[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

[hypoxic]

That's a shame.

[There's no love lost between Sharon Carter and himself. But he's almost certain it's been discussed with this Carter, so he'll keep from harping on it too much.]

Though sometimes I do wonder about that. How often people are sent home but not reported lost. I don't think we've had much success at establishing any sort of census for the population here.

[mucked]

[ peggy doesn't defend the woman. really, peggy isn't in the business of defending anyone aloud to anyone else. she's no one's conversational crusader -- much as she hopes others extend her the same courtesy. but that doesn't mean she won't mention sharon, of course. it's almost therapeutic -- as though she's acclimatizing herself to the idea of blood-kin within the mansion.

-- playing auntie to tony stark has been easier, paradoxically. but she can imagine herself being important to howard's son more quickly than she can her own biological family. ]

You wouldn't. [ she answers, leaning into the change in subject. ] One third of us assembled wouldn't trust it, one third would bicker over who gets to administer it, and the final third would want to administer it exactly because it couldn't be trusted.

[hypoxic]

Exactly how the death list notion played out.

[There'd been some heated discussion among SHIELD members about what to make of it. It seemed to be handled like such a power play...]

At least our quarreling is predictable.

[mucked]

[ a soft hum of agreement. it feels a lot like being stuck at an impasse: like knowing the best way forward while simultaneously understanding it's a path no one actually wants to take. like being deserted in the wild lawless west of old while also being tripped up by the never-ending red tape of foreign policy. appeasing everyone; achieving nothing.

that woman, evelyn, she tried. and maybe she's managed a list of sorts but peggy doubts it's comprehensive. by the very nature of the stipulations allowed, it will never be. not to mention the inherent risks... ]

It does raise the question. [ she can't help herself. ] Which third do you fall into?

[hypoxic]

I find that protecting a community works best when the community doesn't know there's someone looking out for it. It avoids some of the messiness. Too many perspectives make it difficult to get anything done.

[mucked]

And would you feel the same way even if you were't the 'someone' peeking out from the shadows?

[ peggy knows her answer, although it's entirely unreasonable and exactly as arrogant as someone might expect from a person already hip-deep in premier intelligence agencies. ]

[hypoxic]

I think we all hope there's someone out there watching over us.

[He smiles, though it's strained.]

[mucked]

[ she's met the men who tried to steer the world back in '47. vernon masters, hugh jones, thomas gloucester. the council who argued that the world needed a guiding hand beyond what the ssr offered it -- indeed, the council who wanted to make the ssr one of the fingers used by that guiding hand.

and despite this, rather than arguing and putting fitz on the spot, she responds to that strain in his expression: ]

Back home, yes, perhaps you're right. [ she toys with her drink. ] But I'm far less inclined to entertain that belief here.

[hypoxic]

It's more likely to happen here, honestly.

[ he'll be drinking then, because absolutely anything is better than talking about Klaus. ]

[mucked]

[ oh, christ, hell, etc., etc. as much as she'd like to respect the fellow's boundaries, there exists a tipping point when it comes to peggy's burning desire to know more.

she leans in, on an elbow, and raises a theory: ] You're not just talking about our array of Queens and fairy tale characters, are you? [ ... ] Fitz. Is there someone else?

[hypoxic]

[Sorry, can't hear you while drinking. Maybe he can swallow loud enough to avoid the question entirely.

She's still looking at him when he sets the glass down. Oh hell, indeed.]

Not particularly. [Not anymore.] It just seems reasonable, given all the magic and rot.

[mucked]

A mere 'it just seems reasonable' is far too vague an answer for someone like you.

[ one last press -- she raises her eyebrows, content to let the topic fall to the wayside if he resists her again. ]

[hypoxic]

Vague is most likely better than the alternative, in all fairness. I don't know that there's anything I could mention that won't send you investigating into dark crevices.

[Like that. Saying that is probably going to make her want to know more things.]

[mucked]

[ fitz, fitz, darling fitz. that is precisely what happens. ]

And yet you're acknowledging that there is indeed a dark crevice or two. [ unsurprising, really. it's almost as though she's been waiting for yet another shoe to drop. ] The sort that isn't already examined to death by Wonderland's other busybodies -- otherwise you wouldn't be trying to warn me off of it.

[hypoxic]

There's nothing to warn you away from.

[Klaus will murder her and leave her entrails in front of his bedroom just to make a point.]

[mucked]

...If you say so.

[ and that's how peggy carter got a new bee in her bonnet. ]

[hypoxic]

[She's making a particular sort of face. He's not sure he's seen it before. It looks troublesome. He should say more.]

Can't do anything about the mirrors anyway.

[That seems like a plausible stand-in. They were out quite recently, and aren't as likely to drag Peggy Carter screaming into the shadows.]

[mucked]

[ you know what? for a moment, she nearly believes it. the mirrors are at least vaguely defined enough that a great many of them are certain dangers or likely dangers or even just possible dangers. and they are, indeed, watching the rest of them -- observing them all in a way that could lead to all sorts of opportunities to pull strings from the other side. pluck nerves.

and yet she knows that if it was only about the mirrors, he wouldn't have been so cagey in the first place. they're hardly representative of the dark and unknown the way he'd suggested -- they are, if anything, as known as an unknown variable could possibly get. ]

Nothing beyond getting creative in our decorating or keeping on top of a regular smashing schedule.

[ cool as you like. ]

[hypoxic]

It's remarkable how many vantage points they can have. [So much tech is coated in chrome.]

They watch some of us rather closely.

[mucked]

-- Do you feel as though you're one of them? One of the 'closely watched?'

[hypoxic]

I don't know if I still am. But they've been quite keen to make commentary on my projects in the past.

[mucked]

What kind of commentary?

[ peggy surges onward with a bit of confidence. see! this is an interesting predicament. she doesn't believe the mirrors are really what fitz nearly warned her against, but so long as he's adhering to that lie then (she hopes) he paints himself into a conversation he mightn't ordinarily entertain. ]

[hypoxic]

[It's masterfully done, really. And as usual, he doesn't imagine that this could possibly be anything more than idle chatter between two friends.]

After he murdered me, Doctor Banner's mirror was quite generous with his insults.

[There's something wry to his tone; he's not ashamed of the information anymore, but he knows what it sounds like.]

[mucked]

[ a flicker of sorrow. a glimmer of guilt for even pushing it. but...

banner, banner, banner. why is that familiar? there's a momentary pause in peggy's expression while she runs through a whole storage facility of information hiding in the nooks and crannies of her mind. she hasn't got her notebooks on her, so she's got to do this the old fashioned way. and -- oh! tony said something about a doctor banner, once. gamma radiation. the hulk.

he was here? good god. ]

Salt in the wound. [ peggy won't dwell on the villainy for too long. to dissect it too much might verge on the voyeuristic. ] Insult to injury. Do you think it might have been because his mirror was trying to spur you onward or deter you?

[ or maybe it was simply torment. peggy doesn't ignore that possibility. ]

[hypoxic]

He wanted to remind me that I'd been abandoned. [It's a measured admission, but his grip tightens around his bottle nonetheless.] One imagines it was amusing for him.

There've been smatterings here and there since, but I wasn't the one they targeted when they were manipulating portal data.