2016-01-12 Break Time
This scene is rated Everybody
Warning: N/A
2016-01-12
Players: Lissandra, Mike, Natasha, Peggy Carter
GMed by Who GMed?
Title: Break Time

With the chaos of the world and the busy nature of those tied to Avengers tower, sometimes there is need for a break. Sometimes an outside force is what makes the break happen. Regardless of the reason, a recently non Sorceror Supremed Avenger has ventured from his usual routine of work, sleep, study, practice, work, work. Seated at the piano of the commons room, there is a trickle of the keys as the gentle melody of Lady Grinning Soul fills the room with surprisingly good acoustics. Mike doesn't sing, but simply plays as a cup of hot tea with honey rests on a square ledge of piano.

With the most recent discoveries in Pennsylvania, most of SHIELD has been working almost around the clock. But there is only so much gristle and traumatic horror that one can take before minds begin to crack, so Peggy's ordered people on time off, going in shifts, all this week. At least one full day off per person. The back side of this is that someone on staff mentioned that she probably should follow those orders too, she'd been with the team that discovered it and was processing reports since, not to mention regular visits to the airlock where the bodies were being stored. So, at least for tonight, she's forcing herself to take time off. She's still in one of her signature, somewhat old fashioned suits, her hair stylishly curled and make up mostly hiding the exhaustion as she steps into the room. She arches a brow at the music, listening, but not interrupting.

Natasha was already in the commons area. She'd come here to meet a couple of the techs who work for the Avengers and Stark Industries. They were going to show her some prototypes for the new sidearm that she'd requested based on her feedback from the previous version that she'd been assigned. It was a less-than-lethal handgun and it now had an improved grip and a more balanced weight across its housing, as Natasha had requested. So, she and the two techs were in one of the seating areas a bit away from the piano allowing it to servce as nice background noise but not interrupt their discussion about the weapon.

It's not a long excerpt. With the lack of vocals, Mike opts for the shorter version. When the fingers hit their last chord, the musician's feet shift to mute the notes, preventing the sound to just die away on it's own. As Natasha's discussion becomes the primary source of sound for the room. Mike takes a moment to pick up his tea for a sip.

A quiet bit of applause is given in Mike's direction, Peggy tilting her head in silent approval to the show of talent she didn't quite expect. "That was lovely." Peggy murmurs in his direction, not wishing to interrupt Natasha, so her quiet British voice is a more gentle clip than her normal commanding tone.

Natasha was seated on the edge of her chair and she was holding the new design for the weapon atop the fingertips of both of her hands, turning it over and feeling the weapon's sleek design. When the piano music stopped the two technicians with her also offered claps to Mike, but Nat was lost in through to even notice the music had stopped. She sat the weapon down back inside of its foam-molded case and she slid it back toward them. "You guys did a great job. It really is an impressive little gun now." She said to them with a soft smile. "Its a shame they're so damn expensive to make or the NYPD might even be interested in them." The tech girl nodded several quick times and went on a bit of a rapid-talking-rant about the resins and materials used to make the guns and ideas on how to lower costs with 3d printing… Natasha just quietly listened and watched, unaware that Peggy had even arrived behind her.

Peggy 's comm unit beeps. She mutters a slight curse and steps aside, murmuring in the corner

Finishing his sip, Mike lowers the cup to glance towards Peggy's direction, giving a nod. "Thanks," He replies, voice a bit off from his usual tone. Perhaps a little sore, "Figured he could use a send off of sorts." He glances towards the techs how offer a bit of applause before looking curiously to whatever it is Natasha's doing. He doesn't intrude however as she seems very pulled into whatever she's reviewing. They've all had periods like that after all. He turns back, flexing his fingers before going into another song. Once again without singing.

The sounds of 'As the World Falls Down' starts up.

Natasha smiled faintly at the young tech woman who was ranting about all of that and when she finally seemed to reach a stopping point Nat stood up and reached over the small table to shake both of their hands. She picked up the gun's container, closed it and latched it and handed it back to them. "When you have them made for me, just let me know, we'll test fire them in the range." She told the both of them and then the group split up and the techs moved toward one of the elevator exits to press the call button. Natasha exhaled softly and reached her right hand up to place it on the back of her neck beneath her shoulder-length red hair and she turned around then to see that Peggy had entered the area, but seemed occupied on the phone. She looked over to see Mike still on the piano and she admired his skill now, hearing it for the first real moment now.

