nysalogs | OPEN TO CR (and +1's, why not!!)

Entry tags:

OPEN TO CR (and +1's, why not!!)

Who: Peggy Carter (

revlon), Steve Rogers (

starspangle) & Various
What: The wedding!
When: Dec 1
Where: Thesa Station
Warning(s): N/A

[ To anyone who knows Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter, this wedding has been a long time coming — almost too long. So perhaps it isn't surprising at all that once they finally got engaged, the ceremony fell into place fairly quickly. Neither of them are ones for much fuss so they've decided to have it up on the station so friends and guests can attend no matter where on the island they live. And while the exhibition hall on Thesa isn't the English countryside or a church in New York City, this day is still uniquely theirs and intrinsically tied to the life they've made here.

It's an intimate late afternoon ceremony with wide windows overlooking the vastness of space and its twinkling stars. Steve, in a sharp suit one might recognise from last December's holiday gala, has Bucky Barnes as his best man and Claire Fraser is there for Peggy as matron of honour — the first friend she made in this new world. With so many absent friends, the bride decides to walk herself down the short aisle and the wedding gown is an understated, elegant affair in satin with a touch of beaded lace, expertly tailored by Claire's own hands. When the bride and groom meet, Captain Kirk begins:

"Since the days of the first wooden vessels, all ship's masters have had one happy privilege. That of uniting two people in the bonds of matrimony. And so we are gathered here today with you, Margaret Elizabeth Carter, and you, Steven Grant Rogers, in the sight of your fellows..."

And once they are pronounced Mr and Mrs Rogers, the party can officially begin! There's a hodgepodge dinner buffet courtesy of the mess hall (and cake later, of course) so perhaps you're trying to decide where to start first; or maybe you've forgone the food for the self-service bar with wine, whiskey, and beer. (Champagne for the toast!) If tipple isn't to your tastes, then maybe the dancing is — it isn't big band swing music, but it's close enough, and you're attending the wedding of some golden oldies from the 1940s so there's sure to be someone cutting a rug. Or maybe you're taking a breather from all that and taking in the view of the stars and the planet below.

Whatever your fancy, mingle and enjoy! ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I was a sniper in the war and, uh [ He coughs awkwardly. ] women really liked me before that, so that might've been my wheelhouse before.

[ He shrugs and doesn't bother mentioning that he's a lot more comfortable with a gun than a woman these days. ]

[ softly: ] Which war was this?

[ It's something Bucky's made a habit of lying about with anyone who doesn't already know Steve or Peggy, but his worry about the one threat he'd gotten from a HYDRA agent seems so far away here. ]

World War 2. I served with Steve.

[ how is it that at this wedding, thomas nightingale ends up having this precise conversation with two men who are not precisely the same but almost?

he pushes that thought aside. lifts a hand to briefly rub at his jaw. ]

I briefly served.

Really?

[ It actually catches him off guard a little, but he's not sure why. A lot of men were serving back then and a good number of them went home afterwards and lived normal lives. Back then Bucky had expected to be one of them. ]

A soldier and a cop and a... what? A wizard?

[ nothing about thomas nightingale's life after the war had been normal, but for the rest, it's accurate enough.

plainly: ] Yes. [ and then he adds ] Not necessarily in that order.

So what order, then?

[ There's an easy smile settling on his face now, his posture relaxing a little more. He really doesn't meet a lot of people who are from the same time. There's a coyness to their interaction that Bucky can't help enjoying and he's not too unhappy that they're talking about Thomas and not himself now. ]

Wizard, first and foremost.

Both soldier and police officer are secondary to that. I briefly worked for the Foreign Office as well, before the war.

[ not quite a spy, but... not quite not, either. the sort of person who'd be found at diplomatic events just as soon as chasing german archeologists through nepal. ]

How does that work? Something you're born with?

[ It's invasive, maybe, but Bucky's pretty sure he can get away with a few invasive questions between them. ]

[ hardly invasive. he doesn't mind questions about magic nearly as much as questions about the war, most days. ]

Oh, no. It's something I learned in school.

Is that normal where you're from?

[ Bucky's not sure what had existed on his world and what hadn't. He's experienced so many unbelievable things since him childhood and even more after waking up here. For all he knows, people were using all sorts of magic and he just never saw it. He's seen things close enough, at least. ]

When I was born, it was not entirely unheard of, but nothing I would call normal, no. There was one school, in all of Britain.

[ and admission was based on needing to know the right sort of person... and being from the right sort of family, too, though that didn't become obvious to nightingale until much, much later. ]

By the time the storm hit, it was entirely unheard of and the school empty.

[ please don't ask him what happened. ]

When was that?

[ Bucky's got an idea, of course, if he served in the war, but he can't really help the question, anyway. He wants to know more about Thomas and not just because the idea of magic still feels a little exciting and fantastical even now. Besides, his own timeline doesn't add up and he's been about as cards-on-the-table as he gets with Thomas. ]

Ah.

[ when is a better question than why, and it isn't as though it really is a secret. ]

The Storm hit in 2017.

