andrew mumford will teach you how to dance. (ladysoldier) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2012-10-09 04:56:00 |
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Entry tags: | peggy carter, rogue |
WHO Peggy & Rogue.
WHAT Whoops, someone's doin' a B&E.
WHEN Recently.
WHERE Peggy's apartment, New York, Marvel Door.
WARNING None?
The apartment Anna Marie’s key opened to was a tidy looking place. It struck her as as Hollywood set piece from some old time she didn’t know very well. Serious, neat and barely broken in. “Somethin’ you could appreciate, Lori.” She said out loud to the man in her head, who quietly agreed. He could feel her heart drop as every little piece of old antiques reminded her that this wasn’t the mansion filled with friends and children. Ryan didn’t know the first thing about family or trust, but he could understand hurt. He could understand loss. And, his way of coping was to keep moving forward. Even if it was sometimes blindly. That was something Anna Marie could appreciate. In her hand was a plastic bag filled with supplies Ryan had bought for her. Mainly, some hair dye and scissors. From what he gathered about the Marvel door, there weren’t many people who knew her and mutants were barely a blip on the radar yet. In case there were people waiting for an X-Men to show, it was best to hide. At least until she found her footing. She was to cut her hair, dye it all brown and try to dress normally. Just until she got adjusted. “Yeah, yeah. You’re the bossman. For now.” Anna Marie walked through the apartment, fingers brushing across the top of chairs and the sofa as she made her way to the bathroom. The first order of business was cutting her giant mass of curly hair. At first it hurt the way throwing out old stuffed animals might, but with each lock on the floor she felt determination rise through her bones. She’d find the rest of the X-Men and get right back on course. They may not be here. Ryan reminded her. But, Anna Marie didn’t care. If they weren’t here, she’d find a place for herself. She always did. Once her hair was short and manageable, she rinsed her hair, put on the flimsy plastic gloves the hair dye came with and started running the black gunk through her hair as she looked in the mirror. The running water masking any noise of someone entering the apartment. Andrew finally decided it was okay to risk some time in Las Vegas -- not a lot, of course, but more than the few hours he allowed himself before -- and so Peggy was finally absent from the Marvel Door for the first time in weeks. She didn’t begrudge the time at all, but she also was quite aware that Andrew needed to solve his problems and face the issues he had ignored for so long. Peggy assured him that things would be okay, but after a short time in Las Vegas, a panicked Andrew found his way through the door again, and Peggy stepped forth through the front door of her apartment. Frowning, she cursed inwardly. Perhaps she needed to enlist the help of someone else. Not Bianca, who Peggy felt would not be equipped to handle Andrew’s problems as well as her own, but maybe someone else. It was no matter at the moment, and she was not going to argue with the young boy when he just thrusted himself back through the door. No, she would wait until she was kicked back through the door once again. She had been using her time to explore the new New York, to learn more about what had happened between her time and the present, and cultivating a new life for herself. Doing best with what she had been given. Steve was there again, at least, and she had been considering pushing Tony Stark into letting her be more hands-on with his organization of superheroes. For the moment, however, she would simply explore Manhattan, but before she could collect her things to leave, she heard a rustling just past her bedroom in the bathroom. Immediately, Peggy Carter rolled into her instinctual soldier mode, reaching for her gun and slowly making her way through the door. It was something akin to one of those old time movies with soldiers and spies, but to Peggy this was no laughing matter. Who would be in her apartment without her knowledge? Only a few knew its location, and even fewer (namely no one) had actual access to it. She assumed the running water masked her progress through the apartment, but she took it slow regardless, edging the door open with her elbow. Inside was a young girl, one actually around Andrew’s age, but that did not matter. She was a threat, plain and simple, and Peggy assuredly let the young woman know that with the pointed gun at her head. “I wouldn’t make any sudden movements if I were you,” she said in that sharp, clear English accent that made the men in her brigade respect her in ways they didn’t respect most women. Rogue was just starting to relax when the sharp, military-bred voice sounded behind her. “Oh...crap.” Her shoulders slumped forward as her arms went up in the air and she turned real slow like to look at Peggy. Eyebrows raised at the metal pointed at her, she offered a bashful smile. “Nice gun, suga. You a vintage kind of girl?” Rogue brightened her smile a little, the awkwardness still there. Being shot wouldn’t hurt her and if the mutant wanted to she could rip the bathroom apart without even breaking a nail, but she decided to try to play nice. This woman meant business and Rogue knew how to respect that. Despite the little quips. “I uh- I just kind of landed here and I’m-” She stuttered, hands still in a surrender position, though they wavered a little with her voice. “I’m a little lost, that’s all.” “I suppose so,” Peggy said of being ‘vintage.’ She cocked an eyebrow towards Anna Marie, but did little else. Her gun didn’t waver, and neither did her body. Standing stock-still in the doorway and eyeing the young woman fiercely, her fingers inched away from the trigger. The woman seemed genuinely frightened, which caused Peggy to believe her when she said she was lost. “Landed here?” she asked anyway because that made absolutely no sense. “How did you just land here? I suppose you’re quite lost, yes.” “It’s...hard to explain.” She slowly lowered her hands, fingers still stuck inside the dye stained gloves she was wearing. “I came through a magic door. A per- a friend told me this world is a lot like my old one, but maybe a little different. So, I figured right off I should change my hair so I don’t stand out.” Anna Marie smiled and made a gesture towards the top of her head. “Ya can’t tell, but it used to be real white on the top and brown on the bottom. Anyone lookin’ for me would see me before I saw them.” “Name’s Anna Marie. I’d shake your hand but-” she wiggled her fingers stuck in the stained gloves. There was no mention on how taking off the gloves and shaking Peggy’s hand wasn’t an option. “Who would be after you? Why would they search for you?” Peggy stood in the doorway still, measuring her gun at the young woman with eyes narrowed and searching. Immediate threat wasn’t obvious, however, and the girl did mention a magic door, not unlike the one Andrew kept throwing himself through every single day. Slowly, very slowly, she lowered the pistol, though she kept it close to her side. “Agent Carter,” Peggy said, still using the formalities. Maybe she was used to it, or maybe she used it to intimidate people. Either way, she earned the title, and she would still use it. “Elaborate on the so-called ‘magical door?’” Ryan had seen Captain America, as any red blooded American should, and after Peggy introduced herself he recognized her. She’s good people. Go ahead and let her know you’re a mutant. She probably won’t understand anyway. He told Rogue like she had a comm in her ear. The girl did her best not to nod at his instructions and fumbled for another smile. “I’m a mutant. People don’t take kindly to them where I’m from.” She waved her hand like it was a long story, and then focused on the subject of the door. “It’s this door that let’s me come here. I’m...connected to someone else from a different world. The whole thing is kinda confusin’ honestly.” Peggy furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. Ryan was right in assuming that she would have no idea, and Andrew could hardly pop up in the back of her mind to help. Ever since Wayne’s death, he was uncharacteristically quiet, especially in her mind. No matter. The door really piqued the agent’s interest more than anything at the moment. She weighed whether or not to tell the young girl about her other person, and eventually reckoned that she couldn’t have much to lose. “I do, too,” she said, finally putting the gun in its holster on her hip. “A person connected to a door. It seems to affect a great number of people, actually.” Anna Marie nodded, aware that this whole doors business was going to be a new part of her life that wasn’t just going to affect her, but Ryan as well. “Well, I’m glad I ain’t alone in it anyway.” She looked down at her hands again, then the floor covered with curly cut hair. “I should- let me clean up and I’ll leave? I ain’t sure where I’m supposed to go here, but I ain’t meanin’ to cause you any harm.” With the dye still in her hair, Anna Marie knelt, grabbing a nearby wastepaper basket and started sweeping up the hair with her gloved hands. “Maybe them Avenger boys will let me in. They really need more girls on that team, anyhow.” Peggy wasn’t heartless by any means; just hardened after having to go toe-to-toe with brutish men most of her life. So, the Anna Marie girl, with the way she spoke and stuttered and scuttled about the bathroom tugged at her heart, and she felt herself sigh. “You aren’t causing any harm.” She tucked some hair behind her ear and knelt down as well to help with the clean up. The Avengers comment earned a scoff and an amused eyebrow raise. “My--I know someone on the team, and they certainly do need more women. The male bravado must be very overwhelming.” Peggy appraised the girl stooped next to her and offered her a smile. “I am sure Tony Stark would really appreciate the idea.” Or not. Rogue grinned. Tony Stark didn’t always like her, but she would always think he was kind of scumbag. In a good way. “You know the boys, huh? Stark is a man you gotta watch out for. His mind works too fast and so do his hands.” She scooped up the last of the hair and took her plastic gloves off, washed her hands and then put on a set of leather gloves from her pocket. “I better go check into a motel so I can wash this nonsense out. Sorry for disturbin’ ya, miss.” “I knew his father. Howard Stark,” Peggy said with an affectionate lift to the corner of her mouth. Howard wasn’t Steve by any means, but she still had fond memories of him. Memories, even if they felt like just yesterday. Howard was gone now, and his son was now the Stark name on everyone’s lips. “He was another handful.” She watched Anna Marie replace the cheap gloves with a pair of leather ones and raised an eyebrow, but said nothing more. Instead, she looked at the young woman for a moment as if debating over something. “You don’t have a place to stay at the moment?” Another pause, before continuing, “Stay here for now. I’ve a sofa couch and plenty of linens. You can tell me about these mutants and why people would be after you.” Truth be told, Rogue had been playing up the lost abandoned puppy thing as high as it would go. She did need a place to stay and this woman seemed like the kind of bad ass that would keep her silly Southern crazy in line, but outright asking to stay would have been rude. And, Rogue’s momma taught her better than that. “Really?” Rogue grinned stupidly, like she just say a picture of a kitten cuddling with a rabbit and then tried to settle herself down. “That’d be perfect. I mean, the second I get on your nerves I’ll take right off, I promise. Plus with this door thing I won’t be here all the time.” She was trying to sell a painting that was already sold, but who could blame her? Lost in a city that wasn’t hers with some government man in her head? She needed a friend and Rogue reckoned that this girl needed one, too. The eagerness procured a smile, and Peggy nodded as she pursed her lips in an attempt to hide her amusement. “Yes, of course, darling.” The young woman seemed good enough, if a little rough around the edges. But Peggy was an expert in ‘rough around the edges’, wasn’t she? It was what she did for a living, helping mold boys into men. She could definitely help this girl, too. “I promise I will let you know if that ever happens. Go wash your hair, and I’ll bring a towel and some clothes in for you.” If anything, Peggy did like the idea of having more women around. She did need a friend, and Anna Marie seemed like a good fit. |