As Mike starts nearing the end of the song, his face gradually shifts to one of discomfort as he quietly swallows. Unlike the previous song, he allows for the notes to die away on their own accord. When they cease he turns his head away from the keys and brings an arm up, coughing twice into the bend of his elbow. He visibly relaxes his posture as he reaches over for his tea once more. "Do you ever take a break from work, Nat?"

Well, she was going to TRY and take a night off. But comms are always on and the director is, deep down, quite tied to her job. So it's another few minutes before she finishes that quiet discussion, but apparently it wasn't bad enough that she needed to dash away. She sighs and touches the light indent of her comm button to shut it off before turning on the ball of her foot and returning to the group. Hearing Mike's words, and seeing the business Natasha just finished with, the red lipped director smirks just a touch. "If she doesn't soon, I'm going to order her a mandatory day off like the rest of tech and the units that went on Friday night."

Natasha seemed to enjoy the sound of the piano, but when it stopped and that question was posed to her she just smirked. When Peggy chimed in before a response could be given she looked over at the director and showed a half-cocked grin. "I spent two hours in the gym this morning. That doesn't really count as work, does it?" She asked. "I… uh… went out and purchased some new clothing the other day too." She paused. "Wait, that was two months ago."

Mike chuckles as Natasha negates her own argument against him. He shakes his head. "I guess we could excuse Gym part." The musician allows, turning away from the piano to look to the ladies, "That's not really something you can just drop for awhile. But even bodybuilders have an off day each week." He pauses to take a sip of his tea.

A long moment passes, Peggy arching a brow skeptically in Natasha's direction. "No. That does not count. Seriously, Romanova, take a day. More clothing shopping. Go get a massage. Something. You can put it on the company card." Then she's gazing over to Mike, studying what emotions she can make out of his face, how fresh or exhausted he seemed. Even if she came to take the night off, Peggy is still checking on her people. It's habit. "And you, Hannigan? When was the last time you took off?"

"He takes off all the time." Natasha said then to the Director with a slight smirk as she sat down on the back of a sofa and put her hands into her black leather coat pockets. "He literally walked into his closet the other day and I think he transported himself to Narnia. I could smell the Evergreens." She said, sweeping her gaze over to Mike with a small grin on her lips. "Besides, I hear playing the piano is relaxing. So I assume he must be doing okay."

"Canada actually," Mike replies, voice still slightly off as he sets the tea back down, "I had a film shoot up there that couldn't be rescheduled and I couldn't very well tell them I was busy with my other jobs." He gives a tired smile, nodding to Natasha's point about the piano. "Oh yeah, Strange healed up so I'm no longer babysitting his job anymore. So, don't expect for me to be using any closet doors to go visit any talking Lions."

The strange discussion of Mike's travels just makes Peggy blink, genuinely a hint confused, especially about the talking lions bit. "If we're dealing with talking Lions, I think we have even more problems than HYDRA right now." Peggy dead pans, half joking, but she's not all that good these days at being light hearted. She's trying. Waiting another moment or two to ensure that her comm isn't going to go off again, she then exhales a slow breath and nods to herself, "…Shall I make us all tea?" She offers smoothly, the offer achingly British coming from her. Some old habits die hard.

Natasha just sat there on the back of a leather sofa that faced away from the piano that Mike had been playing on momnets ago. She had her hand stuffed inside the pockets of a slim fit black leather jacket and she was smirking at something that the both of them had said, Peggy and Mike. "Strange finally came back and took all his toys back, did he?" She teased Mike lightly. "That must be kind of… strange… not having all those powers at your disposal all of the sudden. Pun, entirely intended." She said with a light smirk.

Mike tilts his cup to see how much tea he has left, considers before giving a nod to Peggy. "Could you bring back a bit o' honey with the tea as well?" He manages to sneak in a bit of a variable Irish-American accent in to his response as he looks over to Natasha smirking, "He can keep them for all I care. I HATED the gig."

