+ 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

[mucked]

Rocket is considerably shorter. [ as if it makes a difference. as if it isn't somehow still utterly bonkers to see a raccoon walking upright and spitting swears. except even since she's crossed paths with all manner of creatures.

there's a rather endearing pony, in point of fact, cantering about. peggy never quite says so, however. ]

Oh -- but. Have you met the new lad? The young one?

[ he'd seemed to know a lot. unfortunately, he'd bounded off before peggy could properly interrogate him. ]

[hypoxic]

Raccoons tend to be, yes. [Why wouldn't that be true to life?]

I'm sure there've been a good number of new arrivals. Could you be more specific? [Sometimes Wonderland feels like it's teeming with children.]

[mucked]

The one from home. [ had she not made that obvious? oops. ] Peter.

[ they weave their way, slow and steady, through the straggling crowd -- out of the dining room. this is the easy part. it's the stairs that'll present an earnest challenge. ]

[hypoxic]

[It's a trouble Fitz has thought about at length. When he'd been injured and consigned to crutches, he'd been constantly aware of the idea that an event could pull the usual Wonderland accessibility options and force him to encounter stairs. He's prepared to coach her through the process once they're close enough.]

The bright one from high school? [Does Peggy know him as well? Fitz is excited for the chance to discuss him.] Remarkably clever, don't you think? I wasn't nearly as prepared in my first few weeks here.

[mucked]

He's certainly -- spirited.

[ she picks the word with a touch of care. it's not that she thinks him 'not clever' but rather that their interaction didn't come with an opportunity to showcase cleverness. after all, it had been a rather whirlwind introduction to the space. ]

What rotten fortune. Bad enough to wind up here, but then to have one's first event be a piece from home? I wonder how he's been coping.

[ concerned for the lad, it seems, although she's the one digging fingers into fitz's arm just to keep herself steady as they approach the stairs. ]

[hypoxic]

He might have already gone with one of the others. I can take a look round and check on him just to be sure.

[But now there are stairs, and that ought to be the focus.]

Start on the first step with your other side. I'll keep this side stable until you're ready to shift your balance.

[As long as she can keep enough weight on the side he's not holding, he can keep her from falling over. It might not be pleasant, but he's sure they can do it.]

[mucked]

Yes, yes, I know how walking wounded works.

[ -- she regrets her sharp tone the moment the words leave her lips. fitz is being helpful and patient with her, just like everyone else has been, but that doesn't make her any more gracious in accepting either of those offerings. the soft scoff and sigh is the closest she comes to voicing (another) apology. so, instead, she makes up for it by doing as he says.

she heeds.

peggy starts with her good side, takes the step, and for one too-long moment puts all responsibility for her stability and her balance on him. it comes with a grunt of pain. ]

[hypoxic]

[He doesn't take offense at the snipping this time. She's injured, and pain is always unpleasant to work through. His support is firm and steady, and he'll help her move onto the step the rest of the way.]

Good. We've just got to do this a few more times and we'll be up at the top before you know it.

[mucked]

[ up is always harder than down. universal ruddy law, isn't it? gravity works against them all -- and she feels it in every step, in every grip she takes, and when she leans on fitz just to keep herself upright. by the time they reach the mezzanine (and it was, indeed, just a handful of steps) she's winded.

red in the face is better than pale, perhaps. ]

I missed a camera. [ she explains, tired, leaning against a dirty pipe that stands in for a rail at the top of the stairs. she didn't want to explain it before, but she decides to explain it now. ] Trying to escape, I strolled straight up to one -- didn't even realize what it was until well afterward. Brought a crowd of guards down on us.

[ me. us. she gets sloppy with her pronouns as she's too busy thinking that what's-his-name, peter--? clever or not, she bets he wouldn't have made that mistake. blasted 21st century-ers. ]

[hypoxic]

[Red in the face is better than the idea that she'd initially been planning to do this alone.]

It's not your fault. That sort of thing could happen to anyone.

[She's blaming herself for her injury. As if that's something that could possibly be her fault. She didn't break herself like this.]

Was your companion injured also?

[mucked]

Mister Hunter. [ she mightn't have named him at all, really, except fitz has been made well aware of the connection -- albeit not the connection's nature. ] He's got his share of bruises.

[ marks, tender places, perhaps even a wrenched shoulder where the guards had held him back. truth is, peggy had 'won' her particular beating because she'd mouthed off a day earlier. it wasn't the escape that earned her this injury but rather a flaring up of her righteousness 24 hours prior. ]

But, unlike yours truly, he can still get 'round unassisted.

[ she's relieved. as difficult as she's been, as ungrateful as she's seemed, she understands that it could have been worse. ]

He did try and warn me. [ why can't she say this to rip, though? why can't she own up to her hubris when he's in earshot? ] I didn't listen.

[hypoxic]

He's been taking care of you since then?

[It's important to know that someone with a sense of responsibility is tending to her.]

[mucked]

[ taking care--? peggy's expression crinkles. ]

Fussing, more like.

[ she edits the narrative. and why shouldn't she? as futile as the effort is given her visible state and given how much aid she's required of fitz just to walk this far, peggy remains thorny over how public her recovery has been in this dreadful little prison.

if she had her way (ha!) then rip, too, would be long gone from the kyln. ]

You know how other people can be.

[ the wording is obscured but -- maybe, she's trying to connect some unspoken dot. some unsaid implication concerning the individuals to whom they've grown close. the important people. ]

[hypoxic]

I know he'd probably appreciate the opportunity to tend to you the same way you tended to him.

