Peggy Carter (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mucked) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
entrancelogs2018-02-01 07:03 am
mucked) wrote in entrancelogs2018-02-01 07:03 am
open » i've got an atlas in my hands
Who: Peggy Carter + YOU
Where: Library, Rabbit Hole Diner, and other locations.
When: Early Feb
Rating: PG-13; will warn for changes in individual threads.
Summary: A catch-all for the first half of the month. There are some open prompts under the cut, but I'm also posting some closed starters in the comments. Hit me up if you'd like something other than the options below.
The Story:
[ DURING february's first few days, peggy pays a few productive visits to the »LIBRARY. she arrives armed with a scrap pressed into her palm. the paper is thin and torn, jagged, from a puzzle book -- folded in threes with precision and hard corners forced onto its asymmetrical shape. while she walks from stack to stack she traces the list's edge with the pad of her thumb. in reality, she doesn't need it. she'd long-since memorizes the book titles recommended to her in order to bring her loosely up to speed with popular science. so the list is a flimsy talisman, maybe, but during these visits it represents purpose. forward momentum.
her reading list is accumulated over multiple days, as though some reflexive defense mechanism convinces peggy to take her time. patience is rarely her strongest suit but she nevertheless makes an effort, knowing that a rush will only leave her rudderless and once again without distraction. to that end, she allows herself to wander off-path. maybe she's come for non-fiction, but she detours through a shelf of thrillers and mysteries and adventure stories.
she touches the spines as she passes them by -- her little list peeking between her knuckles like an ace at the ready. peggy never intends to appear lost but catch her at an odd moment and she might want some help. after all, stark never gave her author names to go with the titles.
LATER, with her coursework assembled, she goes elsewhere to conduct her reading. a great deal of it happens behind her bedroom door as she readjusts to a solitary life now that jane has returned to her husband. but some of it happens at the »DINER. with a whole booth claimed for herself, she sits with the dust jacket removed so bystanders can't easily discern what she's reading stephen hawking's a brief history of time, incidentally. it takes some two or three chapters to really dig into work she couldn't already recognize in passing -- and, on occasion, she offers up an audible scoff when she finds herself confronted with a colourful explanation of scientific discovery which nevertheless somehow manages to neglect howard stark's contribution.
she orders a plate of chips (hot; crispy; salted) and implores the wait-staff to keep them coming. instead of tea, she asks for a milkshake. not a quarter of an hour passes before she's cracked open a journal and uncapped a pen. her annotations are, for the time being, made in pitman shorthand -- and so appear as a series of near shapeless scribbles to those who aren't fluent. even so, there's no secrecy behind that choice. merely a swell of impatience after she'd worked so hard to contain it earlier.
and yet peggy's not averse to interruptions. not exactly. she may not be the most welcoming conversation partner, nor is she particularly fond of idle chatter, but she doesn't chase off interruptions or inquiries.
OTHERWISE, known associates and strangers alike are free to run into her »OUT & ABOUT. whether she's 'commuting' from quarters to library or grabbing a quick breakfast in the dining room early in the morning. she doesn't have a precise schedule (on most days) but she's not impossible to chance upon. she's nearly always immaculate -- from heel to hair-pins. having a project in hand puts her in a better mood. ]
Where: Library, Rabbit Hole Diner, and other locations.
When: Early Feb
Rating: PG-13; will warn for changes in individual threads.
Summary: A catch-all for the first half of the month. There are some open prompts under the cut, but I'm also posting some closed starters in the comments. Hit me up if you'd like something other than the options below.
The Story:
[ DURING february's first few days, peggy pays a few productive visits to the »LIBRARY. she arrives armed with a scrap pressed into her palm. the paper is thin and torn, jagged, from a puzzle book -- folded in threes with precision and hard corners forced onto its asymmetrical shape. while she walks from stack to stack she traces the list's edge with the pad of her thumb. in reality, she doesn't need it. she'd long-since memorizes the book titles recommended to her in order to bring her loosely up to speed with popular science. so the list is a flimsy talisman, maybe, but during these visits it represents purpose. forward momentum.
her reading list is accumulated over multiple days, as though some reflexive defense mechanism convinces peggy to take her time. patience is rarely her strongest suit but she nevertheless makes an effort, knowing that a rush will only leave her rudderless and once again without distraction. to that end, she allows herself to wander off-path. maybe she's come for non-fiction, but she detours through a shelf of thrillers and mysteries and adventure stories.
she touches the spines as she passes them by -- her little list peeking between her knuckles like an ace at the ready. peggy never intends to appear lost but catch her at an odd moment and she might want some help. after all, stark never gave her author names to go with the titles.