"Sure thing." Peggy then pads across the room smoothly, her stride still all business even if she's heading for the kitchette and the kettle there in. Natasha will probably get tea whether she likes it or not. "I'm still waiting for a report about all that, Hannigan. By Monday, yes? Gives you plenty of time." Peggy calls from the kitchen, some of that command behind her clipped voice for the sheer fact she's speaking across the apartment. "And I'm curious how the new gun turned out, Natasha. Satisfied?"

Lissandra was ordered to stay off duty for two days. And she wasn't doing anything /official/, she was just working on that 'other' project in Maryland when Peggy called and ordered her to come here. Then didn't answer Lissandra's return calls. Something must be afoot. So she lands her quinjet on the roof and heads down. When she wheels in and spots Peggy, she gives a little wave and remarks, "You know, Boss, it's generally bad form to order someone to take time off and then order them to…" She glances around at the state of the folks in the room, the music being played and Peggy making tea and her head drops with a smirk… "Oh, I see what you did there."

"It will likely be heavily redacted by the time it gets to you." Mike calls back towards Peggy, making no promises to the content of the report as he's already starting back up with the piano, the remnants of his initial tea sitting on piano board again. "Different Jurisdiction. Even more red tape than the whole of earth has even seen." The talk does not match up with the music being played.

Natasha hadn't specifically mentioend wanting tea, but she wouldn't turn it down if brought to her either. "The weapon is nice." She replied to Peggy then. "Expensive… but nice." She exhaled then and looked to Lissandra when she arrived. "Thats a shame though, Mike. Those Strange powers probably could've been used to do a lot of good, if applied to the proper… directions. For all we know, the Doctor probably won't make another appearance for another year, or maybe he's behind me right now… the wonders of the unpredictable wildcards."

Leaning back on her right foot, Peggy tips her head and looks back into the front room as she waits for the now quite full kettle to boil. She smiles wry at Lissandra. "I meant *two days off*. Not two days 'vacationing' in Maryland. Don't make me buy you and Natasha a spa package. I will. That gun might be expensive, but it's not *that* expensive." And SHIELD still had more money than sin on a good day. Peggy did not seem worried about the cost. Her dark eyes narrow at Mike, a touch of clear displeasure in her pale features as he mentions the report being redacted. "I'll be very curious as to who is drawing the damned lines. I still expect to see it." But she's not happy about it. Fortunately, the whistle of a kettle cuts off any other concerns as she steps forward and busies herself in making tea for them all.

Lissandra rolls her eyes just a tiny bit and nods, "Alright, fine. I'll let my hair down." She finds a spot to park her wheelchair and settles it into place. Then the chair's geometry changes as the various metalic panels, plates, and pockets shift like liquid. When it's solid again it looks a good bit less utilitarian and more sculpted, with a scooped-out area near the floor directly behind her. What this is for becomes apparent when she literally lets her hair down. All three meters of thick titian red locks are taken out of their servicible braid and allowed to fall loose. She gives her head a shake and the mass settles into place without a lot of effort, the hair seeming to shift on its own in places. "I take my tea plain, Boss."

"If I didn't know of the potential consequences, I might have sooner." Mike responds back to Natasha, giving a slight smile as his fingers dance along the keys, asking 'Is there Life on Mars?'. He tilts his head back slightly to call to Peggy, eyes closing, "Keep a good look on the security footage if you want even a glimpse to just what draws the lines. I'm sure that would be informative."

"I've heard that there's a lot of illegal activities that go on an spas." Natasha said then after hearing all of this. She takes her hands out of her coat pockets and looks at the face of her phone to reply to a text that just vibrated her hand, thumbing at the phone screen while doing so. "Maybe I could do some poking around while there, see if they got any illegal cock fighting rings going on in their basement. Or bags of cocaine funelling to the mob." She said in a very dry voice, teasing of course… sort of… now she was kind of curious though.

Peggy gives just a little groan as she hears Natasha's words. "Natasha, I don't think any cock fighting that happens in the basement of spas has to do with roosters." Her voice is completely deadpan and oddly business like but it's rather clear that Director Carter just made a dirty joke. Not just a dirty joke, a *dick* joke. She can't entirely suppress her own smile in the kitchen as she trays up all the tea, honey, milk and sugar on the tray as well. "We should go. All three of us. It might be fun." She's now grinning a bit. She steps back into the front room and bring the tray over, Lissandra handed her tea first, since she just wanted it plain. Mike is given a brief look, "…I'll go over the tapes." It's the last thing she's saying about work.

