[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

[mucked]

[ is it any surprise that she's wearing red--?

anyway. peggy catches up to him during a moment when they're both being wallflowers. she stands beside him with one arm on her hip and the other hanging loose. a glance, sideways, and then she sighs. ]

You know, I'm not certain which was more ridiculous: the toaster or the portrait.

[ happy holidays to you too, tony stark. ]

[revokes]

[ he's doing tequila shots of all things. He slams his shot glance onto the counter just as she finishes talking. Drinking, much like fashion, has become second nature over the years. ]

And a happy new year.

[ he almost sounds cheerful about it all. ]

[mucked]

I've had to take the poster down, actually. [ she hums a note, watching him with a shake of her head. ] Because I do believe it was disturbing my house guest.

[revokes]

[ it's an attempt at distraction, and normally it would work. He doesn't go for the helpful glad to see somebody knows your address nor to the unhelpful uh, who cares about guests?. The sarcasm isn't fully on tonight and so he settles on a neutral reply: ]

That's a good excuse as any.

[mucked]

It's not an excuse. [ he might be speaking neutrally, but peggy is feeling anything but. exhausted, worried, all in knots over jane's well-being. ] She -- she had to leave her quarters. Needed somewhere safe to stay.

[revokes]

Not her.

[ as in, he doesn't doubt that there is a guest though he hasn't been around to check for himself. The woman has started her way as a hermit of a sort, she wouldn't make up a guest. ]

You would have taken it off anyhow.

[mucked]

To be fair, it isn't really my style of decor.

[ no one's taught her the term 'pop art' and she already snubs it. ]

Now -- a framed picture of you without the suit? I could have put that on my desk. Would have been a lovely little addition.

[ is she joking? who can tell. ]

[revokes]

I don't actually think I have ever kept a picture of me. Maybe the one they did for Time Magazine, that's has to be somewhere.

[ an odd trait for a self-proclaimed narcissist but Tony Stark seems okay with being one big contrast. ]

Iron Man is an exception.

[ an armour in more than one way. ]

[mucked]

Yes, but it's not exactly Iron Man who I've gotten to know these past months. Is it?

[ she's learned about the suit, she's kicked it out of her room on more than one occasion, but ultimately she's always scratched under the red and gold to find the man beneath. needled, pulled, bothered, peeled away until there was raw human below.

there's no gentle way to explain how she damn well never kept a photo of captain america on her vanity. ]

Are you telling me that I go your whole life, in the future, without a single proper picture to put on the mantle?

[revokes]

I suppose it's both.

[ she's one of the only ones who know both one and the other. tony's iron man persona is more at work with everyone else. the man behind the armor is much more vulnerable and much more aware of his flaws. he likes to keep this side of him hidden away.

but then, he doesn't have many secrets left when it comes to peggy. ]

No, you had a few. I was forced into all of them, by the way. I think I was nine in one of them.

[ he's not even kidding. ]

[mucked]

[ despite herself, she smiles. ]

Oh -- now, see, I venture to guess you made a rather sweet faced nine year old. [ a bit of coo and fuss, yes, but only to get under his skin. ] With cheeks worth pinching, I suspect.

[revokes]

[ w h a t.

the horror, indeed, settles in quickly enough. ]

people could hear you. I've got a serious reputation to keep - you know, narcissist, self-obsessed, character flaws, badass.

[ he was never sweet, how very dare you. ]

when I was seven, I've built my first motorbike engine. at nine, I was already building those for race cars. I wasn't -

[ g o d. ]

ordinary. you know, I've made that toaster for you when I was six.

[ so much grumbling. ]

[mucked]

[ you know, she could go on teasing him -- she doesn't even need to know about his childhood to make things up, prod at his horror, make him want to storm off in a huff. but something he says...well.

peggy's smile is earnest -- this time. ]

The toaster was a throwback. [ six! six years old! ] Christ, that's adorable.

[revokes]

[ oh my god, this is terrible. ]

I took it apart one afternoon and put it together again with some upgrades.

[ it wasn't a big deal. wow. what is this. ]

it ended up being a birthday gift. I wasn't really into drawing stuff and putting them on the fridge.

[ he's terribly awkward now, thank you for this. ]

[mucked]

[ she's hardly disappointed. why would she ever want to put drawings on her refrigerator? hell, why would she ever want a refrigerator?! it's not like she cooks. nor has she yet even imagined herself, in future, with a family. or a home. or any of that nonsense.

it's perhaps a bit sad, but when she tries to imagine visits from a young tony stark she imagines them all in rooms that aren't too different from her current one: cold and dull and empty. ]

It's darling. [ no, really. the toaster was useful with a bit of an annoyance built in -- right up until now, when it's suddenly a sweet and lovely gift. ] Thank you for it.

[revokes]

it's no big deal.

[ he doesn't seem to know what to do with all this sincerity that suddenly dropped into his lap. his lips do curl, however. for the first time in a while, it seems that tony stark is smiling. ]

thanks for the care package.

[ what, it's a good enough term for it. ]

[mucked]

[ she's quite happy with it being called a care package. there's nothing to sneeze at in that description. and, in effect, that's precisely what it was. but it was also the only gift she'd proactively given anyone this season. all the others had been thought up and delivered in reaction to gifts gifted to her. scrambles, at the last moment, to see that bit of sentiment through.

because (of course) to peggy carter, the only people you bother giving gifts? family. friends and lovers needn't apply, apparently, although a vague guilt did prompt her to give out some things on christmas day. ]

It's not Christmas without a new pair of socks.

[ yep. ]

[revokes]

I'm wearing them, just so you know.

[ her gift is already put into good use. as proof, he tugs on the hem of the expensive armani slacks. the socks are indeed in place. tony smiles, he winks. he doesn't touch his drink. ]

weather's awful. seems right.

[ he prefers summer, apparently. ]

[mucked]

Good Lord. [ she backhands him gently on the shoulder, firmly registering her disapproval. but it's warm and brightish and tinged with a kind of strange love she's nurtured ever since he'd handed her a handkerchief while they sat on the fountain's edge. ] They don't go together. You do realize that, don't you?

[ the suit and the socks. ]

[revokes]

Works fine for me. I'll change suits soon enough, anyway.

[ not to another three piece armani but to the other one in red and gold. He's restless, he's over-thinking things and so, it must be time to resume his patrols over wonderland. ]

[mucked]

Don't tell me you're planning on ducking out before the countdown.

[ her concern is mostly false. in the end, tony is a grown man -- he can leave whenever he wants. ]

[revokes]

Long before the countdown.

[ when that happens, he hopes to be as far away from people as he can. It's the first new year's ever spent alone in a while. Even when they had to work, tony would call pepper before midnight to have a long-distanced moment. ]

I only came to say hi.

[mucked]

So why come at all?

[ she's learned to ask this questions with no hope of satisfying answers. but she asks them more for the sake of it than to actually learn anything. to remind tony, in the end, that she's still here. ]

There's a network for that sort of thing.

[revokes]

I promised her I'll drop by and if I skip, she'll have my head.

[ he nods towards a woman in black on the other side of the room. Evie is a friend. Tony knows half of why she wants him here is out of concern. It's both sweet and sad, really. ]

I'm not messing with that one.

[mucked]

[ he means evelyn. she follows his nod and -- hmm. peggy has nothing against the woman, per se, but her experience hasn't been great either. some fraction of that shows in her frown. ]

Quite a lot of fuss for only one person. [ the suit, all of it. ]