Owner Pose
Peggy Carter It's late. Somewhere in the hour before midnight, but Peggy took a long shift today with a few long range missions out that she wanted to be here to make certain they returned. However, nothing is going wrong. She's simply sitting alone at the Triskelion. Alone and hungry. The challenge is she's not certain WHAT she's craving. So, she took a trip to the food court. Only, it's mostly closed this time of night. She's got nothing but scraps from there.

She took her tray to the rec room and also hit the vending machines. Now she's got an entire table full of various snacks, desserts, salty things, juices, pickles... And she's not eating one of them. She's just staring. Glaring.
Natasha Romanova Natasha Romanoff is currently playing her way through some sort of shuffling trick over in the rec room. It involves her having a large deck of cards which she would be rapidly darting from hand to hand in a rapid shuffle, going fast enough that the almost plastic levels of paper seemed to be causing friction in the air as the cards would be moving faster than the eye could follow. Her glancing at Peggy from her position sitting, "Ma'am."
Darcy Lewis Darcy quietly sits down across from Peggy at the table. She has a tablet in her hand with images from the JWST that she is loving. But also she is loving the crisis the director seems to be experiencing. She raises an eyebrow and tucks her feet up underneath her on the chair. Most people tend to be afraid of the director but.. Darcy is Darcy.

"You're spoilt for choice, that's the problem. It'd be easier if I took a bunch of them away and left you with only one thing. Then you'd be either disappointed, resigned, or happy," she muses to the director.
Cael Becker     The door to the Rec Lounge is shoved open and Cael enters - her recently-dyed hair sporting hues of green, blue, and purple dyed into the lower levels of her blonde hair. She wears a simple pair of jeans, with boots, a leather jacket, and a shirt with a picture of fox surrounded by the words 'I have zero' above the image, and 'to give' below it.
    She starts directly for the coffee pot on one side of the lounge, without so much as a glance around - pulling a mug out of the cupboard, pouring the black, strong brew into it, and adding a generous splash of whiskey from a flask in an inner pocket of her jacket.
Peggy Carter "...Accurate. I know I want *something*, I just don't know... What. And Daniel out on a mission. He always knows, but I can't exactly call the quin jet to ask my husband what this child is craving. So..." Peggy gives a little huff, poking at a bag of crisps in consideration. Her nose wrinkles. "Take it. Whatever you want. SOMEONE, at least, should eat some of this. I made the poor chef heat up cherry pie. I don't even LIKE cherry pie..."

She sighs and flops back in her seat, trying to draw one leg up onto the chair with her but belly is now round enough to be getting in the way, so her knee bends and her leg tucks off to the side. She's in slacks today, so she can do that, ones with the waist fully let out and a slouchy sweater to try and hide how round she's getting. It doesn't work. She gives Natasha and Cael a brief nod, "Please... eat away. I want none of it. Everyone. Eat."
Natasha Romanova Natasha Romanoff would glance over at Peggy, "Ma'am." Then to the others now seeming to not break ehr efforts over with the cards. Them shuffling faster and faster now. A flick sending them somehow up one sleeve, the entire deck, then out the other sleeve. The cards shuffling over rapidly, the cheap plastic on them seeming to almost burn from the friction. Natasha's fingers putting them down on the table rapidly with a silent slam, broken over by her yanking out a knife to cut the deck down the middle, then yanking the cards up once more.
Darcy Lewis Darcy smirks. Permission granted. She picks up the crisps and munches on the salty deliciousness. "At any time, when you see someone taking one of the things - feel free to say stop and you'll know what it is you wanted to eat," she says and looks over to Natasha with the cards. Her attention is drawn then to Cael and she grins a moment at the top.

Darcy was giving a presentation today so she's wearing business pants, a black blouse, and business jacket that is undone. She manages to look very casual in professional clothing. "Is it true that you can throw a playing card at a man's throat from 50 yards away and kill him?," she asks Natasha.. no one ever told her that rumour, but the best rumours are started with denial or confirmation.
Cael Becker     It seems to take Cael a moment to even register that others were in the room - so intent is she on her task. She lifts the coffee to her lips, taking a sip before offering a nod of greeting to those present. Peggy even gets a reasonably polite, "Hello, ma'am." She takes a sip of her coffee again before adding, "Anyone can learn to throw cards with enough practice. It's pretty fun, actually - and makes an impressive parlor trick with most any crowd."
    She'd used it many times on some of the gangs she'd been associating with - depending on what job she'd been working at the time.
Peggy Carter A little chuckle escapes Peggy's lips as Darcy asks Natasha that. She doesn't answer, it wasn't a question for her, but she is gently amused by the possibility. She finally leans forward and picks up that cherry pie. Something in her had wanted it or she wouldn't have asked for it. She idly stabs the fork at it, trying a bite. Her expression doesn't sour. Maybe it will satsify the craving tonight. She tries a second bite.

