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Apr. 16th, 2012 07:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
therightpartner[Character name] Margaret “Peggy” Carter
[Age] 28
[Canon] Captain America: The First Avenger
[Point in time taken from canon] The night of the date that she made with Steve Rogers during their conversation before the plane he was flying crashed. ‘A week from Saturday,’ so about a week after the crash.
[Background]
If the War had never broken out in Europe, Peggy Carter would have led a quiet life of carefully pushing society’s boundaries. She would have finished earning her degree in languages, perhaps going on to teach at the same respectable university that she’d attended, gotten married, and encouraged her children to defy convention.
But these options were never truly available; at least not after England entered the War. That changed everything for Peggy. Unable to stay in a relatively safe and sedate role on the home front, she enlisted as soon as the opportunity presented itself. She thought she would spend the duration of the war behind a desk, either assigned to some commander’s office staff or translating communications between the various factions involved in the War. Instead, she was given a small, seemingly unimportant mission, which she completed with a professionalism that her commanders hadn’t expected.
Her talent for languages combined with her ability to remain calm in the middle of a crisis eventually led her to be trained as an agent. She was assigned to progressively more and more important missions until she was given the assignment to assist the U.S. Army in their efforts to rescue Doctor Erskine from HYDRA’s stronghold. Erskine was a researcher who had been attempting to create a serum that would transform a person into the peak of physical human perfection. When Johann Schmidt, the leader of HYDRA, heard of the doctor’s work, he had his men capture Erskine and his family as they attempted to flee Germany, using them as leverage to force Erskine to complete his research.
Before Erskine could finish his work, Schmidt took the serum, which altered him both physically and mentally by giving the man heightened strength and intensifying the evil in his mind. Peggy observed the effects of the transformation as she prepared to rescue Erskine and saw the horror that Schmidt had became.
When she knew that Erskine was about to be killed for his ‘failure’ with the serum, Peggy used her cover as a servant to drug the HYDRA soldiers so she could save Erskine. Unfortunately, the drug she used only worked on some of them, forcing her to fight her way through the stronghold to get to the rooftop so that the rest of her team could rescue them. During the fight, she told Erskine that his family had died in one of the concentration camps, which caused him to want to seek out Schmidt for revenge. Peggy talked Erskine out of the suicidal attack, convincing him to help the Allies by giving them access to his research. This chance at redeeming his work convinced him to find revenge in another way and redeem his life’s work.
When they reached the rooftop, they were picked up by the American forces and Peggy was soon assigned to Project Rebirth, the programthat would use Erskine’s research to create an army of super soldiers. Because she was one of the few people who had seen the darker aspects of the serum, Erskine sought out Peggy’s opinion on the selection of a candidate for Project Rebirth. Peggy’s initial role in the process was to assist with the training of the recruits. This position gave her a unique insight into the candidates from her role as a woman in command in a male-dominated military to help the doctor make his choice.
She watched the recruits and one in particular caught her attention: Private Steve Rogers. The man was nothing like the other volunteers – short, asthmatic, weak-looking – but Rogers proved repeatedly that he was both clever and courageous. His actions during training, including throwing himself on a grenade to save the rest of his unit during a test, earned her respect and caused her to start having more personal feelings for Steve.
Erskine watched the volunteers, rejected them all except for Steve, knowing that the serum would enhance both the good and the bad traits of whoever was chosen. Steve was the only one that he trusted to understand the value of strength and to remain a good man after the procedure.
When they were finally ready to give the serum to Steve, Peggy was his escort to the secret facility where the procedure was to be performed. During this trip, they spoke of how they had both had been forced to deal with discrimination because of supposed physical limitations, which led to an awkward conversation about how Steve had never danced with anyone because women ignored him.
As they prepared Steve for the procedure, Peggy was reluctant to leave his side, having to be asked by Erskine to watch from a viewing booth. She reluctantly agreed, watching from there until it seemed that the experiment was harming Steve; she rushed back to him, demanding that they stop the procedure until Steve told them to continue. She was one of the first at his side when the experiment was complete, but any thought of celebrating their success ended when an HYDRA agent set off an explosion in the lab, stole a vial of the serum, and killed Doctor Erskine.
Peggy and Steve chased after the man, trying to stop him. She killed the getaway driver and would have attempted to kill Erskine’s murderer but Steve pushed her out of the way when the agent tried to run her down with a car. Steve caught the man as he tried to escape but the HYDRA agent killed himself before he could be taken into custody.
The SSR was given the task of finding and destroying Hydra’s forces. Steve was told that he could not accompany them to Europe and was eventually convinced by a senator to help the war effort, which eventually led Steve to become ‘Captain America,’ the star of propaganda films and stage shows.
