. ]

Comments

[outstandingbalance]

To be fair, you've recruited at least a couple of them. Even if you did need a security offer.

[Amused.]

I have to wonder what Max was like when he got here. I'm fairly sure he still thinks of me as that sneaky red head.

[mucked]

The man was half-feral to begin with -- and that was after arriving here not straight from his own tragedy of a world but with another stop in between.

[ she pauses, as though reminiscing. ]

I don't think I got more than five words out of him the entire first month.

[outstandingbalance]

Well, by that standard he's practically a social butterfly now.

[mucked]

He lets me use his name. That's miles and miles of progress right there.

[outstandingbalance]

I'd like to say we've all come a long way.

[mucked]

...I think that's a fair assumption to make. God, I know I have.

[ care to volunteer your distance, romanoff? ]

[outstandingbalance]

[If Natasha doesn't exactly volunteer, it's because it feels obvious. Surprisingly less painfully so than she might have expected, but obvious enough to sidestep.

Being opaque is a habit that's not easy to break?]

I suppose it shouldn't be surprising. I've been here for a year and a half all on my own. You and Steve, longer.

[To say nothing of Barnes.]

[mucked]

Certainly, if a couple years past someone told me I would end up engaged and announcing it? [ a huff of breath. ] I'd laugh them off their ship.

[outstandingbalance]

A lot can happen in a couple of years. I suppose I should have seen some of this coming.

[mucked]

Certain planets and surveillance aside, it's a rather civilian life. It makes a difference.

[outstandingbalance]

Civilian? Now there's a word I haven't heard to describe me before. Who'd have thought.

[It also might be a bit of a stretch, even ignoring those outliers.]

[mucked]

Oh, on the contrary, I'm quite certain it's been used to describe you before. Just never accurately.

[outstandingbalance]

You know, if you do it right, the question doesn't even cross their minds.

[Peggy knows, Natasha's sure.]

[mucked]

I'm afraid 'doing it right' often had very little to do with that assumption. Back home.

[ just being a woman in a man's army -- a man's agency -- was enough to tick that box for her. ]

It never took much effort. I'm glad it takes more effort, eventually.

[outstandingbalance]

If you think so, I might have good and bad news for you.

[Same news: it's not that much harder. Good because that means their jobs are easier in just that one particular way. Bad, because of everything else that indicates.]

[mucked]

All I know, really, is what I hear. People like to talk a big talk about progress. Is it not so?

[outstandingbalance]

I'm not saying it's not true. More like... progress isn't always entirely uniform, or linear. You take a few steps forward and a few back. Maybe the doors aren't all closed, but to get through them, a woman has to be twice as good as the men who might have had the job, or it has to be a job specifically for a woman.

[And when you're in infiltration, it's not hard to imagine why a woman might be preferred over a man.]

It is what it is.