2835/Meeting Over Tea

Meeting Over Tea
Date of Scene:	08 August 2020
Location:	A vintage styled restaurant in NYC.
Synopsis:	Lorna and Peggy meet up and chat over bad coffee.
Cast of Characters:	Peggy Carter, Lorna Dane

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Peggy Carter has posed:
It wasn't the most popular of diners, a little too old fashioned with decades of patina on the walls, but it was one of the places still present from the first week Peggy moved to New York City in 1946. The automat rotating food cases were long gone, replaced by tired looking waitresses in out of date uniforms. But the old booths were kept clean, the juke box from 1956 still worked, and the coffee somehow tasted the same. Peggy loved it.

So, when an old friend told her she should meet someone, she suggested the place. It'd be less than crowded this time on a Saturday, no one listened too much to conversations there, and she could take her favourite old back booth. She's sitting there now, in a neat, dark green dress cut in a far more retro style than most modern tailors make. Her hair is set in it's usual soft vintage waves and the only thing to jar one from thinking possibly they are looking at an Edward Hopper painting is the modern day table that rests in front of Peggy. Idly skimming through news as she waits.

Lorna Dane has posed:
Lorna trusted when Logan had said that his old friend wasn't like the rest of the organization, filled with super spies and espionage and the alike.. Even if it still made her somewhat nervous. The green haired mutant shouldn't be, logically, she knew this, but perhaps that someone she trusted told her that it would be a good idea just made it more important in a sense.

The door chimed open, and in stepped the young Queen regent of Genosha. She was a public face, one that, if anyone followed the news they doubtlessly knew in some vague sense. Her ties to Magneto launched her into the spotlight whether she wanted to be or not.

Still she didn't look the part, if anything she looked like any other vague irritated twenty something with green hair. She wore a simple pair of blue jeans, a pair of black flip-flops, and matching T-shirt. Only the blazer with the rolled sleeves made the attempt to dress up her image.

A glance followed about the room, before her gaze landed on Peggy in the both she was told to go to, and she approached with a somewhat hesitant motion to her step. "Uhm.. hi." She blinked a beat, not entirely sure what to expect. "I'm Lorna. Did I get the right place?"

Peggy Carter has posed:
While Peggy definitely noticed Lorna the moment she came in, Peggy's doing her best to keep the young queen regent at comfort. And it gives her a chance to study Lorna when she's not 'in the spotlight'. So, Peggy keeps dark eyes on her tablet, waiting for the green haired woman to fully approach her table and speak before looking up. A smile blooms to life on her classic red, perfectly painted lips.

"Ms. Dane...Or, should I properly say 'Your Majesty'?" Peggy offers in clipped, respectful British tones, her accent still fully in tact despite decades in the US. She stands and offers her hand smoothly, with the confidence of someone who has been used to working with powerful politicians, men, and moguls of the world for years. She's elegantly curving beneath her old fashioned dress, but the peak of her arms says it's all muscle that fights back against what could be a pleasant plumpness. She's a weapon in a green wrap dress. Her smiles seems real, though. "You did get the right place. I know it's not...fancy, but I rather like it. I hope you don't mind."

Lorna Dane has posed:
A half way embarrassed look at being addressed by a title crosses the young woman's features as she caught herself, after all, she was technically correct. Even if Lorna tried to avoid it as much as possible. "Just Lorna.. I really enjoy the whole 'royal' title if I can avoid using it.." She shook Peggy's outstretched hand though politely. There was no overt challenge or sloppiness to it. Just one of careful politeness to match the relieved smile that crossed her expression as Peggy confirmed it was the right spot.

"No, it's fine, it's more than fine actually. I like little hole in the wall places. New York has a ton of them." She seemed to study the other woman, knowing that there had to be more to her if Logan of all people respected her. Even if she wasn't entirely sure what to make of the other woman.

"I miss normal little things more than I'd like to admit.." She offered softly as she made to sit down in the booth opposite of Peggy.

Peggy Carter has posed:
After that warm handshake and the general respect show by standing up when someone arrives, Peggy shifts smoothly back into the booth. It's in the far corner and her shoulders are against the wall, instinctively keeping her back protected at all times. She swipes closed the data pad in front of her and sets it aside, content to give her full attention to the young woman across from her. Her shoulders slightly relax, trying to project an air of calm ease to the entire conversation. She wasn't here to interrogate the woman. Her eyes, however, do study Lorna closely. Picking up on every little detail like the habitual profiler she is.

