+ The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to You +

[vitaelamorte]

Who: EVERYONE!
Where: EVERYWHERE!
When: Saturday, May 19th - Wednesday, May 23rd.
Rating: PG-13, warn if you're gonna go higher!
Summary: A catch-all for the Kyln / Sierra Madre event!
The Story:

For the duration of this event, the entire mansion will be part space jail, part apocalyptic wasteland desert with an abandoned hotel/casino. On the third day an escape route not previously discovered in the Kyln appears and breakouts can be planned...

...Only for everyone to find themselves walking through a large glass prison toward the toxic gas filled wasteland of a desert, the Sierra Madre. Does the prison look better than the toxic cloud outside? If you're stuck in the prison after dark beyond day 3, you'll be forced into and locked in your cell for the night. But at least locked away, nothing from the outside can hurt you. If you try to brave the actual elements in the desert it might be a little hard to breathe. The air has pockets of toxic gas and even a few seconds of exposure could prove deadly. And watch out for the Ghost People.

Inside the abandoned hotel/casino you'll find shelter from the gas and ghosts, but beware the holograms that are 50/50 with their attitude. Prison beatings, a beating from the holograms, which one Would You Rather? And whatever you do, don't try on the collars lying around unless you like to explode. Literally.

[ This is a catch-all for all your prison/desert needs! Please mark your threads clearly in the subject line with your character's name and either a cell number or just a location if you didn't feel like randomizing it or you're making a top level for a public place (like the dining hall or wandering the hotel/casino). Here's the plot post if you need it!

Have fun! ]

Comments

early days »

[mucked]

[ there's hardly any individuality in a sea of prison uniforms. there's no easy, obvious means of recognizing one another at a distance -- nothing beyond shape and figure and the broad strokes one assigns to hair, to complexion, to gait. peggy has been well-schooled in the skill of breaking someone down to key distinguishing features and maybe that's why she knows jemma from a brief glimpse through the prison crowd.

peggy weaves her way through a few bodies -- eager to catch up. ]

Simmons. Holding fast?

[bravejemma]

Tight as I can.

[It's a blessing to see a familiar face, finally. She gives her a slight smile. Hey, it might be space prison, but at least they all have their right minds. For moment.]

Any signs of the others? I haven't had much luck.

[mucked]

Stark is sticking to his cell. [ and the others -- well, the others aren't hers to discuss, really. jemma is more likely to have found fitz already, peggy suspects, and she has only narrow connections with the rest.

there is the matter of that new lad, of course, but now mightn't be the time... ]

I don't imagine this has been stripped from your memory, has it?

[ she expects not. still, she asks. ]

[bravejemma]

Not that I can recall.

[Her response isn't without wryness. Whether or not Peggy will appreciate it is anyone's guess.]

But there are a lot more things going on in the universe than the average person on Earth knows about, so I'd wager there's even more that the not-average person knows.

[After spending six months scraping a living out of dirt on the Kree homeworld, space prison doesn't feel like an enormous leap.]

[mucked]

So I keep learning. [ a quiet huff. ] Again and again. Over and over. This place, even without taking the events into account, is a constant source of lessons in exactly how much I don't know that I don't know.

[ which prompts (it seems) some measure of frustration. ]

A person can only take so much humbling.

[bravejemma]

[The corners of her mouth twitch up into a smile, but she schools her expression quickly. If the voice were male and Scottish, she would swear she were talking to Fitz.]

I know what you mean. No one likes not having all the information.

[mucked]

And that goes double for intelligence operatives. [ although she says it quietly. wryly, too, because ultimately: ] Ironic, really, given my trumped up charge. A rather oafish guard informed me I'm serving my time for violating the Official Secrets Act.

[ a sigh. ]

I doubt he even knows what that is -- so far away we are from King and country.

[bravejemma]

[Jemma thinks of her own supposed crime -- defenestration of a public official, honestly, does she look capable of such a thing? -- and nods.]

I doubt the secrets that are being protected are even the same. [Let alone that Peggy Carter had violated it.] I have no doubt the event just made these things up. [She scoffs.]

