someone sing the oompa loompa song to Sarah

[blackbirdsing]

Who: Sarah Weller + You!
Where: All around the mansion
When: Through the rest of December
Rating: G-PG?
Summary: Sarah ate a second helping cookie and now she's out of control.
The Story:

[ Since the entire mansion was edible, Sarah didn't really think twice about munching on the little round cookies with hearts of gooey goodness. In fact, she ate three and went on about her business.

Except now she can't stop eating them and when those are gone she moves on to breaking off parts of the mansion. The most awesome part is apparently not puking her guts out from all the sugar??? Then she wonders if different walls have different tastes, so she goes downstairs and accidentally pulls off an entire panel of wall.

All hers now! Sitting with it, she simply starts at one end and chows down. Anyone who knows her knows she definitely loves her food, but not typically this much of it, or this sweet. She's a 'binge on diner food' type person, not a candy person. Still, here she is, with not a single care in the world. She'll let Ray put all the vegetables in her food as he wants after the holidays.

Catch Sarah nomming out on an actual giant piece of wall while sitting comfortably, or taking a random bite out of your doorframe because sometimes when you walk, you get hungry and these things happen. ]

Comments

[mucked]

-- You don't think something terrible will happen before then? [ there's still half a month left to the year, after all, but now she's curious. ]

[blackbirdsing]

My evidence! The mansion is edible. Last year by this time we were already dreaming we'd been in this place all our lives. And that lasted the entire month of December, like, there were no breaks. And if we're still on schedule but breaking for the holidays, the next time something happens should definitely be after New Year's.

[ She sounds sure, but Sarah actually has no real idea. It's all her best guess. ]

[mucked]

-- Does something usually happen around Christmas?

[ she asks, turning the corner into a tea room and (idle-like) pulling out a chair for sarah. ]

[blackbirdsing]

Um...two years ago I wasn't here for it but I guess different things tried to either hurt people or reward them in different ways? I didn't read through everything in the archives. But last year for the full month we all kind of thought we'd lived here forever. Like Alice. No memories of anything other than Wonderland.

[ She sits without even thinking once the chair is pulled out, thanking Peggy before continuing. ]

Oh, and we all got some kind of present from the mansion itself. Or the Queen? Who knows.

[mucked]

...What sort of present?

[ she doesn't hide her suspicion. considering how far her cover has been blown with sarah, there's almost no incentive to play a cheery or casual creature. but, then again, her curious scowl makes a funny little counterpoint as she conjures them up a lattice work treacle tart. and, bless wonderland, it's already in generously portioned slices.

peggy passes sarah a plate. ]

[blackbirdsing]

Well, during an event before we were even really dating, Ray and I thought were were serious enough to get married. He gave me a ring. When the event ended, so did the ring. But then Wonderland gave it back to me that Christmas. My brother got an ultrasound photo of a baby he didn't even know he was having, yet.

[ Which had led both he and Jane to think Jane was going to have a baby at home but lol Kurt knocked up someone else way to go, bro.

Sarah looks at the tart and holy shit yeah, that looks better than anything she's been grubbing on. ]

So this is like, common English food? As in one of the best desserts?

[mucked]

[ ...horrid gifts, then. peggy's mouth finds itself drawn into an unhappy line at the prospect. but (after a moment) she finds herself mercifully distracted by sarah's question. and not a moment too soon, because her follow-up inquiries wouldn't have been pleasant ones.

peg stabs her piece of tart with a fork. ]

I wouldn't say it's the best -- but, yes, it's up there. Simple. Better yet: the ingredients didn't break the bank in terms of what was rationed.

[ after all, that's generally something the carter family had to at least pretend to think about in the years following the first world war and well into the second. ]

[blackbirdsing]

[ Oh, come on Peggy, ask. You know you wanna know.

Sarah takes a bite of the tart and then closes her eyes. ]

Oh, my God, I was eating garbage before.

[mucked]

Garbage? Not quite. But damned close enough.

[ her smile is more in her eyes than on her lips. ]

Us Brits get a terrible reputation when it comes to food -- but it's not all suet pudding.

[blackbirdsing]

Well, this is amazing. But I know a little about British food! A friend of mine here got me to eat beans and toast at the diner when I thought he was insane. Turns out, pretty damn good.