LATER, with her coursework assembled, she goes elsewhere to conduct her reading. a great deal of it happens behind her bedroom door as she readjusts to a solitary life now that jane has returned to her husband. but some of it happens at the »DINER. with a whole booth claimed for herself, she sits with the dust jacket removed so bystanders can't easily discern what she's reading stephen hawking's a brief history of time, incidentally. it takes some two or three chapters to really dig into work she couldn't already recognize in passing -- and, on occasion, she offers up an audible scoff when she finds herself confronted with a colourful explanation of scientific discovery which nevertheless somehow manages to neglect howard stark's contribution.
she orders a plate of chips (hot; crispy; salted) and implores the wait-staff to keep them coming. instead of tea, she asks for a milkshake. not a quarter of an hour passes before she's cracked open a journal and uncapped a pen. her annotations are, for the time being, made in pitman shorthand -- and so appear as a series of near shapeless scribbles to those who aren't fluent. even so, there's no secrecy behind that choice. merely a swell of impatience after she'd worked so hard to contain it earlier.
and yet peggy's not averse to interruptions. not exactly. she may not be the most welcoming conversation partner, nor is she particularly fond of idle chatter, but she doesn't chase off interruptions or inquiries.
OTHERWISE, known associates and strangers alike are free to run into her »OUT & ABOUT. whether she's 'commuting' from quarters to library or grabbing a quick breakfast in the dining room early in the morning. she doesn't have a precise schedule (on most days) but she's not impossible to chance upon. she's nearly always immaculate -- from heel to hair-pins. having a project in hand puts her in a better mood. ]
no subject
and although it had only been a few years for her, it had been nearer to seventy for him. had he felt it, too? peggy doesn't know if she can believe he did. not knowing what she knows now.
but this story isn't about her, she reminds herself. this is claire's story. ]
That's some good detective work. Peppered with the after-effects of some light chronological rule-breaking, I'm sure. [ but that's someone else's voice in her head -- even more a sin to think of it while she's also been thinking about steve. ]
I take it was a rather good reunion, then.
no subject
[ She laughs softly, ducking her head. ]
It wasn't completely easy, I'll admit.
[ There had come the admission quite early that he'd fathered a child he could never see. ]
And twenty years, my God, so many things could have changed. So many things did change. But the most important thing didn't. And...then it took approximately two days before I murdered someone in self-defense and we had to run.
no subject
You know, I don't think they call it murder when it's done in self-defense. [ just saying. ]
no subject
[ She pauses and smiles just a touch. ]
He'll fight for what he believes is true and accept the punishment later.
no subject
no subject
[ She doesn't want to get into that, she won't. His scars are private now, something he should get to choose to speak of if he so wishes. ]
But now, after trying to sail home to Scotland after a rescue expedition, we've been caught in a hurricane. I nearly drowned, in fact, I washed up here after spending God knows how long in the ocean. Jamie arrived after I did and let me know where we washed up. And so, the reading material to brush up. Not that I'll remember it, but it's something to do.
no subject
Getting 'something to do' is half the battle of this place, I think. Some days. [ anything to keep from going mad. ] Who knows. Perhaps we should be prepared for the one infinitesimal chance that things change. That an opportunity arises.
[ that someone, somehow, gets them out of here with memories intact. now -- wouldn't that be a coup. ]
no subject
[ When they aren't fighting to stay alive. ]
I've heard rumors of people with magic trying to find a way to retain those memories. Or magic themselves a way out of here. But if no one's managed to do it in over six years, I'm not sure I'll keep holding my breath.
[ Not to be a downer, but she'd die of asphyxiation. ]
no subject
But breakthroughs happen all the time, Claire. [ peggy smiles. ] And I've had the honour to witness too many of them, back home, not to believe they can't also happen here. There are good minds at work.
[ it's not optimism. it's not perfect hope. but it's a flicker of something. an echo of never surrender. ]
no subject
[ She's not the 'sit around and wait for something to happen' type. If she had the mind for it, she would certainly be helping the ones trying to figure a way out of this place. ]
But I'm with you. I've seen too many things that shouldn't be possible, myself.