so shine bright tonight.

[america]

Who: steve rogers (starspangle), peggy carter (revlon) and some of peggy's closest friends (u kno who u are)
What: peggy's birthday is on the 9th, but they're celebrating on the 8th with an intimate dinner
When: april 8th
Where: at the rogers-carter residence
Warning(s): possible cavities from the sheer sweetness of this entire event tbh

❚❚❚❚❚ i. ARRIVAL [ It's the weekend and it's just a couple of days before Peggy's birthday. Steve Rogers has never hosted a party before, let alone a party for his partner, but life is all about trying new things and being the best boyfriend (hard to think of himself as such, still, even after all of these years, but he likes the feeling) he can be, and Steve takes both of those things very seriously. So he sends out invitations and makes plans - nothing fancy, nothing big, because everyone's just survived one of the worst events since crash-landing on this planet, and also because he knows Peggy isn't the kind of woman who relishes in big, flashy parties. He certainly isn't. A quiet dinner with her closest friends feels right. The small, cozy apartment is well-lit and tidy. When you enter, you come up a small set of steps to enter the main space - a kind of living-dining room combined. It's cute and comfortable and somehow reminds you of an older time without actually being dated. There are a couple of poetry books stacked on a side-table by the couch, and leaning against it is the possibly familiar, but very much noticeable circular star-spangled shield. Around the room you'll find drawings on the wall - sketches, meticulous and detailed but with a loose, free spirit - of the New York City skyline, Brooklyn, the Empire State Building. There's a delicious scent coming from the kitchen area. If you brought a gift, or some wine, you can leave it at the table with the single bottle placed there already and make yourself at home. Chat it up with the host, or with other party guests until the guest of honour arrives. ] ❚❚❚❚❚ ii. DINNER [ Considering the smallness of the space, it makes a little more sense for guests to grab food from the 'buffet-style' arrangement set out on the dining table and find any place to settle and eat. Soft music plays in the background, something jazzy and a little big band-y. There are enough plates and cutlery to go around (thank God), and there's more than enough food and drink too. Most of the ingredients are very similar to Earth's, but still manage to have a ... strangeness to them that feels uncanny. It's the alien-ness of this place. Thankfully it doesn't affect the taste. Steve's made some assortment of meat, stew, rice, and salad - not combined, don't worry. It's very vaguely Japanese-ish, if only because his culinary sensei happens to be You Watanabe, but he's picked up a couple of tips from some of the locals too. He's no Gordon Ramsay, but he's a good student and the food should taste pretty decent. Cake (bought at a local Olympian bakery) will be served at the end. ] ❚❚❚❚❚ iii. A LITTLE WINE, A LITTLE COFFEE [ After dinner, guests are welcome to mingle and stay for however long they'd like. Music continues to play, and everyone should feel happy and full. It's a pleasant night and the company is delightful too. At one point, Steve will offer guests coffee or maybe some of that wine from earlier - he's not entirely sure where it came from but it seems all right, and while Steve can't get drunk from it, it tastes fine enough. ] ❚❚❚❚❚ iv. CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE [ more of an ooc note, but! please feel free to leave your own top-levels and mingle amongst each other! these prompts are really, really general and are mostly meant to set the tone of the party. pick a prompt and play with it, take some cues and make your own, etc etc.! if you have any questions, absolutely feel free to hit me up! pls have fun and wish our best girl a happy birthday! ]

Comments

[sheriffing]

Yeah, it does. [ so don't mind if she accepts that invitation a little gratefully, setting down her plate and moving to sit beside the guest of honor. she keeps thinking of home now that they're here, and all the places that ever felt like one. the passenger seat of a yellow beetle when Neal would turn up the radio and sing along to Yaz, the city where it felt like it was her and Henry against the world, a small town shielded from the outside world by magic.]

I think I always wanted home to be a place, because that would make things simple. So, in my mind, it was just a matter of finding the right place. I lived in Tallahassee, and Boston, and New York City, and Maine... and wherever I was, it was the people who made all the difference.

[revlon]

I quite agree.

[ She'd said that to a man named Henry DeVere a few months ago. Home can be found in people. It's the best way to approach their new lives here, as difficult as it feels some days to remember that their worlds are gone. (And some believe that might not even be true. She isn't sure what she believes.) She is so glad to have Steve, the Commandos asleep in stasis, the countless other friends and colleagues that survived the destruction of the Earth she knows.

But Peggy looks around her apartment and thinks that this is the first taste of home she's had in a long while. And it isn't a feeling she had before the Storm, either. She's never had a gathering of friends like this for her birthday. It's novel — and now very uniquely tied to El Nysa, for better or for worse. ]

I had no idea you'd lived in so many places. You ought to speak with Claire about that, I think you have that in common. [ Then - ] It was just London, for me. Then New York — although I was in Los Angeles briefly for work before all this came about.