[ She and Rip have had their issues, but she's glad to be able to call him a friend again. ]

Rip and I are even supposed to meet up to compare British versus America food but every time we plan it, something happens in Wonderland.

[ Like a version of him murdering her husband. ]

[mucked]

Beans on toast. Well, sane or not, your friend has rather good taste -- [ a line delivered with perfect conviction right up until sarah gives the friend a name and peggy just about manages not to aspirate her next bite of tart.

she should have known better, really. there would of course come a day when the man's name got raised in casual conversation with someone else. still! peg has honest to goodness years of experience pretending like she barely gives a damn. ]

That would be...quite the competition. [ peggy finds her smile. ] I suppose I'll trust Mister Hunter to adequately represent our nation's palate.

[ -- god bless her as she bites down a retort about whitechapel boys and jellied eels. ]

[blackbirdsing]

Oh, you know Rip!

[ The use of his last name didn't go unnoticed. ]

He's from Ray's world. I think we met before I knew that, though, in the diner.

[mucked]

[ her attention dips to the treacle tart, to another bite, and to a half-heartbeat span where she decides how much truth is just enough truth to keep from sounding like the spy she is. ]

He was given the unfortunate task of introducing me to Wonderland when I first arrived and limped my way out of his closet -- not my finest moment.

[ but mister hunter had handled it with remarkable grace and for that reason she's always been at least a little bit thankful. of course, that was about seven or eight months ago, and a great deal has changed since then.

and! quite before she can stop herself: ] He did give that terribly lovely speech at your wedding.

[blackbirdsing]

You arrived in his closet?

[ There's some kind of joke there but Sarah isn't witty enough to get to it. She smiles, though, nodding. ]

He did. It was honestly everything I could have hoped for. I'm really glad he could marry us as a Captain. Though...I'm not sure how much that actually would have mattered, here.

[mucked]

I walked out only to be greeted by his gun being leveled at me.

[ not that she'd blame anyone for a reaction like that. had she been better armed and dressed in more than just a ruddy dressing gown at the time, she likely would have done the same. but she'd been injured and out of sorts and had already torn her stitches once within the last 24 hours of arriving. ]

-- A reasonable precaution. That was back the last time the mirrors were running amok. I wouldn't have trusted me either.

[blackbirdsing]

Oh wow, yeah. Considering most mirrors want to murder all of us on a regular basis. I guess I can't blame him.

[ Still, she does shift a little in her seat, unable to hide her emotions quite as well as Peggy when her forehead creases slightly. ]

[mucked]

[ oh, it's impossible not to notice. and peggy nearly says nothing -- why should it be her business? except she can't help a kind of nosiness that takes over. and that nosiness has nothing to do with rip. rather, it's got everything to do with an easy and natural concern for sarah's sake.

she reaches for a tea pot and pours them both a cup. ]

-- Is something the matter?

[blackbirdsing]

It's just...

[ She pauses, then continues after the tea is poured. ]

Rip and I are fine now, but a while ago he went home and came back brainwashed or...I don't know. Maybe it was an alternate version of him? I never got all of the details because he murdered Ray. And I wonder if his mirror is like that and if so, that sucks. Because he's always going to want to murder Ray, then.

[mucked]

[ you know, it all starts out much as she expects it might. peggy had endured her own run in with that 'brainwashed' version of rip hunter. hell, the first time she'd spoken to ray in earnest had been knotted up in her concern over that change. what she doesn't expect, however, is the detail that follows.

murder -- well. her eyes drop to her cup of tea and peggy almost wishes she took it some way other than black just to distract herself while she processes the information. maybe she should have imagined that something so terrible must have happened, given how rip had locked himself away once his whole nature had been restored.

but learning about it leaves a rather bitter taste, doesn't it? ]

I had no idea. [ genuinely. she's been spending every wednesday with rip, now, for months. she wrestles with the idea that it's perfectly acceptable that he hadn't told her. why should he? there's all sorts of secrets they still keep from one another. ] And you still invited him to perform he ceremony -- Christ.

[ her cheeks puff. ]

I'm not convinced I'd be so charitable.