"This one hasn't really changed since 1946. The pie is always good. The coffee... Might be that old, but I still rather like it. And from what I read about you...I can guess it's a little difficult to get normal nowadays. So... tonight, why not you just be Lorna, and I'll be Peggy... and we can pretend life isn't horribly strange over all?" She asks with a slightly sardonic chuckle behind her clipped accent.

Lorna Dane has posed:
Lorna exhaled a laugh as she settled, relaxing as Peggy settled across from her and spoke of the simple things in life such as pie and coffee. Another glance was spared around the place, and she fell silent as she stretched her senses out, feeling through the whole place briefly before her focus returned to the table in front of her. "Electrical wiring is likely that old. Just judging.." She offered, and nodded that they remain just Lorna and Peggy for the evening.

"Considering I've been told to come talk to you by a guy that's older than my father and said he served with you way back? I'll take what I can get. My whole life is nothing but a series of strange happenings." She mused, and glanced at the plastic menu at the prices written out there.

"I am willing to bet they charge significantly more for a coffee today though." She added, a faint twitch of her lips following.

Peggy Carter has posed:
There's a few moments of silence that Peggy lets hang between her and the young woman. Deciding if this conversation should be casual small talk or, perhaps, dive so deep into the strange that everything seems on the table as normal. She takes a long sip of her awful coffee (coffee is allowed to be awful, tea is not, that is why Peggy only orders coffee here) and it seems she's decided by the time she sets it down, because she begins with a rueful smile.

"It cost a nickle when I first moved to this city... Hell, it's gone up since they threw me in a cryotube in 1985. Thirty years changes... everything. Eighty? Sometimes I wonder if it's the same city." Peggy admits quietly, but it's a small view into her own life. A show of trust, of sorts, beyond what Logan may have said. "So... if you wish to talk about strange, you will have no judgment here."

Lorna Dane has posed:
The metal weapons Lorna picked up on Peggy's personage were noted, but not of particular concern to the magnokinetic, and she didn't feel the need to remark on their presence either. She lifted her gaze from the menu to the coffee in Peggy's grip, and made to pause and flag down a server to order much the same. As well as a slice of the recommended pie. That handled, the green eyed woman turned her attention back to Peggy.

The fact that the woman had been iced for thirty some odd years was news, but not particularly the kind to raise shock either. Lorna knew too many crazy stories in her life to question it. So it too was accepted and she nodded thoughtfully.

"I'll be honest, Logan was his usual self in being vague other than.. well, you're a good leader. And he thinks highly of you. He didn't get into details, but he did say that you fought with the allies, and led people... and that you were a good person at the end of it all." She exhaled a breath.

"Which if all that is true, in a round about way, I wouldn't be alive without what you did. I guess."

Peggy Carter has posed:
There was a time in the world where Peggy Carter's face was one hard not to know. Evening news reports, press conferences, always involved with some world government clean up or other. But that was fifty years ago and a lot of US education system text books without much fondness of lauding women's accomplishments. Now, she can simply blend into her favorite old diner. Still, that smile turns a little bittersweet as she does realize that the girl honestly has no clue who she is, other than Logan's few words. It's both humbling and a bit relaxing. Her expression softens more, however, as Logan is discussed. She doesn't bother to hide the fact she's quite fond of him.

"That is all quite true. I started with the SOE at the beginning of the war, then moved onto the SSR, the organization responsible for Captain America. Logan worked with us on the same team as Steve Rogers and many of the best men I've met in my life. When the war ended... we kept working together to finish certain... Clean up. I could never completely convince him to join SHIELD, but he'd come do special projects for me and... I always knew I could rely on him." Something sadder touches her smile as she looks down to her coffee cup. "I thought he was...gone... just like the others... when he didn't make our usual meeting in 1985. I wish I'd searched for him harder..."

Peggy shakes off the thoughts. The old guilt. Those are things she needs to say to Logan, not the young woman across from her. "But... you didn't come here to hear about an old woman like me." Old, who still looks firmly in her thirties at the height of her health. "I cannot imagine being thrown into the life you have at your age. It...must be ... a lot, to say the least."

Lorna Dane has posed:
The young woman was attentive, raptly listening to what Peggy had to say even as the server quietly slid the pie and coffee at the table's edge and departed. She blinked in faint, startled amazement at all the things that the woman across from her had done. Logan hadn't said anything like it. Her wonder came from a thirst for knowledge about those bits of history she'd only studied about. Bits and pieces she'd collected from what little her father would tell her from his perspective. From the books and media that she'd grown up with... and from the tidbits about Steve that Wanda would tell her about now and then.