Lissandra chuckles at Natasha's comments about spas, "Well, I'm sure the ones back home all had something cooking in the back room. Then again, it's New Orleans. /Everyone/ had somethi…" and then she's choking on her words as Peggy cracks her dick joke. As she's handed her tea she give Peggy a dagger stare. This effect is entirely ruined by the laughter that's obviously trying to push out of her face like an alien chestburster. After she takes a sip of tea she seems to have gotten enough control to respond to the spa comments with a very dry, "I'll only go if they offer a full shampoo and style treatment." Which would likely force any spa worker to murder her out of sheer survival instincts.

The three of us. So that means, Peggy, Natasha, Lissandra, and…

Mike grows quiet, playing his music as he waits for the tea, transitioning over to play something that's not quite Bowie-esque. Instead of Diamond Dogs, he's playing Diamond Eyes.

Natasha's reaction to the joke was more-so… just look up from her phones and peer at Peggy, her green eyes narrowing a little to eye the director closely. "Huh." She looked around on either side of her… no Tony, no Clint… not even Banner was here to witness that. She looked back down at her phone and flipped to a recording device on it. "Uh, Miss Director, would you mind repeating that into the mic?" She asked, standing up and holding the device out while she looked over at Mike and Lissandra.

At Liss' almost choking, Peggy laughs even more. She squeezes the woman's shoulder, "Quite sorry. Occasionally I forget that I'm supposed to be the bloody school principle around here. I did spend a fair amount of time in the field, you know, surrounded by soldiers. I suspect I've heard more dirty jokes than most of you combined." Especially surrounded by the Howling Commandos, but that was a long while in the past. Natasha's floating out that recording device gets a long look and a smirk. Peg walks over and leans a bit closer, "This is just my statement, as a witness to such an impossible event tonight, that Natasha Romanova stated she though Clint Barton has a better arse than Tony Stark. You gentlemen can argue as you need." SHe *grins* at Natasha, giving a bit of a whistle as she walks away to bring the tray of tea to Mike. "You'd be welcome at the spa too, if you like. We could all use the time." She doesn't care to leave the man out, even if she knows him less than the others.

As the songs progress in decades, they get a tad longer to perform. Having abandoned the music of one of Britain's finest musicians, he's drifted more to the style that he's known for. Only, more piano-y. He pauses to prep his tea, adding in the honey. "I'm good Peggy. You three can have your girls day out. My idea of relaxation is just not leaving the building. Play some music. Read. Sleep." He is about to add another one to the list but thinks better of it.

"Well you've been playing the role pretty well so far, Peggy." Lissandra's chair shifts a bit more as she drinks her tea, leaning her back and elevating her legs like a recliner at half mast. "You should take your own medicine, let loose a bit from day to day." She holds back on commenting that the 'stiff neck' version of Peggy seemed to show up around the same time as a certain Captain. She's not that nasty. She grins wide as Peggy speaks pure blasphemy into Nat's phone. "That'll start them all wearing booty shorts around the builiding just to get their asses rated, you know. Just don't expect me to be a judge. It's not my field of expertise." She grins as Mike starts to change up the music game. "Love the A7X, Mike."

Natasha listened to Peggy's whisper into her recording cell phone and she then smirked and drew the phone back to her own mouth. "I can confirm the validity of this statement and admit that I do feel that that is fact, your honor." She told the phone before grinning faintly and shutting the device off to drop it back into her coat's side pocket. She then went over to Mike's piano and she hopped up onto it and slid herself into the center of the fancy black shiney instrument's tabletop. She laid on her side and put her head on her right hand, propped up by her elbow. "Does this count as relaxatin?" She asked the others then in a husky tone of voice.

"That…actually sounds like a quite nice day of relaxation, if I could avoid going to my office during it." Peggy admits to Mike, though she's smirking at the thought of her office. She knew she couldn't. Once she's dropped his tea off to him, she moves back to settle into one of the couches nearest to Lissandra. Even though she's still in her suit skirt and blouse, she is doing her best to actually lounge and relax. It's a long term learning process. "I…I'm trying, Lissa. I am. It's not my favourite thing to do but I recognize old mantras about leading by example and the like…" She defintiely doesn't sound thrilled, but she's trying. She crosses her legs, nestling her mug of tea in her lap, then just BLINKING as she sees Natasha mount the piano. "…That is certainly…Something. I don't know if it'd be…Relaxing, Natasha."