[blackbirdsing]

It wasn't easy for me to forgive him, and it took a lot from Ray. So, I pushed aside my uh...anger and rage and talked to Rip when he was himself again. People can change, I know that first hand. And everyone's here from something insane it seems like. I had to let that anger go.

[ It was so hard, but in the end, it was something she had to do. ]

[mucked]

[ people can change. well, that's true enough. nevertheless she can't help but admire what it must have taken for sarah to find that decency within herself. peggy can't even bring herself to forgive a whole society that seemed to fail the man she loved -- no talk of murder, there.

except... ]

There was a man. [ something in her expression twitches. peggy's not great at this -- she isn't half as open or half as prepared. but she doesn't know who else to talk to for a perspective on this except for tony, and tony is far too burnt.

in the meantime, she nudges another slice onto sarah's plate. a silent bribe. ] There was a man, here in Wonderland, who I knew back home. He'd died. Or we all thought he had. I didn't learn until coming here that apparently some -- awful monstrous people got their hands on him and...and, not entirely dissimilar to what happened to Mister Hunter, he was brainwashed. Programmed. For decades.

When I say I'm not convinced I'd be so charitable, Sarah, it's because I know exactly how uncharitable I am when I think about that man and what he did. Of his own sound mind or otherwise.

[blackbirdsing]

[ Sarah's quiet for a few long minutes, actually thinking about that long and hard, and what she wants to say about her own sister-in-law. ]

I guess I have a different take on it. My brother married someone who was sent to infiltrate his job and personal life, pretend to be someone who died twenty-five years ago to get to him and then betray the entire country. I love Jane. She was kidnapped, brainwashed, and forced into something I don't agree with. Did she murder my brother? No. But she killed others before being sent to him.

[ Sarah sighs heavily and shrugs her shoulder slowly. ]

I guess, what I'm saying is, what matters is who she is now. Who Rip is now. I can't forgive and forget, but I can do one of those things.

[mucked]

It's quite alright, actually -- [ peggy leaps into the aftermath. ] I'm aware of Jane's circumstances. Perhaps not all of them but -- but I know enough.

[ it's not a token of assurance. not exactly. but rather a suggestion that she can plainly see sarah's take, can plainly appreciate, and (hell) peg herself is rather fond of jane. she finds common ground with the other woman when they find each other on the rooftop and talk about what ranges from the important to the ridiculous. ]

I'm not convinced the Winter Soldier's programming was ever actually broken. [ she wets her lips. ] Not adequately. Although if you ever met him here it would have been under the name Barnes.

[ -- although peggy also suspects he'd befriended very few. there's more she could say about her part in the problem, about what mistakes she might yet make, about hydra's uprising. but those are her world's problems; sarah doesn't need to add that baggage onto hers. ]

[blackbirdsing]

She's told me she's met you. That she likes you.

[ Sarah smiles faintly, but she can also understand what Peggy's saying. Jane had the luxury of memory loss to take away everything that was done to her. It was a terrible advantage, but an advantage all the same. ]

I never met him here, no. I know someone who sparred with him a few times now that you mention the name, but I don't know if they were friends, necessarily.

[mucked]

[ -- despite the circumstances, peggy finds a smile of her own. it's oddly nice (oddly odd) to care so much whether jane's spoken well of her or not. but sarah's report, saying that jane likes her, well...she finds that more touching than she cares to admit.

but her smile fades the moment she begins to speak again. ]

I knew him, once. Before. He was in a unit I worked closely with during the war. Once upon a time he was the sort of man who made friends rather easily. [ not so much, now. ] But then I learned about what happened to him and a lot of other shite and -- and around the same time was when your now husband told me about Mister Hunter's -- [ a twirl of her finger. almost as though she's unwilling to say it. ]

Looking back, I suppose it's possible I was eager for the chance to dig into someone else's problems. [ ... ] But I'm terribly sorry about what happened to Ray. Someone should have stepped in earlier; it should never have gone that far.

[ even now, she can't help but project just a little -- to see a situation that she'd had knowledge of but hadn't acted according to her training. peggy has to ask herself whether in all the decades that follow her own, was there never anything she could equally have done about the winter soldier? could howard's murder have been averted? ]

Good God. This is all a bit heavy for treacle tart.