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lilulo-12fanfiction · 4 years

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Heart Of The Matter

Heart of the Matter- Bucky Barnes x Reader

Requested by @darkness-in-bright with prompts:

46. “Are you decent?” “Not morally, but I am wearing pants, if that’s what you’re asking.

126. I really want to talk to you. And not through the door.

138. “You don’t get to say anything to me!”

So for the purposes of this story- Tony didn't die, Steve isn't an old man. End Game had a happier ending. Reader is Tony’s daughter...because we all know my sheer OBSESSION with Stark readers and OCs. She was about 15 at the time of the first Avengers movie so if I did my math right...With the End Game time jump she should be 27ish. If I’m wrong...pretend I’m not. This is like 7K words and I’m not even sorry. 😂

As always likes, comments and reblogs are SO APPRECIATED. Requests are open (Avengers, Supernatural, TVD/The Originals. I do dabble in some Green Arrow and The Flash (DC TV Only please). Prompt list can be found here.

Please let me know if you would like to be added to this tag list or one of my others.

Avengers Tag List: @shreddedparchment @fanfictionjunkie1112@this-is-mycrisis

Avengers Masterlist

As Tony Stark’s daughter, people treated you differently your whole life. You were always catered to, and you kind of hated it. It took you a long time to come to terms with the fact that you would never have a normal life. When you were 12, Tony was kidnapped. The video of him that the kidnappers sent still plagued your dreams to this day. When you finally got him back and he came out as Iron Man, that had made you give up your dream of having any normality; You were happy to let it go, you couldn’t have been more proud of your father.

Tony had always been in your life. At first it was minimal because your mother used you as a bargaining chip for money. Your mother had been a girl he met out and had a fling with. By the time you were 3, you were with him full time. When Tony had found out your mother was abusing prescription meds, he cleaned his life up and fought for you. He still had his fun, but taking care of you came first. Eventually she vanished from your life after a handful of supervised visits.

While Tony was busy saving the world, you were working on your studies. You attended a private a school to help keep you out of the lime light. You remembered hearing about Captain America from Agent Coulson and were excited to meet him when you found out he came out of the ice. You didn’t know your grandparents. He knew your grandfather. You wanted to learn about a different side of him. Phil had promised to arrange it, but then Loki and the Chitauri came for New York. You had been only 15 at the time. By some stroke of luck you had gone unharmed. You had been through a lot in your young life already, and watching Tony disappear through that hole in the sky had shaken you to your core. You had been in the tower and had run outside crying. Steve Rogers had caught you in his arms and held you tight while you broke down. He didn’t let you go until Tony opened his eyes. That day forged a bond with you and Steve. He became the big brother you had always needed.

Once things had settled down, you closed yourself off from everyone, including your father. Tony had to hire a tutor for you to continue your school work because you wouldn’t leave the tower. Tony has been distraught when he couldn’t reach you. It had been Steve that had broken through your walls after he moved in to The Avengers tower. He had let you guide him through all of the pop culture he didn’t understand and he earned your trust by treating you like you were his equal, not a kid. He didn’t try to get you to talk like Tony and Pepper did. He didn’t treat you like glass the way Happy and Rhodey did. He would tell you stories about when he was a kid and how he was trying to adjust after being gone for so long. Eventually, you slowly started opening up. You told him how you were certain that being Iron Man would take your father from you too soon but that he had to do it. The world needed heroes like him and Steve. You confessed your fears of being ill prepared for what was coming in the world. You couldn’t protect yourself, and the idea that you would be a distraction from other people being saved ate at you. Steve taught you how to defend yourself, you trained with him. Tony had been grateful that Steve had helped you and brought his brilliant and loving daughter back to life. Like Tony, you graduated high school far too early. At 16, went to Columbia University to get your degree in computer science and engineering, you also minored in Business. At age 20 you had a masters degree and you were helping Pepper with Stark Industries. Eventually it would be yours to take over. You also worked behind the scenes for The Avengers. Tony had been insistent that you never went into the field, but he didn't mind you working at the tower with Maria Hill.

The time of the Accords had been one of the worst times in your life. Watching Steve and Tony fracture down the middle. You saw both sides and cried when you told Steve you had to stand with your father. No matter what, you would never turn your back on Tony. The two of you were a team. Steve understood that more than you knew at the time. You had been shattered when you found out about Bucky being the one that murdered your grandparents and the fact that Steve had covered it up. Steve had told you so many stories about Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes. Your brain couldn’t reconcile the fun loving man and the Soldier that gave your grandparents such a violent end. Steve’s lie had hurt more than anything, yet part of you understood. You knew what Bucky meant to him. Bucky was his family and he would do anything to protect him. After all...there wasn't a thing in the world you wouldn't do to protect your father.