But it was all long ago history to her, despite the amount of people that had lived through it in her own life.

"I dunno, I can't imagine living through a World War and facing literally Nazis and all their horrors with little more than a pistol and a knife." She smiled, spooning a bit of sugar into her coffee and then carefully stirring it with a flick of her wrist. Her fingers alight with a faint glow of green.

"I dunno what your records have on my family, or my father more specifically, but he went through Auschwitz. It made him who he is. And sometimes I think he never truly left." Her smile faded, "What happened in Genosha was similar in scale, but not in length. And it's hard for me to think of seeing that level of destruction and death for over ten years."

Peggy Carter has posed:
The simple action of stirring her coffee gains Peggy's eyes, dropping to study that light from her fingers and the ease of her powers, just in the most normal of settings. Peggy doesn't look put off, more curious than anything, but she also doesn't comment on it. It'd be rude. The coffee is too strong but it's fresh and a little doctoring makes it drinkable. She listens attentatively, her own express just as interested as Lorna's was in her brief skimming of her own story.

"I read what bit we had on you, mainly current news reports, especially about the situation at Genosha." It seems Peggy doesn't like it any more than Lorna, a tightness coming to her jaw and a sharp, protective tint to her eyes. "...it shouldn't be happening at all, long or short. I'm... sorry you all went through that. I'd hoped we'd...stopped such things in the world. But even the scientists and nazis we thought we ended during the war... they're still rearing their ugly heads. Three decades I ran SHIELD, only to return to seeing the same problems the world always faced."

She clears her throat after a moment, trying to push back the exhaustion and touch of anger that still rears its head when she thinks about it. There's some spit fire beneath that calm, quietly British facade. "That being said... I think we're both fighting for the same things. Just in...very different times. But..." Her eyes lift to meet Lorna's quite directly, so the young woman can see how serious she's being, "If you find yourself in need of... more defense. Back up. Specialized assistance to... ensure the freedoms you fought for... You just call me. Or Logan. Frankly, both of us. We will be there."

Lorna Dane has posed:
If Lorna noticed Peggy's interest on her usage of powers, the green haired woman didn't remark on it either. She sipped at the coffee after a beat, but finding it far too hot to sip at for the moment, set it back down just as quickly. She reached for the pie instead and tested out a bite as she listened to Peggy's words. But she pause, lowering the fork, the conversation far too serious for pie at the moment.

"It's not your fault. People hate things that are different. Mutants are the newest thing to hate. Those Sentinels were built already and whether it was Brainiac that released them or someone else, it was a gun loaded and ready to be fired." She didn't say any of it with heat, not like her father.. but a sad acceptance. Tired.

Still, Peggy's offer to be there should she need it, earned a small smile and a nod. "Thank you. I know Logan has already said as much a few times." She exhaled a breath, "Even if it means dealing with my father. Who.. well, he will be returning eventually now. And I will be stepping down." Her smile pursed into a line of thought at that.

"And I am well aware that he is not well liked by a lot of people throughout the world."

Peggy Carter has posed:
Peggy's nose wrinkles just a moment at the thought of Lorna's father. "He is... not always wrong. But also not always...Right. Like most people, I find." She half smiles, "All the powers in the universe and still human. Flawed. I rather think that goes for all of us, frankly." Peggy takes another sip of her own coffee, far more accustomed to doing world-altering business over food than the young woman. This is just another day in the life.

"You are... young. You deserve a chance to be young. Not to have an entire world on your shoulders. Whether his return is...loved or not by world governments, it's not your responsibility to be his keeper. Granted, I suspect SHIELD would feel differently but... I'm here as a friend, not as... that right now." She lets her eyes fully meet Lorna's again, trying to be as open and honest as she can be. It's a challenge for a woman used to the dealings in the shadows. "Do you think he will do right by your people? That... peace can be maintained under him? And freedom??"

Lorna Dane has posed:
Lorna a smile crossed Lorna's features as Peggy spoke of her father and his faults. The 'human' comment would doubtlessly have been taken as an insult by the Master of Magnetism, but Lorna only nodded and she blew at little on her coffee mug and tried a hesitant sip. Still hot, but not sorching at least.

"I agree. He's a flawed man as many are." She mused, and at Peggy's words that she is young, a shrug and another bob of her head followed.