Mike gives Lissandra a bit of a thumbs up before arching a brow. "If they start doing the shorts thing, I'm going to schedule another tour for around that time." He shakes his head, setting his tea down before turning back to the piano, "There's only so much one should be forced to look at." Giving a bit of a smirk, he starts playing The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. This might be a little counteractive to Natasha's husky mode. The look of discomfort comes across Mike's features again as he starts to take a few swallows of nothing while playing. It's probably a good thing he went back to songs that were rather short.

Lissandra's grin widens as Natasha plays right along with Peggy's crack about asses. "And later that message will mysteriously appear on the team's voice mails." She nods in sympathy as Peggy settles onto the couch. "It's all about picking how relaxing works for you. What did you do to blow off steam between the war ending and ending up in the freezer section of the local grocer?" Her voice trails off a bit as Natasha takes up the classic torch singer pinup pose on the piano. Here she blushes a shade to almost match her hair and pulls at the collar of her dress shirt to air out a bit. "That's… ah… yeah." She takes a sip of tea to try and help to regain her equilibrium, muttering "That's gonna come to mind later," behind the cup.

Natasha grinned at the others reaction to her and then she just rolled over to lay on her stomach and looked directly ahead of her at Mike. "Ya look a little pale, Mikey." She told him. "Did I hurt your piano?" She asked him, smiling. "I didn't mean to interrupt you while you tickle the ivorys." She then rolled herself up in a ball and was suddenly doing a handstand ontop of the piano before she parted her legs down the middle and twiiiiiiisted around until she dropped off of the piano and down onto her black leather booted feet. She tugged her jacket back down around her waist and released an exhale. "Spa day sounds wonderful. I will have spaghetti on it as well, just to keep the theme going." She announced to all of them.

Another sip of her tea and Peggy is actually, bit by bit, beginning to relax. She smiles as she hears that song she recognizes, appreciation in her features. Something about the jazz helps. Natasha is given a blink as the woman flips off the piano, "Show off." She mutters to the woman, but it's not all that chiding. Lissa's question is given a small look, frowning, "…Ah… stayed late at work a lot. Daniel and I would go to clubs, sometimes. But if he wasn't dragging me home to relax I… didn't do it often. Read books in bed with him." She confesses, the memory of her late husband drawing a bittersweet smile to her lips. "I… miss him." He *was* how she relaxed.

Mike is looking extremely uncomfortable as the song goes but the quick pace of the song soon leads to its demise. As the final notes reach the end of their life, Mike's arm goes up quickly to cover his mouth with the bend of his elbow to cover the sudden coughing coming out of his mouth. Coughing fit done, the musician looks a lot better comfort wise. Shaking his head, he gets up from the piano bench. "I think that's it from me tonight." He reaches over to collect his cups. The one he'd been drinking from and the replacement tea Peggy brought in.

The more Natasha displays her balance and flexibility, the more of Lissandra's skin reaches a shade usually attributed to sunburn. By the time Nat has reached the floor, even Lissa's feet are blushing and the doctor has set her tea to one side so she can start flipping some of her hair to her front side until she's basically a female, ginger version of Cousin It. "Don't mind me. I'm just going to hide a moment." She does poke her face out as Peggy talks about her late husband. "That sounds… lovely, actually." Her soft smile fades as Mike's lungs start an attempt at musiciancide and he bows out. "Take care of yourself, Mike."

The coughing from Mike draws a long look from Peggy, stark worry through her dark eyes as she studies him. She waits for the coughing fit to end, but she waves him away from collecting those cups. "One of the girls can get them. Come on… up to quarters with you. I'll make certain you get there safe." For the ice cold, distant robot of a director she seemed sometimes, deep down she did care about them all, perhaps a bit too much. She won't take protests from Mike, insisting as she keeps him company to exit the room.

Mike gives a thin smile as he nods to Lissandra, before he gets ushered off. With just one of the cups. Because damn it all, he still wants the tea.

~fin~

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