It had been you that convinced Tony that it wasn’t Bucky’s fault. You were a woman obsessed after Steve went on the run. You needed to understand. You had done extensive research into Hydra after everything that had happened. You needed to be able to separate The Winter Soldier from Bucky Barnes. You believed that Steve knew James Barnes best. He was rarely wrong. When you delved into the research into how they had programmed him, you felt instant regret for the rift between you and Steve. You begged Tony to find a way to forgive and move on. You had reached out to Steve a few times and met once. Steve had been hesitant, not because he didn’t trust you, but because he was afraid you would get hurt. You had to forgive him and in person and so he agreed. You spent two days with him and Sam in South America. It had been hard to leave them knowing you didn’t know if and when you would see them again. Tony knew you had seen Steve and made amends, he just wasn’t ready yet. Tony wanted to find your level of empathy, he just needed to work at it. Then Thanos happened and your world shattered again.

your father disappeared onto that space ship. Bruce has called Steve, Nat, Sam and Wanda for help. You had been a wreck when they walked back into the compound. Steve wanted you to stay behind but there was no way you were staying. At the very least you could help Shuri get the Infinity Stone from Vision. You ended up on the battlefield and watched everyone around you crumble into nothing. You were inconsolable until Carol Danvers rescued your father. When all seemed lost, you helped your father heal and settle down into a quiet life. He married Pepper and you finally had a sister.

After 5 years of despair, it was time to fight again. And while you got the world back. While the loss of Nat was nearly suffocating, you couldn't be more proud of her and her sacrifice. You had almost lost Tony when he snapped Thanos out of existence. He was never quite the same physically, but he happily accepted it to live in peace with his family knowing he had stopped the Mad Titan. It was his “one last mission” and he was lucky he made it back home.

You found anything but peace. You needed to do more than sitting behind a desk. After meeting Carol Danvers you realized that another Thanos could come your way and even if one didn’t, the world was in disarray again since the population had been restored. So, you joined the newly formed SHIELD. It was during this time you had gotten to know James Buchanan Barnes and he turned your world upside down. You found yourself getting lost in the blue of his eyes on more than one occasion. Goosebumps covered your skin any time his hands were on you during training. You had started looking forward to missions with just the two of you and then you started to realize he was like Steve. Steve Rogers acting as a over protective big brother was bad enough, you didn’t need his side kick jumping in on the mix. You thought that with all of the training you had done and how you continually proved yourself would be enough, clearly you were wrong. Bucky did whatever he could to block you out, keep you in the jet or back at the compound. You had finally had enough.

“No! You don't get to say anything to me right now." You were raging. Bucky had just gotten back from the mission that you were supposed to go on with him. He had again convinced Steve that he didn't need you. He botched the mission and almost got himself killed. He was trying to talk his way out of it and you didn’t want to hear it.

"Y/N, calm down." Bucky immediately regretted it. He saw the rage burn behind your eyes. Sam had his arms crossed in front of him, leaning against the counter of the common area kitchen enjoying the show. Bucky should have known better, you had quite the temper.

“Calm down?! God I am so sick of this! It’s because Tony is my father, isn’t it? It’s such bullshit! You needed me on that mission. I could have gotten in and out quickly and gotten all of the information off of their drives and you could have watched my back while I did it. Instead, YOU made a big "Winter Solider" splash, dropped way more bodies than necessary and didn't even get all of the information I need! These are huge drug smugglers and now they know we're after them. So now who's going to have to be smarter, work harder and get the info we need from behind the scenes? ME! NOT YOU." You took a deep breath and tried to reign in your temper. You pinched the bridge of your nose. "I don't need you to protect me. I'm not some helpless damsel. If I wasn't good enough to be in the field...Fury NEVER would have me given me the okay and Rhodey sure as hell would have put a stop to it if I wasn’t prepared. I get you're trying to gain points with my Father...because I know he doesn't want me here. But this time, your need to get on his good side fucked up this whole operation!" Naturally Steve walked in during the middle of your tirade wide eyed.

"I don't know if that language is necessary." Sam let out a low whistle, certain that your head was going to pop off your shoulders. He watched as you turned slowly and narrowed your eyes at Steve.

“Actually, Captain Rogers" the tone in your voice oozed sarcasm, "it's perfectly necessary. And you are JUST has bad as he is" you pointed over at Bucky. "You find any excuse to pull me off of missions and keep me in this tower like I'm frickin Rapunzel or something." You pushed past the two of them and stalked down the hall, slamming your door. The three men stood there quietly.