"I haven't had a chance to be me for a long time. My powers manifested, and then I was a member of the X-men. Then my father was in the picture.. and Genosha.. and well." She waved a hand toward herself. "I've been Queen for six months and it's hard. I don't really want to spend my whole life trying to keep together a fallen nation." She sighed, heavily. "I don't know what my father will do. His feelings, which I suspect will be outrage and anger.. aren't necessarily wrong. Whoever built those Sentinels will likely never see justice.. But I worry that he will do as he has in the past. I think he wants to do right by mutants.. but.." She shook her head.

"What he thinks is right isn't always right by other measures.."

Peggy Carter has posed:
And this was the hard part of her work. Staring into the young woman's eyes knowing, one day, she might have to give the order to kill her father. Or be on a team that tries to carry it out. Peggy listens quietly, lips set in a thin, slightly worried line. She doesn't interrupt, but lets the green haired mutant explain, as best she can, the unexplainable situation. Peg gives a little sigh in return, her head dipping in a small nod of understanding.

"...I... I know. From everything I read of his profile, everything we know. It...might get messy again. But I also know you aren't him and you want to do right by your people. That means... if you need help. Back up. No matter what... You call us, alright? Whether it's getting out of there. Or... taking control again. Or getting others out. You don't have to do this alone. And I'm certain Logan has told you all this before and... that's half the reason he wanted us to meet. Because it's not just mutants taking care of mutants. There's a lot of us out there who'd fight for you to have your own life."

Lorna Dane has posed:
Another sip of the diner coffee followed, and the mug was lowered back to the table. Lorna wrapped both her hands around the mug, looking thoughtful as she rolled over Peggy's words, as well as what went unsaid. "I have promised that I will do what I can to talk him down from anything.. if I can. And I know that there comes a certain responsibility with sharing his powers." She didn't need to say what that responsibility was, but then again, she didn't truly have to either. It was why she'd started to train with Logan, and likely just one of the many reasons Logan had suggested she talk to Peggy too.

"Not in as many words, but yeah.. Logan did. I know a lot of people will support whatever I decide to do. Just as I know a lot hinged on what my father will do. Alliances.. Genosha's standing in the world. The diplomatic relations. The way people view us.. the lives of the refugees.. There's so much at stake. And I'm just sitting here thinking, that it would be so nice to just walk away from it. To give my father control back and let him be.. But.." She shook her head.

"Nice things don't always happen either."

Peggy Carter has posed:
The expression across Peggy's features, for a moment, reflects just how old she is. A sad, exhausted smile, that knows all too well the truth of Lorna's words and yet aches to hear the young woman say them. Fifty years of fighting such things, seeing the same, awful situation time and again. Peggy just gives her a slow nod and, if the girl permits, reaches over to rest her fingertips for just a moment across the back of Lorna's hand. Peggy isn't much of a toucher but, sometimes, people deserve more than cold words over too hot coffee.

"No.. they don't always. But knowing you aren't alone helps... sometimes. Having a team and people at your back. And, sometimes, just people to listen to what shite it is that life is like this. You've got that too. I didn't come here as a SHIELD operative or...government official. I came because an old friend I trust with my life... cares about you. And that means whatever you think needs done, we'll get it done. But...it also means, if you need to just talk... Or scream, or throw down on a mat for a while to be angry at the world... You can call me too. I'm still, technically, mostly retired." Her smile turns wry, "So... I've got far more freedom to handle my own time as I wish. You will not be a bother, I promise."

Lorna Dane has posed:
Lorna glanced up from her overly hot coffee to Peggy at the gentle touch, and a soft smile returned to expression. "Yeah.. it's not easy, but having people around dragged me through the worst. Even if at the time I didn't want to be dragged out of it." She exhaled a breath.

"And honestly having a chance to talk to you as just Logan's friend is nice... for all the amazing things you've done.. I'd rather that than an agency for a super secret spy agency you know." Her voice ticking upward with a dry sort of amusement.

"I also think I get a little of why Logan respects you so much too. He was right.. you're a good person."

Peggy Carter has posed:
That last comment earns Lorna a rather classic smirk, "I wouldn't push it that far. I'm still a person... none of us really gets to good. We just keep trying. But...your pie is looking horribly neglected, I should actually eat something, and maybe we can take ten minutes to talk about things that aren't world ending possibilities. You know...what normal people build friendships upon. Or so I'm told." Peggy deadpans that last but, but she's good to her word.

The last bit of the night is spent in relaxing conversation. Talk about how styles have changed, how did she *actually* get her hair that green, how impossible it is to work with 'the boys' sometimes... And things that, for a few moments, can make it all seem not so bad after all.