[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]

[ 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.]

[mucked]

Many of us certainly start out combative. Some doubtless stay so.

[ and then there's tony stark. what she could say in favour would be too personal in nature, so she'll settle for not rising to his defense at all. tony's a big boy; he doesn't need his 'aunt' running interference for him. ]

[scoutsniper]

You don't stay combative here, it means this place is taking your edge.

[Frank, combative to the end. And then some.]

[mucked]

[ a huff of breath -- almost laughter. ]

That's not the sort of combative I'm talking about. [ not the sort that has anything to do with real combat, that is. ] More like -- a standoffishness, I suppose. The sort of behaviour that drives a man to attend something like this and then spend the whole night looking sour about it.

[ her attention doesn't turn on tony, just then, but she sure as hell knows where he's standing and glowering at that very moment. ]

[scoutsniper]

[ Look, 'combative' is sort of in Frank's job description, the official and the unofficial one. ]

You trying to give me a hint or something here?

[Because he might be guilty of, uh, just that. ]

[mucked]

You're certainly welcome to take a hint -- should you feel you need one.

[ a very careful answer. not because she's worried about telling him the truth -- far from it. but because she'd never meant it as an aspersion cast on him, so now she's curious about why he'd read himself into what was originally a dig at tony. ]

But, truthfully, you seem to be managing. You took a seat here, didn't you?

[ not quite so people-averse as she might have first guessed. ]