The USO tour he was a part of toured in Europe where he encountered hostility from the troops and he again met Peggy. She told him that the soldiers had recently been in a disastrous battle that had led to catastrophic deaths and many of their comrades being taken prisoner. Steve realized that the unit that was captured was the same one his best friend, Bucky, had been assigned to and he decided that he had to try to rescue the captured soldiers.
As he prepared to go find the HYDRA prison, he asked Peggy if she believed in him. She did. Knowing that Steve would need help, she convinced Howard Stark to fly Steve into enemy territory. When Steve didn’t return immediately from the rescue mission, Peggy’s commanding officer reprimanded her for her actions, implying that she was partially responsible for Steve’s death, but Peggy was certain that Steve was alive and would return.
He did.
This was the start of their professional relationship and one the main building blocks of their friendship. Peggy provided both physical and emotional support for Steve during the War. Their friendship would have developed into something more if Steve’s shyness and military regulations against fraternization had not kept either one of them from acting on their feelings. They planned to go dancing when the War ended, but that date would never be kept.
Bucky was killed during a mission to capture Schmidt’s lead scientist. Steve blamed himself for his friend’s death and Peggy did her best to comfort him, reminding him that Bucky chose to follow him into battle and that choice should be honored instead of lamented.
The information gained from the scientist allowed the SSR to devise a plan to finally take out Schmidt. Peggy fought beside the men in the unit and saved Steve from one of the HYDRA soldiers during the battle. Schmidt tried to escape in a plane with the intention of destroying the major cities of the world. Steve chased after him, sharing a desperate kiss with Peggy before leaping onto the plane. He was able to eliminate Schmidt, but there was no way to land the plane safely.
Instead of risking countless lives, he decided to crash the plane in the arctic. As he forced the plane down, he talked to Peggy over the radio. At first, she tried to convince him that there were other options, and then she realized that he had no other choice. The two of them planned a date that would not be kept. They would go to the Stork Club ‘a week from Saturday’ where she would teach him to dance. As she held back her tears, she warned him not to be late. He told her that the band would have to play something slow so that he wouldn’t step on her toes.
His voice was abruptly cut off during that warning and he was gone.
The week following that last message was one of the worst of Peggy’s life. She tried, and for the most part, succeeded, in maintaining hope as rescue efforts were launched. She kept up her usual professionalism though she was heartbroken by her loss, performing every task given to her quietly and efficiently while waiting for some news of Steve’s fate.
[Age] 28
[Canon] Captain America: The First Avenger
[Point in time taken from canon] The night of the date that she made with Steve Rogers during their conversation before the plane he was flying crashed. ‘A week from Saturday,’ so about a week after the crash.
[Background]
If the War had never broken out in Europe, Peggy Carter would have led a quiet life of carefully pushing society’s boundaries. She would have finished earning her degree in languages, perhaps going on to teach at the same respectable university that she’d attended, gotten married, and encouraged her children to defy convention.
But these options were never truly available; at least not after England entered the War. That changed everything for Peggy. Unable to stay in a relatively safe and sedate role on the home front, she enlisted as soon as the opportunity presented itself. She thought she would spend the duration of the war behind a desk, either assigned to some commander’s office staff or translating communications between the various factions involved in the War. Instead, she was given a small, seemingly unimportant mission, which she completed with a professionalism that her commanders hadn’t expected.
Her talent for languages combined with her ability to remain calm in the middle of a crisis eventually led her to be trained as an agent. She was assigned to progressively more and more important missions until she was given the assignment to assist the U.S. Army in their efforts to rescue Doctor Erskine from HYDRA’s stronghold. Erskine was a researcher who had been attempting to create a serum that would transform a person into the peak of physical human perfection. When Johann Schmidt, the leader of HYDRA, heard of the doctor’s work, he had his men capture Erskine and his family as they attempted to flee Germany, using them as leverage to force Erskine to complete his research.
Before Erskine could finish his work, Schmidt took the serum, which altered him both physically and mentally by giving the man heightened strength and intensifying the evil in his mind. Peggy observed the effects of the transformation as she prepared to rescue Erskine and saw the horror that Schmidt had became.
When she knew that Erskine was about to be killed for his ‘failure’ with the serum, Peggy used her cover as a servant to drug the HYDRA soldiers so she could save Erskine. Unfortunately, the drug she used only worked on some of them, forcing her to fight her way through the stronghold to get to the rooftop so that the rest of her team could rescue them. During the fight, she told Erskine that his family had died in one of the concentration camps, which caused him to want to seek out Schmidt for revenge. Peggy talked Erskine out of the suicidal attack, convincing him to help the Allies by giving them access to his research. This chance at redeeming his work convinced him to find revenge in another way and redeem his life’s work.
