[NYE Party] happy new year and lots of fun

[nascensibility]

Who: EVERYONE, but especially you!
Where: Wonderland Ballroom
When: New Year's Eve
Rating: PG - PG13 (will change if applicable)
Summary: New Year's Eve Party
The Story:

[ Previously in the month all residents received an invitation to a formal event: a black tie affair to ring in the New Year. The ballroom and adjacent areas are decked out for the party starting at eight o'clock sharp, meticulously planned and executed, glittering décor to match the no doubt glittering attire as music pours into the halls from the dance floor.

Bars flank each side, service for all manner of alcohol unless a minor requests something, and the primary setting stage features an enormous clock for the countdown. ]




[ Where will you be when the clock strikes midnight? ]

Comments

[scoutsniper]

[He'd put it between them on purpose, and the way she perks up a little when he sits down he tries to take as a good sign, and not that she's putting on a front for him. He's not sure he deserves any sort of real closeness from her, but at least he doesn't want to be a drain. ]

My crowd's more of the 'wrap bacon around a cocktail weenie and deep fry it' crowd. Don't be too harsh to judge the rest of the country off me.

[He gave a wry shrug.] To be honest, I can't even remember the last time I was at a party with this many femal--women. [Women, Frank. Only the military calls females 'females'. ] Ladies. [He'll get there eventually.]

[mucked]

[ oh, christ alive, but she laughs. it's unexpected -- even to her -- and before she can take a bite of food she has to press the back of her palm against her lips. it's worth the risked smudge to her lipstick.

you see, she hasn't heard someone muck up trying to say the word women quite that badly since she road in the back of a car with steve rogers. ]

Oh, I don't know, that sounds like it has the potential to be rather tasty. [ her nose crinkles. ] The bacon and the cocktail weenie, that is. Not the bit about ladies at parties. I'm afraid that was simply -- dreadful.

[scoutsniper]

[He wasn't expecting the laugh, but, yeah, he probably deserved it. Good thing he never thought of himself as a suave player or anything. ]

Ma'am, you come to America and you'll find a whole goddam world of bacon wrapped foods. It's our national heritage.

[The British have tea and class and sexy accents. America has...deep fried bacon snickers bars. Fair trade. ]

Ladies [That's the term he's sticking with. He's committed to it, now.] kind of civilize a place.

[mucked]

I do live in America, Mister Castle.

[ and although she makes a fuss about a lot of the foodstuffs, there's some she absolutely adores. who can say no to a key lime pie? she bobs her head in a nod and licks a few crumbs off the edge of her thumb. ]

And while some of the food is absolute rubbish? Some of it's also quite ingenious. [ ... ] Cheeseburgers aren't awful, for one.

[ she won't approach the topic of ladies civilizing places. ]

[scoutsniper]

Yeah? [Right. For a little bit.] But not, you know, my America.

[That's probably not a bad thing, fried foods notwithstanding.]

You should try waffle fries. Or a fully loaded dirty water dog. [Ahhh, New York's finest sketchy sidewalk food.]

[mucked]

[ are we splitting hairs on americas now? peggy's mouth quirks into a half-smirk -- vestigial humour after her laughter, taking its time as it drains from her expression. ]

I can't speak to waffle fries. [ waffles? that are fries? alright, she might be a bit intrigued. ] But I've taken more than a few working lunches en route at a hot dog cart. Beggars can't be choosers, as they say. And not every lodging house I've lived in has come with food included in the rent.

[ she's not above street meat. far from it, no matter how the red velvet makes it seem. ]

[scoutsniper]

[All he's saying is she seems like the type to know classy America and he's...from Hell's Kitchen. It's a different kind of New York, so probably a different kind of America, too.]

Look, if you don't have your dog so buried in sauerkraut and chili that you can't even see the dog, you ain't done it right. That's all I'm saying.

We should hit the closet up for that sometime.

[mucked]

[ someday -- someday -- she might manage to impress upon him that she fits just as well in the gutter as she does in the ritz. but that's neither here nor there and peggy's never rushed or pressed to prove her cred in any conversation.

for now, she sits back and quirks a brow. ]

Are you inviting me out to lunch, Mister Castle? [ a hot dog buried in sauerkraut and chili sounds great, actually. better (she'd venture) than these little finger foods. even so, she picks up another. ] In that case, I accept.

[scoutsniper]

[Yeah, that's going to be an uphill climb trying to convince him of that, with that poncy classy accent and all. ]

Not like a date or anything. [Fuck, wasn't there that dating service out there? 'It's Just Lunch'? Fuck.]