[sheriffing]

I grew up in the foster system, I moved around more times than I can count. [ with a strange set of circumstances and Regina's curse to blame for all of it. sometimes she wonders who she'd be if things had gone the way they were supposed to, without the curse and the twenty-eight year separation from the people who loved her.

...and then she realizes how poorly prepared she would have been for all of this, and she's not sure she would've been able to handle this world without the independence her life back home had demanded of her.] Los Angeles? Seems like a strange fit for you - at least in my time.

[ she doesn't think about it being the most genuine experience of humanity that anyone could ask for. that's what Emma had always appreciated about New York; everyone there was honest, no matter what.] What kept you in New York?

[revlon]

[ Peggy nods in understanding at the first bit; doesn't necessarily press because it isn't her place, but she knows what Emma means. She's lived in more places than she can admit because her war record is so confidential — the circumstances are different, but when 'home' is a different foxhole or barn or command post or she's been billeted in someone else's apartment, forming roots is a strange feeling.

She chuckles at the remark about Los Angeles, though. ]

It was certainly different to what I was used to. [ She glances up to the sketches of New York at the mention of the city, expression thoughtful. Here it is, then, the life that she has learned to balance so well: to neatly omit part of the truth so she isn't caught in a lie. ] As for New York, oh, a number of things. Work, mainly. I didn't feel as though there was anything left for me in London after the war, so I thought a change of scenery would be just the thing. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. And Steve was from there too, of course.

[ She doesn't say that Steve was believed to be dead at the time. Well, MIA officially. But still. ]

And then my boss needed me to check on our new office out in LA, so I went. [ Her lips quirk in a smile. ] I got a sunburn in hours.

[sheriffing]

Probably wanted to go right back to New York after that, too.

[ it's a stance her younger self would have been surprised to hear her take. she remembers a time when the idea of a home that was warm and sunny (and near the beach) was all she wanted. then Neal had run and she'd ended up in prison, and even after, life in Tallahassee felt hollow. given the opportunity to live in the warmer weather of Wyver, she'd almost immediately opted out - it was too much like Neverland, and that was one memory she didn't want to drown in when she was trying to start over.]

Does this place feel like home now?

[ Emma looks around, eyes wandering everything from the furniture to the shield leaning over the couch. it's not just Steve that makes her think this might work out for Peggy, but he's a part of it. there's just something so real about this place, more warm and welcoming than anything she's seen here so far.]

Because, I don't know - it sure looks like one to me.

[revlon]

[ Peggy laughs. ]

It does to me, too. I think it might be the first in a long time — for me, at any rate.

[ It's clear from what she's told Emma that she moved around quite a bit, too. She sits back to survey the room: most of it came with the apartment, which made it easier for them to settle down. Her personal touches are few and far between only because she's never been one to decorate or to find sentimentality in objects (at least, that would be the case if they were back on Earth and she had access to her grandmother's tea set or the like). Instead, what makes this place suit both her and Steve is the fact it feels reminiscent of the time they lost, more than the place.

Maybe they'd have had something similar to this if he hadn't been lost in the war. ]

I was staying at a friend's both in New York and Los Angeles. I can't say I know the first thing about decorating. But we've done all right for ourselves, I think. [ She looks over to the other woman, brows raised. ] What about you? Have you settled in?

[sheriffing]

I don't know if it's the decorations as much as it's the two of you.

[ it's not an effort to compliment them, even if it sounds like one. it strikes her as an incredibly hopeful thing, to find someone they cared about in a world that's lost to them, and to share a home in this one. tea sets and color schemes only go so far, she's seen plenty of places here that looked nice enough only to somehow disappoint under the surface. all of this has a better feeling to it.]

One of the happiest times in my life was living out of a Volkswagen with someone I cared about, mostly because it was ours.

[ though twice-stolen, technically. but it was theirs and then hers. she hasn't seen it since before the storm. it's probably for the best; if it had survived, she'd be living in it all over again just to have something familiar.]

What's the definition of 'settled in' these days, anyway? I have an apartment and I'm not actively trying to get back to my world.

[ it's the second part that tells you she's trying, Peggy. buying into the end of everything is still difficult for her, so she shrugs.]

I'll host the next round of drinks the next time we go for target practice.

[revlon]

[ It's a curious thing to point out, settling. How does one define it, indeed? Saying that one ought to be trying to find a way home implies home still exists out there, ready to be rediscovered or saved. And perhaps that's true. She's toyed with the idea before and entertained it with others more experienced in the breadth and spectrum of the universe beyond her 20th century understandings, but it's a weighty thing to process. And not a topic for what amounts to a cocktail party in their living room.

So she smiles, instead. ]

I'll gladly take you up on that offer. I think we all deserve this and another round for a good long while. Just let me know when you'd like to spend some time at the range. [ And then she realises something and adds, ] Or perhaps take a ride around the outskirts. That's my usual patrol route.