[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

[deathlessness]

You find ways to compartmentalize, one way or another. Sometimes for better and sometimes for worse.

[The largest challenge of it all, really, is learning to care about other people beyond the ones you know will be there, despite the press of time. Her family are constants in an ever changing storm, and it does have a way of killing your sense of altruism.]

[mucked]

[ comparing her measly 26 years to over a thousand? well -- that's almost hubris. and yet, in her mind, peggy can understand at least a little of what the woman means when she talks about compartmentalization. if not across the years then at least peggy understands compartmentalizing across missions, across careers, across double-lives.

she leans on the bar. ]

Alright. [ mild acceptance. ] But now I have to ask: how exactly does a person wind up living so long?

[ she's come across examples of so many unbelievably long-lived individuals. it's hard to predict what cause will be touted next. ]

[deathlessness]

Well, my siblings are the first vampires of our world. They had an immortality spell cast on them by our mother.

[But she's very specifically not included herself in that, so ...]

But in my case, I had a different spell cast on me. The witch I was bound to cast a spell that forced us to sleep for a hundred years, live for one, and then repeat the cycle.

[So she's not as immortal as her siblings.]

[mucked]

[ vampires. again. there is something almost comical when peggy's cheeks puff with her sigh. and maybe, just maybe, she isn't reacting with nearly as much concern as she should be. but hasn't this just been the way of wonderland: throwing spanners in the guts and gears of her beliefs since day-bloody-one.

of course, this stranger (because she is a stranger and peggy hasn't even gotten a name yet) keeps talking, adding fairy-tale to terror and so she responds rather dryly: ]

I think I followed just about half of that. Sorry. [ only she doesn't sound much apologetic. ] You were bound to a witch?

[deathlessness]

[She nods because okay. time to start from the beginning:]

My aunt, Dahlia, kidnapped me from my family when I was five years-old. She cast a spell to bind us together so that she could use my own magic as a power source.

[mucked]

Good God, woman.

[ there's a pause. and a drink of whiskey. and-- ]

I'm terribly sorry. Before we proceed -- what's your name?

[ they're going about this all backwards. ]

[deathlessness]

[Oh. They should probably get around to traditional niceties. She turns and extends a hand.]

Freya Mikaelson.

[mucked]

[ better. it seems odd that she should know the woman's aunt's name before she knows her name proper. but peggy puts a firm hand in freya's and gives it a decent shake. nothing like a power play -- merely friendly and polite. ]

Peggy Carter. Just shy of twenty-seven, for the record.

[ it's a little cheeky. her age is a drop in the bucket by contrast. she understands that. ]

[deathlessness]

Pleasure.

[She shakes her hand with a small smile.]

And for the record, I've found age matters little when it comes to the content of someone's character. One of my favorite people is only seven years old.

[mucked]

A seven year old? Here?

[ she knows there are children here -- of course she does. but peggy hasn't much invested herself in that particular horror, being a creature not much comfortable around kids. but it's a question worth asking. ]

[deathlessness]

[Her eyes widen for a moment, and she shakes her head.]

Oh, no no. While I'm certain there likely is someone that young among our number, this seven year-old is safe at home with her mother. She's my niece.

[And while she misses her, Hope should stay safe at home.]

[mucked]

-- I'm glad to hear it.

[ although that sounds a bit callous, doesn't it? so peggy clears her throat and lets her chin lift and she quickly clarifies: ] Although I'm certain it's been a challenge to be apart from family. Stuck here.

[deathlessness]

[She nods in agreement.]

My brother, her father, is here with me, so that has been something of a comfort, but it's still difficult. I know he would much rather be with her.

[mucked]

Certainly.

[ easy, gentle agreement. what family has she got left back home that isn't already an ocean away? there are friends, yes, but she barely acknowledges them as such.

-- it's been harder, here. peggy stops herself from looking for tony stark in the crowd. or sharon carter. one's blood and one isn't but both (strangely) are family. ]

It's good that the two of you have each other. This could be a dreadfully lonely place, otherwise.

[deathlessness]

[She nods in agreement.]

It certainly is.

[And she will be feeling it, in about a month. Check back soon.]

It's amazing what a comfort being known is.

[mucked]

Oh, I don't know. [ she exhales -- a touch sour at the idea. ] I think it depends on who knows you. Wonderland allows for all sorts of funny little paradoxes in that particular arena.

[deathlessness]

[She raises an eyebrow at that, before tipping her head to the side.]

I take it timelines have made things complicated for you?

[mucked]

Exceedingly. [ she admits. it's mostly an open secret at this point -- barely worth protecting, except for reasons of vanity and paranoia. ] In fact, I lag some seventy years behind pretty much everyone else from my 'world,' such as it is.

[deathlessness]

[Her eyebrow raises slightly at that.]

That is quite the complication. I'd assume that everyone is measuring you to your future, rather than your present?

[mucked]

-- Something like that.

[ although she once was naive enough to think she didn't have a public future to be measured against. ]

It's a lot to live up to.

[deathlessness]

Well, if you don't mind a bit of unsolicited advice -

[Though really, any advice from Freya Mikaelson should be taken with a grain of salt.]

- I don't believe you necessarily have to. Whatever you do here won't effect their opinion of you once they leave here, and if they can't reconcile the fact that you didn't come into this world emerging from the skull of your father like Athena, perfectly formed and never making any mistakes, then I wouldn't consider the failing on you.

[A beat as she tries to make that semi-drunk ramble a bit clearer.]

You can't give them something that doesn't exist.

[mucked]

[ for a moment she looks almost morose. torn, a little, between having said too much and not explained enough. and maybe freya finds a nerve and maybe there's some that's misunderstood but it doesn't change the funny little eloquence of the advice.

so! silence reigns. peggy breathes in. and then she laughs -- sharp and hot like gunfire. ]

You know, I'll drink to that. [ she reaches for her glass. she tries not to think about how part of what she's fated to do will hurt a lot of people. ] Truth is, I think I sometimes trust the unsolicited advice above the solicited. You're less likely to hear only what you want to hear.

[deathlessness]

[Freya will raise her glass as well, feeling as though she may be missing something, but not knowing enough to really put a finger on it. Now isn't the time to pry, though, and if Peggy doesn't want to talk about it, she won't force her.]

That is certainly true. A toast to hard truths.

[And with that, they will fade back into normal party chatter. /scene]