When they reached the rooftop, they were picked up by the American forces and Peggy was soon assigned to Project Rebirth, the programthat would use Erskine’s research to create an army of super soldiers. Because she was one of the few people who had seen the darker aspects of the serum, Erskine sought out Peggy’s opinion on the selection of a candidate for Project Rebirth. Peggy’s initial role in the process was to assist with the training of the recruits. This position gave her a unique insight into the candidates from her role as a woman in command in a male-dominated military to help the doctor make his choice.
She watched the recruits and one in particular caught her attention: Private Steve Rogers. The man was nothing like the other volunteers – short, asthmatic, weak-looking – but Rogers proved repeatedly that he was both clever and courageous. His actions during training, including throwing himself on a grenade to save the rest of his unit during a test, earned her respect and caused her to start having more personal feelings for Steve.
Erskine watched the volunteers, rejected them all except for Steve, knowing that the serum would enhance both the good and the bad traits of whoever was chosen. Steve was the only one that he trusted to understand the value of strength and to remain a good man after the procedure.
When they were finally ready to give the serum to Steve, Peggy was his escort to the secret facility where the procedure was to be performed. During this trip, they spoke of how they had both had been forced to deal with discrimination because of supposed physical limitations, which led to an awkward conversation about how Steve had never danced with anyone because women ignored him.
As they prepared Steve for the procedure, Peggy was reluctant to leave his side, having to be asked by Erskine to watch from a viewing booth. She reluctantly agreed, watching from there until it seemed that the experiment was harming Steve; she rushed back to him, demanding that they stop the procedure until Steve told them to continue. She was one of the first at his side when the experiment was complete, but any thought of celebrating their success ended when an HYDRA agent set off an explosion in the lab, stole a vial of the serum, and killed Doctor Erskine.
Peggy and Steve chased after the man, trying to stop him. She killed the getaway driver and would have attempted to kill Erskine’s murderer but Steve pushed her out of the way when the agent tried to run her down with a car. Steve caught the man as he tried to escape but the HYDRA agent killed himself before he could be taken into custody.
The SSR was given the task of finding and destroying Hydra’s forces. Steve was told that he could not accompany them to Europe and was eventually convinced by a senator to help the war effort, which eventually led Steve to become ‘Captain America,’ the star of propaganda films and stage shows.
The USO tour he was a part of toured in Europe where he encountered hostility from the troops and he again met Peggy. She told him that the soldiers had recently been in a disastrous battle that had led to catastrophic deaths and many of their comrades being taken prisoner. Steve realized that the unit that was captured was the same one his best friend, Bucky, had been assigned to and he decided that he had to try to rescue the captured soldiers.
As he prepared to go find the HYDRA prison, he asked Peggy if she believed in him. She did. Knowing that Steve would need help, she convinced Howard Stark to fly Steve into enemy territory. When Steve didn’t return immediately from the rescue mission, Peggy’s commanding officer reprimanded her for her actions, implying that she was partially responsible for Steve’s death, but Peggy was certain that Steve was alive and would return.
He did.
This was the start of their professional relationship and one the main building blocks of their friendship. Peggy provided both physical and emotional support for Steve during the War. Their friendship would have developed into something more if Steve’s shyness and military regulations against fraternization had not kept either one of them from acting on their feelings. They planned to go dancing when the War ended, but that date would never be kept.
Bucky was killed during a mission to capture Schmidt’s lead scientist. Steve blamed himself for his friend’s death and Peggy did her best to comfort him, reminding him that Bucky chose to follow him into battle and that choice should be honored instead of lamented.
The information gained from the scientist allowed the SSR to devise a plan to finally take out Schmidt. Peggy fought beside the men in the unit and saved Steve from one of the HYDRA soldiers during the battle. Schmidt tried to escape in a plane with the intention of destroying the major cities of the world. Steve chased after him, sharing a desperate kiss with Peggy before leaping onto the plane. He was able to eliminate Schmidt, but there was no way to land the plane safely.
Instead of risking countless lives, he decided to crash the plane in the arctic. As he forced the plane down, he talked to Peggy over the radio. At first, she tried to convince him that there were other options, and then she realized that he had no other choice. The two of them planned a date that would not be kept. They would go to the Stork Club ‘a week from Saturday’ where she would teach him to dance. As she held back her tears, she warned him not to be late. He told her that the band would have to play something slow so that he wouldn’t step on her toes.
His voice was abruptly cut off during that warning and he was gone.
The week following that last message was one of the worst of Peggy’s life. She tried, and for the most part, succeeded, in maintaining hope as rescue efforts were launched. She kept up her usual professionalism though she was heartbroken by her loss, performing every task given to her quietly and efficiently while waiting for some news of Steve’s fate.