[mucked]

[ -- a moment of silent panic, yes, and then a bark of laughter. ]

Oh, Christ no. [ no offense, mister castle. ] Not at all what I had in mind. Not one bit.

[scoutsniper]

[He shouldn't look quite so relieved. it wouldn't be her: it's him. Totally him. ]

Lunch and we'll talk about New York so I can get entirely homesick.

[Sounds fun, right?]

[mucked]

[ funny, really. because she's just as relieved -- and utterly convinced that it's her, totally her. but part of that is because she's sort of seeing someone. slyly, at least. ]

You and me both. I'd love to be back there. [ a pause; a sigh. ] It's a shame, really. You arrived just in time to miss one of the city's most vocal supporters. He left shortly before you arrived.

[scoutsniper]

Yeah. A lot of New York is probably damn glad I'm not there right now.

[ Mostly bad guys, that is. ]

Yeah? Anyone I'd know?

[mucked]

[ normally, she'd never say his name. it hurts too much and still. but there's something to how natasha talked about frank castle, earlier, that makes peggy inclined to test out the man's reaction. ]

Hard to say. I suppose it depends on what world you're from. [ her head tilts. ] Does the name Steve Rogers sound at all familiar?

[ because if he's a new yorker from any given world where steve existed, she can't help but think the name would ring a bell. ]

[scoutsniper]

[Oh, he's been set right on all that stuff. Even tried to apologize to Tony about it. In his own way. Which Tony had rebuffed. In his own way.]

A little. Yeah. Think my kid wanted a lunchbox.

[mucked]

Yes. I'm told those remain quite popular through the following decades.

[ -- her chin dips. peggy allows herself a note of true vulnerability before powering through. shaking it off. ]

He was here, in Wonderland, for some time. But I knew him back home as well. [ a beat. ] To see New York through his eyes was to fall in love with the city. I'm certain of it.

[scoutsniper]

[It takes him a minute to string the pieces together, because, Christ--it's hard enough realizing that the world you thought you knew wasn't what you knew, and then, well, all of this place. Yeah, give him a second here. ]

Aw, shit. I'm sorry. [That he's not here anymore, that he probably went through some fucked up shit while he was here..all of the above.] New York's kind of like a virus. It gets in you, good and bad.

[mucked]

Don't be. [ sorry. ] Although I must say I've only met people from two worlds, maybe three at most, where Steve Rogers's name means anything to them.

[ she presses through her pain and her grief by focusing on the puzzle at hand. ]

Is there anyone else here, in Wonderland, from your home?

[scoutsniper]

His name probably means a lot more to my kids than me.

[Meant. Though his kids still probably thought he was a hero, he hadn't, you know, fought weird ass space aliens.]

Stark. I think. [Still not a fan, and it's still mutual.] Not sure that's a good or bad thing.

[mucked]

Tony Stark? [ who else? but it's worth the clarification. ] If you and he possibly share a world, Mister Castle, then so possibly do you and I.

[ -- something she suspected already, but only because of romanoff's hints. ]

Stark's father is a good friend of mine. Back home.

[scoutsniper]

Yeah, that guy. Some kind of millionaire genius or something. [Frank would add 'jerk' to that 'something' but he's trying to be nice. Stark did apparently save New York. ]

I hope he and his dad were nothing alike.

[mucked]

Or something.

[ she echoes. already, she can begin to read between the lines and find the subtext suggestive that castle isn't keen on tony. and, truthfully, peggy can't blame him for that. if it hadn't been for the funny sort of familial connection at play she rather doubts she'd be much keen on him either.

and it's not like howard was a perennially well-liked creature back in the '40s either. ]

It's a mixed bag. Howard Stark is also rather too clever for his own good. Although also markedly less morose.

[scoutsniper]

[She probably doesn't have to use much skill to read between those lines. Even when Frank tried to be nice to Tony...it hadn't gone well. And it had hurt him almost physically just doing that. ]

If he doesn't feel the need to tell everyone he's better'n me, he's a damn sight better than his son.

[Though Frank's got 'morose' pretty well cornered himself.]

[mucked]

[ tony wears his insecurity on his sleeve -- although it certainly presents like over-confidence. like overreach. but peggy won't be saying so. she has, after all, at least a through-line of loyalty.

instead: ]

Megalomania might actually run in the blood when it comes to the Starks. They're -- an acquired taste. I'll not deny it.

[scoutsniper]

Probably so.

And I've got to admit, this place doesn't give people a lot of opportunities to show the better sides of themselves.

[Even him, though the good side of him is probably a pretty tiny facet at this point.]