[He'd been remarkably lucky to have Peggy to take care of him upon his return. Especially given how likely it was that he might've been assaulted on sight if the wrong person had found him first.]

[mucked]

[ tended. is that what she'd done? the gentlest of it had transpired after fitz had been dismissed and yet -- and yet she can't help but wonder whether he hasn't sussed it out. oh, not the tabloid-style details! not at all! but, rather, the high watermark of respect. of responsibility. of things owed and accounts unsettled. what fitz suggests in his response is akin to a partnership and peggy won't argue it.

she thinks about the message simmons had sent to her shortly after fitz had sent one of his own. respect. responsibility. of things owed. the parallel either gives her a second wind or else it lights a fire under her heels.

one hand grips the rail. the other reaches for him -- showing how she's prepared to continue onward. ]

You may very well be right. [ oh, it's something. ] Doesn't make it any less insufferable.

[ but he stays. no matter how many emptied gruel dishes she throws at the back of his head. ]

Hindsight has made me altogether more sympathetic to your surly mood when I visited you last.

[ he'd been hurt, exhausted, scraped raw. peggy should have left well enough alone. ]

[hypoxic]

[ He'll be there when she reaches for him, accepting her arm and her weight. It's not something he considers in terms of duty or responsibility. It's just the right thing to do. And doesn't that make it worth doing all by itself? ]

Surly? [ he bristles at the accusation, though he's physically no less tender with her. ] I was a bit out of sorts, perhaps. But surly? Definitely not surly.

[mucked]

Yes. Surly. [ but as accusations go, this one is more gently leveled than most. maybe it's because of how closely they walk together, shoulder abutting shoulder, and talking in quiet private voices. ] Don't get your knickers in a twist. There's no sin in being surly with someone invading your convalescence. I shouldn't have expected otherwise.

[ so why had she visited? why had she stayed? well. loyalty. the sort that breeds concern and care and curiosity beyond what's merely professional. the kind that braves another person's surliness because it's more important to know that they're safe than to know that they like you. ]

[hypoxic]

Well I'm most certainly not surly. I've been nothing but a gentleman to you since we've met.

[He'd be preening if he wasn't holding her up. His voice lowers to a mumble, rambling and petty.]

I can introduce you round to some people if you want to see surliness. [He sucks at his teeth. The very idea.]

[mucked]

You wear your heart on your sleeve. And sometimes that heart is -- yes, surly. [ or so she's decided. ] Which, I might add, is hardly gentlemanly.

[ and as for his list of surly people! well, peggy suspects she's high on it. she knows she's not the friendliest creature. but she does tilt her head just to decipher his mumble and-- ]

But I wouldn't change it about you, either.

[ those moments when he turns thorny, defensive for all the right reasons, and eager to voice impatient displeasure. it's not justified at every turn but she appreciates it when it is. all of this to say that surly isn't necessarily meant as an insult. ]

I don't go around looking for gentlemen.

[hypoxic]

[He lets out a huff of air when she calls him ungentlemanly (the very idea!!), but settles when she softens the accusation.]

Perhaps they accidentally find you, then. Mister Hunter seems to know his manners well enough.

[mucked]

[ peggy nearly chokes on her surprise. there's no deeper meaning to it, she's certain, but it's an odd thing to hear said aloud all the same. how often has she accused rip of being unsporting, of speaking unkindly, of being anything but a gentleman? sometimes in earnest; sometimes with affection.

she covers her laughter with a pained sigh. ]

He may know his manners, Fitz, but he doesn't always mind them. [ but he's being such a darling lately, isn't he? fetching food and makeshift cushions made out of spare prison uniforms. if only every loving gesture didn't come with an earful. talk about bloody surly. ] Like the sort of man who's got the Queensberry rules memorized -- if only to best know how they're bent.

[ so! not a gentleman. but (peg believes) a good one. now those she likes to keep an eye on. ]

[hypoxic]

Sounds rather like what rules were designed to accomplish. [The most gentlemanly sort of gentlemen are the worst bastards he's known. People don't get into high society by being nice.] It's not about gaining acceptance as much as it's a set of rules about keeping other people out.

[mucked]

Possibly.

[ it's that sort of vague answer she gives when she disagrees -- but understands that voicing her disagreement, owning it as boldly as she might ordinarily do, only serves to reveal details about herself (her feelings) that she's not interested in sharing. truth is, those aren't quite the sorts of rules she's talking about. oh, she has no doubt that if he wanted to mister hunter could blend in with the upper crust. just as she could.

but when she talks about rules she's not talking about society's guidelines. rather, she's talking about a man whose profession seems to encourage a kind of fanaticism in its devotion to any given timeline -- an obsessive knowledge of time and history so granular that he feels empowered to make discretionary changes while also brow-beating anyone else who thinks themselves capable of the same. and in that way fitz might be more correct than peggy is willing to admit.

it's another kind of arrogance. but, then again, maybe that's a trait to which she's magnetized as well. ]

Then again. We all of us like a good loophole, I think. [ spies and time masters a like. ]

[hypoxic]

Loopholes allow for room to get things done more often than not. [It's rare that anyone thinks of using those same loopholes against them, he thinks. Everything opened up once SHIELD went strictly covert.] They're allowing people to get out of here, aren't they?

[mucked]

Some of us, yes.

[ she's not done pulling on that thread. or maybe it's more like a worry bead. she can think less about her own vulnerable state if she can fuss over someone else's plans, intentions, choices. nitpicking at rip's had gotten her nowhere; she'll continue trying her luck with fitz. ]

Those with the wherewithal to seize the opportunity.

[ and she's been stricken from that list. ]