Shit and here I thought I was special for being so old.

[ But it's kind of an odd relief. Bucky's never even sure how old he feels anymore between all the lost years and the ever-present feeling that he's fallen out of time. Steve's the only other person he knows who's been through anything similar, but it's so different. ]

It was 2016 for me. Is that normal for wizards? 'Cause it ain't normal where I'm from.

No.

[ steve knows about thomas' age. him and peggy are some of the few that thomas has mentioned it to. and now bucky. ]

At some point after the war, well into my 80s, I started ageing backward. I've no idea what caused it. [ "magic returning into the world", only magic had never truly left, had it? still, there'd been a revival of sorts.

he'd almost missed it, of course, too busy fighting ghosts of the variant that couldn't be exorcised, demons of the war instead of anything more literal. ]

[ He nods, not sure how he's really supposed to react to that. It's beyond weird and Bucky's entire life is basically weird these days. ]

I was cryogenically frozen for a while, but I don't think I age normally, either.

[ Really not something he'd been planning to reveal to anyone, but here they are. ]

[ it is beyond weird, but thomas is glad bucky isn't asking any more questions. his age isn't something he minds, precisely, but he'd resented the reversal of the ageing process for a while, when he'd been capable of resentment at all. ]

How so? [ the age, he means. ]

Oh, uh, during the war I was captured. I don't really know what they did to me in technical terms, but it I guess it made me pretty indestructible, kinda like Steve.

[ Which, given some of the other ways he's seen attempts at that go, Bucky knows he got off lucky biologically-speaking, even if just about everything else went wrong in the worst ways possible. ]

It's not a big deal.

[ The way his eyes avert and his voice gets tight makes it all too clear how much of a lie that is, but he lies about this stuff when he's not at his best friend's wedding, so he's sure as hell not going to let himself get emotional about it now. Making jokes and changing the subject is how he navigates this heavy stuff, because it's the only way he can keep himself together. The only person who's got the full truth is a psychic girl who's back in cryo and he plans to keep it that way. Even Steve doesn't get all of it. ]

Of course.

[ thomas inclines his head. the agreement is quiet, calm. there's some sympathy in his gaze, but none of it bleeds into his tone —that's entirely professional, bland. very british and posh and not saying anything at all.

he doesn't get it, of course, not really. how could he? he hasn't been captured during the war and no one's performed any experiments on him. he's read about some of the things nazi wizards did and more of their experiments are detailed in the black library he used to guard back in london. he wasn't captured and no one experimented on him and still, the war almost broke him the way it broke every other wizard, if it didn't outright kill them.

he understands not wanting to talk about it, at least. he still finds himself flinching at the mention of ettersberg more often than not. ]

How long were you frozen?

On and off for about seventy years. My memories aren't really solid, so I'm not sure exactly how much they took me out.

[ He can't remember everything from before it all, either, but at least he remembers enough to know who he is now. ]

I've only been away from all of that for a few years, so there's been some technology shock. And now we're in space, which is a whole other level.

[ The corner of his lip quirks. ]

What was it like watching all those changes happen? I just woke up in a different world. I never got to see any of it.

[ thomas clears his throat. ]

I can't say I've paid particular attention to them all.

[ the truth is that he hadn't. the truth is that for a while, he hadn't really left the folly unless the commissioner had called. the truth is that he doesn't know a great many things that have changed. ]

I do know that the map function on those smart phones is very useful.

[ Bucky turns his head sharply and studies Thomas, trying to figure out if he's being fucked with right now. After a moment, though, he just laughs. ]

Oh my god. You're worse than I am and I was literally asleep.

[ He bumps his shoulder against Thomas's gently. ]

Wizard thing or do you just live under a rock by choice? And what about all the other changes? You haven't noticed that ladies are wearing short skirts and everyone talks like a sailor now?

[ Which, if Bucky's being honest he's always talked like that, but he's never exactly been a fancy upper crust gentleman and Thomas gives him the impression that he actually comes from some sort of polite society. ]

[it's not a wizard thing. it's a war thing and a "everyone i know is either dead or dying" thing and a depression thing, but the gentle bump of bucky's shoulder against his snaps him out of such morose thoughts before they have the time to fester.

probably for the best, that. ]

I did, in fact, notice the short skirts. Someone pointed them out to me back in the sixties. [ ... thomas has no interest in short skirts or women's legs, frankly, but that's perhaps beside the point. ]

There have been plenty changes. Some for the better, I'd say. Most, even. [ briefly, he smiles. ] More rights for all sorts of people.

[ That makes Bucky smile, too. It hadn't affected him in the same way, but that doesn't make it less of a good thing. He doesn't like thinking about how hard it had been for people who'd had to hide their whole lives away or risk prison time. For all he knows, he'd known gay men back then and they hadn't been able to tell him. ]

Definitely a good change. Makes the war seem worth it in some way.

[ And that means a lot coming from Bucky, because he never came home. ]

Good people shouldn't have to feel scared. That's too close to what we were fighting against.

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