"Agent Becker. Good to see you." She also gives Darcy a slight nod as the woman comments about stopping her take the food. Peggy motions with her plate. She's seemingly made her decision. If she is content with it, that's yet to be seen.
Natasha Romanova Natasha Romanoff would just as cleanly continue to shuffle the deck, darting the cleaved halves of the cards back and forth, shuffling them out the 'other' sleeve now, somehow all of the cards comingo ut fully intact,e ven with the small friction burns still on them.

"That's classified, Agent. Further inquiries will be noted on your permanent record for pursuit of data above your access level." Apparently she did have a sense of humor.
Cael Becker     "And you, ma'am," Cael agrees. After another sip, her gaze lands on a slice of kugel - one of the random things the Chief had managed to acquire in her forray into the food court. "Would you mind?" she asks - taking up the plate, and snagging a spoon to eat it with as well, once Peggy responds. She slices into it, looking at the food on her spoon and letting out a quiet, "Amazing what you can do with noodles, isn't it?" before she takes her first bite.
    Mmm. Not bad at all.
Darcy Lewis Darcy lifts an eyebrow at Natasha and then smiles a little bit. "Fine, no fancy pictures from out of space for you then Miss Scary Avenger," she remarks and turns off the tablet with the photos of distant stars. It's all public domain though. It may not be Natasha's thing after all.

"Spawn of Carter likes pie. A good choice," she remarks about the pie roughly toward Peggy's belly. "When you're old enough Auntie Scary Avenger will teach you to cut cards and get you kicked out of every casino in America, yes she will..."
Peggy Carter There's a wry smile from Peggy as Natasha gives that answer about the cards. She shakes her head slowly, holding one hand up in innocence to the other agent. "I can't reveal classified data from agent records, sorry. There is a reason it's classified." Peggy gives Nat a bit more of a grin and then forces another bite of cherry pie past her lips. No. It's not the right thing. "Spawn of Carter does *not* like pie, it seems." She sighs and gives up, putting the plate with the half eaten slice back on the table.

Then the Kugel is stolen, and Peggy dips her head with assent, "No, no, please. Someone needs to eat all this food or I can hear Daniel's mother lecturing me from her grave. Oh gosh... Maybe I want a scone..." She sighs, looking down to her stomach, "*YOU* are impossible, child. Utterly impossible. And don't get any ideas about cards, you'll give your father a heart attack."
Natasha Romanova Natasha Romanoff would just give a smile over to Darcy, "Remember Agent, there can be consequences for things. And thank you. I'm quite happy ehre dirt-bound unless duty calls me elsewhere." there were too many stars in the universe and planets. Natasha was rather happy being attached over to this one.
    "And it's nice to have my abilities recognized." She would grin at the Boss.
Cael Becker     "If you knock on Blackwood and Sims' door - they probably have scones," Cael directs towards Peggy. "And I know Sims is still up," she adds, without clarifying //how// she knows it. But she seems completely confident in the fact. "They also have," and here she makes a face, "...'clotted' cream. God. No food should have 'clotted' in the name. That's just so-" She's had this conversation a half dozen times before with Jon, so she stops herself there.
    "...how much of my own file has ended up classified?" she adds in a thoughtful, musing voice.
Darcy Lewis Darcy slides the plate of half eaten pie over to her side of the table. "Helping," she says innocently to Peggy. Her eyes widen a moment as Natasha speaks of consequences. She turns in her seat and leans an arm against the back of the chair.

"Are you threatening to teach me how to throw playing cards so fast they can cut a mans jugular?," Because a look of pure morbid curiosity flashes across her face. "Don't play with my heart, there's only so many promised assassination techniques that never come through a girl can take."

