+ 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]

[ 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. ]

[hypoxic]

[That's probably not as upsetting as she intends it to be.]

Well then it's fortunate that some of us have the wherewithal to ensure that stubborn persons are forced to stay in bed and get well.

[mucked]

[ her expression pinches. et tu, brute? -- although from the way she bites down on her words, it's likely her rejoinder would have carried considerably less class. and likely more cursing. it's bad enough to suffer the indignity of care from one someone.

she holds onto the rail with one hand and fitz with the other. ]

Mister Hunter hasn't gotten to you, has he?

[ she dredges the name back up if only because she's suddenly paranoid that she might have missed some orchestration between the two. she's got no proof, really, but she suspects rip has been sending doe-eyed surrogates at her for the past 48 hours -- evading her temper as he hides behind proxies. people he thinks she might humour instead of dismiss. ]

Tell me he hasn't put you up to this.

[hypoxic]

[He'd thought he understood where this conversation was heading, but she's driving it in a direction he's not sure about again.]

Sorry? Gotten to me in what way? I've not seen him since we've been here.

[mucked]

In the way that has you checking in on me.

[ her head turns just so she can try and read the shield agent's expression. but when he says he hasn't seen rip since arriving, she deems the claim to be earnest enough. it's not quite enough that he was surprised to see her in her current state when he'd approached; they are, after all, both spies. ]

Because otherwise I must commend you on your backtalk, Agent Fitz.

[ alluding to stubborn persons and all. for a moment, she rather doubted it was fitz himself talking. but perhaps it's a good thing he's found a bit more of his backbone around her. ]

[hypoxic]

....That isn't the sort of thing that generally merits a commendation, ma'am.

[Has he been backtalking? He considers the respect level he's shown her thus far.]

[mucked]

It certainly is -- considering I would prefer you to speak your mind.

[ backtalk and all. peggy wants to hear that dissent, even if she's often unlikely to listen to it. there is an allowance for subtlety between spies, yes, but she wants to believe that the two of them have moved past the worst of their spy vs spy tactics.

there is a watershed, she thinks, where two colleagues have witnessed just enough of each other where -- upon reaching the other side of it -- they can start speaking frankly together. to a point. ]