[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]

[ you know, she should be more bothered about the way he presumes to tell her to report back about anything -- even that -- but she's far too thrown by the first half of what fitz has to say. ]

Why on earth would you take full responsibility for him?

[hypoxic]

Because he wouldn't be here if it weren't for me.

[It seems like such a simple conclusion. Why doesn't everyone come to it?]

[mucked]

[ you know what? she's been TERRIBLY supportive. almost to the point of feeling worried about her own sentimentality breaking through. but there's only so much that peggy carter can stomach before she can't help herself: ]

That's bollocks.

[ so eloquent! so charming! ]

Self-flagellation on that level really requires you to have had a dash of agency in being here. And unless you're hiding a much more interesting secret, Fitz, I can't imagine you've had any more choice in the matter than I have.

[hypoxic]

I...I'm.. sorry?

[He releases her hand then, momentarily stunned.]

Are you... Could. You perhaps rephrase that?

[mucked]

You didn't choose to be here. None of us did. Taking responsibility for something that exists as a direct result of you being here is -- it's like apologizing for your very existence.

[ she squares her shoulders. ]

And I'm not going to sit here and listen to that. It's bull. Yes, your mirror exists because you exist. But that doesn't make it your responsibility any more than being here is your responsibility.

[hypoxic]

[ it's a chiding as effective as if she'd slapped him. He blinks twice, speechless, before summoning sound once more. ]

I didn't mean to imply... [ is she cross with him? ]

[mucked]

Go on, then. What did you mean to imply?

[ it's not a challenge so much as it is a second chance. an opportunity to articulate his guilt without digging chunks out of himself in the process. there's nothing responsible, peggy believes, in outfitting oneself with an undeserved hair shirt. ]

[hypoxic]

[But now he's increasingly frantic, stammering. He sits up straighter.]

I meant -- simply that... I...

[He takes a deeper breath.] The mirrors are offshoots of ourselves, y-yes? So it stands to reason that it -- if I were stronger, or more-- of a certain way, then it would diminish the mirror's effectiveness. And perhaps make him less of an overt threat?

[There, that's better right.]

[mucked]

What possible quality -- what possible property -- would you tolerate in yourself simply so you might deprive your mirror of that same attribute?

[ to take on heartlessness in order to give his mirror more heart. to take on cruelty in himself as that might somehow soften his reflection. when, from where peggy's standing, effectiveness is not the polarizing trait between the pair of them. ]

[hypoxic]

Whatever it takes. If -- there's anything that can be done to mitigate a consistant threat, shouldn't we be willing to make those calls?

[mucked]

-- And risk, what? Transmogrifying yourself into the threat instead?

[ no matter, it's all a very metaphysical conversation -- and one that peggy clearly doesn't care for, given the crinkle in her nose. ]

You're good as you are, Agent Fitz. [ ... ] One only needs to meet your mirror once to see who got the better end of that reflection.

[hypoxic]

Not instead, but -- if there was a middle ground. If. [There's always another option.]

It's probably telling that you're so comfortable. Your mirror was quite anxious when I saw her.

[mucked]

[ well. that makes two. mister queen talked about seeing her mirror crying at the last formal occasion held here in wonderland. and here's fitz, describing the creature as an anxious one.

she hides her reaction rather better than he did. and with good reason, considering it sounds as though peggy's mirror poses far less of an obvious threat than his. it's easier not to get swept up in panic.

her curiosity takes a nauseating twist, however. ]

Anxious about what? [ the what doesn't matter, does it? it's more about measuring just how much of an interaction the pair had. ]