The pie is attacked with spoon and she nods to Cael, "Noodles are amazing. All blessings to their noodly appendages on the far side of the sun," the pie goes in her mouth and she shrugs, "No matter how hard you try, Spawn of Carter will inevitably choose the superior coffee over tea. Not even scones can save you."

Darcy gives Cael a dead pan stare, "Clotted cream? that.. does not sound like the sort of thing that should have escaped from a laboratory."
Peggy Carter A little groan escapes her lips as clotted cream is mentioned. For the sheer fact that she DOESN'T have that here, that's exactly what she wants. "Oh... Scones with clotted cream. You stop with that heresy, clotted cream is a gift from the gods and I might have to demand some from Sims right this very moment if I could get out of this chair. But my back and feet have decided this chair is home now." It is nearly midnight. All of her is swollen. She should be going to bed but, instead, she's flopped in this chair and picking at a dozen pieces of junk food that aren't the clotted cream she wants.

The Darcy is given a good glare and a deep smirk, "That's worse than slagging clotted cream. Half Portuguese or not, this child will NOT be a coffee drinker. I swear to god. Michael turned into a coffee drinker but that was just to spite me. I've learned my lessons since then!" She laughs, and then gives a little grunt, hand going to her side. It seems the kid has things to say about that.
Natasha Romanova Natasha Romanoff would glance at Darcy, "A playing card is a poor thrown weapon. While you -can- use it as that, it's incredibly inefficient to do so and has a very low probability of being effective, even at close range. At least if one is using a normal deck. There are some which are designed for it, butthose tend to be more weighted so they have more balance and less of an issue with launching. A playing card -is- however an effective close range weapon against someone unrepapred if you can get an edge against their jugular." She would go to take a card and mime holoding it to slash across someone's throat like a knife. "It requires being able to use the 'edge' of it which can be difficult." Apparently you could papercut someone to death.
Cael Becker     Cael smirks in amusement at Peggy and Darcy as she clarifies, "It's actually delicious. It's just... unfortunately named. I insist on calling it just 'cream' - and Jon and Martin give me a little shit over it. But- ugh. I wouldn't be able to get it past my lips otherwise."
    She takes another bite of the kugel before asking curiously, "What is this stuff even called? I wonder if Jon can learn how to make it," she m uses in a thoughtful voice.
Darcy Lewis Darcy grins a moment and leans forward to talk to Peggy's Belly, "Yes Coooofffeeeee delicious cofffeeee." She looks back to Peggy and then eats more of the crisps. Her eyes turn back to Natasha as she learns more about the ways one can kill with playing cards than she even thought she would.

"I should warn you, I've been told my tone of speech leads to misunderstandings. I am almost always sarcastic. However, if you happen to have some weighted sharp throwing cards on hand I would not say no to a gift."

Even the 'However' should be taken with deep skepticism from Darcy. Though, there is a change in her tone as she offers to Peggy with a slightly lowered volume, "I could go get some from her if she's awake." Because being pregnant is no fun. Which coincidentlly is why Darcy has never done it.
Peggy Carter "Paper cutting someone to death is not an approved defensive technique by SHIELD training, Romanoff. Don't give the young ones any ideas." Peggy cracks a tired smile in the older, experienced Avenger's direction. No matter how formal Natasha is, the Chief seems earnestly fond of the woman. And to trust her, despite the defector agent thing.

Dark eyes then turn back to what Cael's stabbing with a fork. "Kugel. It's Jewish. Sweet dessert noodles and egg. It's... strange, but hearty food. I thought maybe it'd put me to sleep. But... no joy." So, she pulls open a package of biscuits instead. Maybe that will satisfy the itch. Darcy's gets a glare, a look that could KILL, as she tells Peggy's stomach about coffee. She rubs against that side where the faint kicks had just come, "You know, I can reassign you to the moon, Lewis. Or maybe just Siberia. No tempting this kid with coffee." From the look on Peggy's face, she is gently miserable. It's no fun and the baby is keeping her awake far too much. She could fall asleep in this chair right now, but she (or maybe the baby) is being stubborn.
Natasha Romanova Natasha Romanoff would smile, "Well yes Chief Carter, but if they don't know what is and isn't possible, then they'll try it out for themselves. And anything can be used in desperation as a self defense measure. Everything is a weapon. Shoelaces. Boot. Collar. First aid kit. One uses everything available when they need to." Natasha's perspective on things might be different than normal SHIELD procedures.