[mucked]

[ made up or not, the truth is that she has broken the contract. oh perhaps peggy hasn't outright described her duties and deeds from during the war -- but she's planted more than enough hints, she's made enough suggestions, and she's been all the more emboldened by how much people like simmons and fitz already know about her.

but it's been a year! how is she supposed to hold herself apart from these people and their shared plight. here they are, languishing in an event-built prison, but peggy's thoughts are still on the oncoming war. ]

Has anyone told you why you're here? [ ... ] Intergalactic grand larceny?

[bravejemma]

Ah... [She could have lied, but she was still not a very talented liar and in any case, Peggy was going to see through it anyway. Still, it doesn't keep her cheeks from pinking.]

Defenestration of a public official. [Pause.] Ridiculous, of course.

[mucked]

[ oh, but she laughs. from the belly, good-hearted, and well-meant. ]

Is it? [ ridiculous! ] I can think of a number of public officials just off the top of my head who could likely do with a good...defenestration.

[bravejemma]

I don't doubt that at all, that's just... not a particularly productive way to... [She's blushing so hard right now, flustered, but not offended by Peggy's enjoyment of her pronouncement.] ... get one's point across...

[mucked]

And yet I suspect it would come with a measure of satisfaction all the same. [ unabashedly vicious, this one, at times. ] Given the proper target.

[bravejemma]

I'm sure it would. Sort of wish I could remember doing it, if I have to do the time.

[mucked]

Fair enough. [ that, at least, she can understand. ] But I suppose you'll have to make up for it once we're out.

[ of this prison or the next. who knows. ]

[bravejemma]

[She smiles wryly.]

I've wanted to toss the Wonderland Queens out a window a time or two, though I think that might bring about a fate worse than this place.

[mucked]

-- And what about back home? [ she pokes. she prods. ] Is there anyone there who could use a good tossing?

[bravejemma]

[She thinks about it.] Maybe General Talbot. But just out of a first story. Although technically I don't think he's elected. I'm not really sure. I can't vote in the States.

[mucked]

Tell me about him.

[ talbot. the name has cropped up, almost incidentally, in the one report she has from fitz. but rather than express any familiarity with it, peggy looks to hear a less official take on the military man. ]

[bravejemma]

[Jemma considers her description of General Talbot. She doesn't have a ton of one-on-one interaction with him -- that's pretty much Coulson's department. Thank god.]

Have you ever seen an old American Western, where the cowboy swaggers about and uses colorful metaphors to illustrate his point? General Talbot is not quite that far off. He's... a character.

His mustache is also quite prodigious.

[mucked]

[ ...she knows the type. hell, she used to work shoulder-to-shoulder with a man she thought rather broke the mold for that type. apparently not. still, it doesn't stop her from biting back an odd nostalgic smile. ]

It's as if they teach proper swaggering technique during officer training. [ ... ] Does he get in your way, then?

[bravejemma]

Well, Coulson mostly deals with him -- but he's SHIELD's liaison with the US Government, and they're dealing with -- well, what they perceive to be an Inhuman threat.

[Her tone should tell Peggy all she needs to know what Jemma's opinion of that may be. Inhumans are as variant as humans themselves.]

[mucked]

Coulson.

[ -- peggy leaps on the name. it isn't one she's heard before, but from context she can suss out the man's role easily enough. ]

Is that this Director I keep hearing such positive things about?

[bravejemma]

Yes, that's him.

[She smiles a bit. He can be a tough boss (for example, when he yells at you for jumping out of a plane over the ocean), but he's a very good one. Even sweet sometimes (like when he brings you food and then cooks it for you at your shitty apartment while you're undercover).]

I think you'd like him. I know he'd love meeting you.

[Maybe leave his small Captain America obsession for another day.]

[mucked]

[ truth be told, she's been feeling very curious about the inheritors of her position -- even if it's a position that doesn't yet exist back home, for her, just yet. peggy's spine prickles with a number of selfish questions. how long did she hold the reins herself? how many directors have there been? what's the selection process like? can they be trusted?

but jemma suggests she'd like the man. more than that, she alludes to what might be enthusiasm on coulson's part as well. and that she can stomach -- it's only natural, she supposes, to feel a kind of fascination with our predecessors. the people who held positions before us. ]

What's he like?

[ she's had fitz's report; now she'll have hers. ]