10607/Chow Time

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Chow Time
Date of Scene: 01 January 2020
Location: Dining Hall, Avengers Mansion
Synopsis: The Captains discuss life, friends, and SPACE.
Cast of Characters: Captain America, Captain Marvel (Danvers)




Captain America has posed:
Outside beyond the windowpanes of the dining hall, the snow has stopped settling. It's a breath between sheets of drifting white fluffs. Every surface is covered in a thin glaze of the stuff and surely black ice will be an issue come morning. For now, those in the mansion are warm and cozy, content to spend their evenng how they desire.

For Steve, in an Army-green hoodie and dark jeans, his feet bare but for thick white-thermal boot-socks, it's taking a seat at the grand piano in the corner of the dining hall and idly playing at chords. It's not really a song, though snippets of familiar tunes show here and there; it's more like feeling out the correct progression for whatever memory floats through his mind. On a plate settled atop the piano's closed lid, a half-finished serving of leftovers from the last holiday gathering.

No, not Thanksgiving, those leftovers are long-gone. This is turkey and green chile enchiladas with Spanish rice. His drink, most likely hot cocoa by the scent of it, is on a dining chair pulled close to the piano bench rather than on the lid itself. Steve frowns down at the keys and tries another position of left-hand fingers.

Oh ouch, that was painfully flat.

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
"Oh lord," Carol laughs, walking sideways into the room with her hands full of her own dinner plate, "Glen Miller eat your heart out."

Her tone is one of good-natured ribbing as she heads over to the table and sets her plate down at the head of it. She doesn't tuck in immediately, instead leaving it there and moving over towards the piano. She pats the man on his shoulder good naturedly, leaning down to give him a friendly peck on the check from behind before moving back towards the table.

"How're things?" she asks, back to Steve as she walks back to the dining table and sets down at it, "Feels like we haven't caught up in months." A pause, before she mutters to herself, "Might actually have been months."

Captain America has posed:
Carol gets a twinkling glance over his broad shoulder at her initially commentary. "More like, roll over in your grave," he mutters, equally-good natured by the small smile just threatening dimples on his face. The Captain plays a few more quiet chords while Carol greets and settles herself.

"Feels like months, not sure if it's actually been months." Then, spunky and bright, he begins a rather accurate rendition of Joplin's 'The Entertainer'. Merrily, it flows along...

...until Steve hits a very deliberate and hard THUNK of a flat chord in dry humor.

"Better eat something before I wake the dead with anything else," he quips. With plate and drink collected, he pulls up a chair beside Carol. "Things're peaceful as they can be with the state of the world. Barnes seems happy enough, same with Janet. Tony's doing better'n last time I checked on him. Figure him having to get his social nicities planned is a good distraction." He forks up a biteful of turkey enchilada and glances over at Carol. "What about you? You look as bright, spic 'nd span as a new penny."

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
Carol nods her head as she hears the brief run-down on what is happening with the other Avengers. She doesn't tuck into her food, instead she balances the fork between thumb and forefinger and turns it idly through the air. When it's all followed up with a compliment, she laughs.

"I do?" Carol asks, lifting the flat of her palm up to her hair and tilting her head back and face upwards with a smile like a pin-up girl, "I've been working marginally less. Maybe that has something to do with it? Doctor Fairchild's the new assistant director for Alpha Flight - she's got a real mind for logistics. Something that I avoid like the plague, so it works out well."

Her eyebrows raise, and she points the fork at Steve before lowering it down to the plate: "Speaking of festivities. I'm all set for Tony's party tomorrow. Cleared out my schedule and everything. Break out the non-alcoholic cider."

Captain America has posed:
Steve grins to see the young woman preen. That's precisely what he meant to do, engender such a display of self-confidence in his friend. He nods familiarity in passing with Fairchild. Half of an enchilada is gone in a few blinks. He breaks in eating to sip at the cocoa and savor the interplay of spice to sweetness.

"Cleared out your schedule? That's a minor miracle in itself. I'll have to send Doctor Fairchild a thank-you note for being a part of it." He gives Carol another small grin. "We'll have everything for everyone, including non-alcoholic beverages. Cider's not half-bad. Now, question is, what apple makes the better cider? Best I ever tasted was one half golden, one half honeycrisp: sweet 'n tart." His own fork makes an appearance again to knowingly point towards Carol in mirror of her earlier gesture.

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
"It's not so hard once you say, 'I won't be available between this time and that time, so make due without me.' They grumble and mutter about it, but in the end there's not a whole lot they can do. I'm starting to realize I probably need to spend a little more time being me instead of my public image."

Carol sets about eating as Steve speaks, occasionally looking up to nod her head or murmur an affirmation as she does. Despite the dire lack of table manners in her household growing up, she nevertheless waits until she's finished her mouthful before she speaks up.

"You'll have to go a bit further north than where I'm from to get genuine opinions on apples," she offers with faux sadness, shaking her head, "All I know is that you don't pronounce the 'r' and the alcoholic kind made good drinking when it was sunny out. I'll defer to your better judgement."

A pause, and then she adds, "I've actually got something I need to tell you. Sometime in the next couple of months, I'm gonna head back out into space. Not for long just ... I don't know. There's weird rumblings out there. I feel like I ought to take a look."

Captain America has posed:
"My better judgement," the man echoes and then laughs, amused of his temporary role assigned of 'cider jury'. He shakes his head and looks back down at his plate, intending to dismantle the other three enchiladas sitting in their pile of sauce. One partially divulges its steaming innards at his fussing, but his conquest doesn't continue for long. He too pauses to listen to the addition.

Carol gets a look she's probably seen often enough from the Captain: a patient if keen attention, one not overly-weighty and yet inescapable. His fork unwatched twirls tines down in his serving of food before he replies quietly, "I trust your gut. Figure you can keep up sitrep while out there or we looking at spartan updates?"

Captain Marvel (Danvers) has posed:
"I can keep up," Carol says reassuringly, shaking her head, "As long as I'm in signal range, I want to know what's going on. It's a long way out there, but I've still got some tricks up my sleeves - I don't feel comfortable using them, but I can still play the Binary card when I need to. Instant wormhole travel."

She winces a little at the thought. Her memories of that time of her life are not the most pleasant - recently robbed of her memories and her powers, leaving Earth and the Avengers behind to keep the universe safe.

"I'm taking some people with me, too," she adds, "Rogue. Doctor Fairchild. I'm going to ask Sif, too. I figure we can be the - I don't know - Avengers space detachment or whatever you want to call it. Least for a little while."

Captain America has posed:
"That's a good crew. Regular updates'd be preferred if you're within signal range. If not, we'll assume you'll get one to us one way or another. If we need you, we'll send a pigeon," the man says blithely.

Interstellar space pigeons, of course.

"For now though, I bet..." Steve collects up a forkful of enchilada. "...that Tony's going to arrive between band break number two and three, because four'd be too late and arriving smack at the start of the party's too polite." Finger-quotations included here along with a friendly laugh. It's a bet between friends, worth ribbing the party host later over. All in all, Steve finds himself happier to share a plate of food with a teammate and, more importantly, a friend.