"And I do have some but not on me. Give me some time to get anotehr set ready. I will expect you to practice though and show me you can do it." Natasha would, however, move to take ou ta normal throwing card, still somewhat smoky and warped from the shuffling.. And flick it wiht a hand..
    Where it would fly through the air ina n arc, embedding itself a centimeter or so into the wall.
Cael Becker     "I'm particularly fond of chairs as weapons," Cael remarks in a deadpan voice, before taking another bite of her treat. "Kugel, huh?" she repeats in a thoughtful tone.
    "You know - tea's not bad, but I'm with Lewis here. Coffee's much better." Cael sets aside her plate for a moment, so she can take up her mug again - taking a slow sip from it as she stands leaning back against the counter.
Darcy Lewis Darcy's lips press together a moment, "Try to do something nice and this is the thanks ya get." She finishes off the crisps and reorients herself to deal with the pie. "I suppose it depends which bit of the Moon. The shiny Justice League base would be neat."

She is incorrigible. It's a good thing she takes life seriously when it matters - but any other time? not so much. She nods enthusiastically to Natasha, "I'll practice every day." She smiles and then glances at the dessert Cael is destroying.

"Did you know there's a stone henge in Siberia - possibly the oldest astronomy observation left standing in the world," she says and then adds, "But too cold. You win this round Director of SHIELD." She wins every round, that's kinda the point of being director.

"I'm sure the Asgardians have a crazy solution for not being able to sleep when pregnant. It probably involves a heavy hammer and smashing things while howling at the sky throat singing." Facetiously she then asks Peggy, "Have you tried that?"
Peggy Carter "Spoon... the spoon is always the classic self defense weapon. Nobody expects the spoon." Peggy mutters drowsily, with the wisdom of years as a spy who probably has killed someone with a spoon before. She pops one more biscuit past her lips, casually talking about surprise murder over sweets like it matters nothing. But it's one of those nights.

Her eyes then press shut against the exhaustion she is feeling. She might have to throw in the towel soon. For now, she's still upright. She groans gruns out a bit of laugh as Darcy mentions the the Asgardians possibly having a fix. "I'll make certain to bother *Thor* the next time this kid decides it's time to pull an all nighter. I haven't asked yet. I also don't know that throat singing would be *worth* it... "
Natasha Romanova Natasha Romanoff would give a wave to Peggy, "Good luck handling things, Chief Carter. I'm sure that like many things, that which cdoes not break you will make you stronger." The Russian woman making a good natured smile over at things, and going to set up and over to collect her things. "And thank you for the late night conversation. It was amusing." She would nod in passing to each of the others.
Cael Becker     "Well then," Cael remarks as she takes up her plate of kugel and spoon once more. "I'm well prepared to take the lout of you out, if some unforseen need were to occur." There's dry humor in her voices as she brandishes her 'weapon' before taking another bite.
    "Are you standing in quarters here at the Triskelion tonight, ma'am?" she adds with a hint of concern, as she notes just how drowsy the woman is becoming. Probably best not to let your boss just pass out in the Rec Room - even if she is pregnant.
Darcy Lewis Darcy pauses as she notes the way Peggy is approaching sleepstage. She slides her chair back and rises. "She has the fancy quarters don'tcha know?," she comments to Cael and smiles. Darcy has never been in Peggy's quarters - it's an assumption.

"But, you're going to fall asleep if you stay here Peggy, so let's get you back to your place and in to bed," she says and comes to Peggy's side offering her hands, "I've got you." She says with a small nod. The nod is the tell - since her voice is always hard to read her body language says a lot.
Peggy Carter There is instinctive stubbornness in Peggy to fight it, stay awake just because she said she would. But as both the younger agents seem to indicate that it's best she go back to her quarters, she sighs deeply. "I... yes. I should stay here. Who knows when Daniel will be back." Peggy admits softly. She unfolds the one leg that she pulled up. She reaches one hand to Darcy and accepts the hand up out of the chair. "And we have normal size quarters, like everyone else. I'm not that kind of boss." Peggy admits with a little chuckle. "You both get sleep as well, you hear? Morning comes far too quickly. But, if you are awake, when the Quinjet lands... someone tell Daniel that I went to bed." With that, she'll accept the help back towards her quarters. She is half asleep by the time they get there and gives a surprisingly gentle thanks before she disappears into the private room.