"Soooo...that went well." Sam finally quipped. Buck and Steve both glared at him. "Don't glare at me, she's not wrong. I love going on missions with her. She's smart and fast. She calculates every risk and doesn’t do anything unless absolutely necessary. She doesn't need you to protect her. I mean I get why you want to." He directed the last part of his comment to Bucky.

“What the hell does that mean pigeon." Bucky shot Sam another glare causing Steve to groan. He wasn’t in the mood for their bickering.

"Look...do I think you want to win bonus points with Papa Stark...sure. But not for the reason she thinks. You have feelings for her. You don't know exactly how to tell her or how to deal with it so you try to be her protector. She doesn’t need another man in her life trying to bubble wrap her. Tony and Rhodey have that covered. She wants to be your equal. She’s more than proven herself. And I’m not insulting you, it’s just an observation. We've been working together long enough for me to know you. I know your tells. I also see how you look at her when you think no one else is looking. Try talking to her...outside of missions. Maybe ask her out. Use some of that charm you have that Steve told us about." Sam shrugged and walked away.

Bucky swallowed uncomfortably as Steve turned his gaze towards him. Bucky wasn't sure how he would react and of course Sam had said something in front of him. Sam was right, he did have a thing for you. How could he not? You were so many things; funny, smart, empathetic, which he knew better than anyone. You were beautiful and had a smile that could light up the darkest of places. He even loved your temper. You had a passion and fire inside of you, God help anyone that got in your way.

“Look Steve, you know how amazing she is, how could I not want to be with her? She’s incredible. But I also know nothing can ever happen. I mean the age difference alone. I know how much she means to you. I’d never cross that line.” Steve smiled.

“I don’t think that we can really consider an age difference here when you, like me, spent so much time under ice. And then the fact that you were gone for 5 years. It’s not a normal situation. And yes, she does mean a lot to me. I’ve known her since she was a kid. I watched her grow up. But she isn’t a kid anymore. She’s a grown woman. It’s not up to me who she spends her time with. If I had to pick, you’d be at the top of the list. Buck- you’re not the man Hydra made you into anymore. You healed that part of yourself in Wakanda. You are a good man.”

“Tony won’t approve.” Steve smiled for a moment.

“You really think that would stop her?” Bucky laughed at that comment. But he absolutely thought Tony’s disapproval would put an end to anything he could have with you. “Tony forgave you. It took time but he moved past that. And if you end up being what makes her happy, he wouldn’t stand in the way of that. And she and Sam are right, she doesn’t need us to protect her. I’m equally guilty in trying to keep her out of the line of fire.” Steve clapped Bucky on the shoulder as he pondered what Steve and Sam has said and headed to talk to you.

***

You were pacing in your room trying to work out your anger when there was a knock at the door. You rolled your eyes. You knew who it was without any verification.

“Leave me alone Steve.” You heard him chuckle. He wouldn’t let anger stay between the two of you. You had made an agreement a long time ago to always work out your differences.

“C’mon Y/N- I really want to talk to you. And not through the door.“ You groaned and headed over to your door and yanked it open. Steve had his arms crossed and he was leaning against the doorway.

“What?”

“I’m sorry.” He sighed. “You’re right. I need to stop putting my personal feelings for you in front of the job we have to do. I think after everything that we’ve seen and been through I just want to know you’re always safe. Your father made it clear I was responsible for you. But it’s not fair to you.”

“Thanks Steve. I’m just so sick of being treated like I’m made of glass. I can handle myself. I know the risks.”

“I know. Your more than qualified to be in the field and I trust you more than about anyone. I promise to do better. And Bucky isn’t trying to earn points with Tony. I think he just thinks that the Stark family has been through enough. You’re the one that made it possible for him to be apart of this family. Your forgiveness and understanding led to Tony’s. Being here has allowed him to get back to the person he used to be. “

“Yeah well thanks to him I have a ton of work to do.” You felt your anger deflate like a balloon. “I better get to it.” You nodded over to your desk where two huge flat screen monitors sat.

“Alright, let me know if you need anything.” You nodded and watched him retreat down the hall before you shut your door.

Bucky Barnes was under your skin. He had been since the day you met him in Wakanda. You expected this hardened soldier but found a man with an easy smile and kind eyes. Whatever monster that had lived within him had been snuffed out. It had started when you’d notice that his gaze would linger on you just a little longer than necessary. Your heart would pound anytime he was in close proximity and you were certain he had the most beautiful eyes you had ever seen. But it would never progress past a few longing looks and mild flirting. Bucky Barnes was determined to stay on Tony Starks good side, certainly any sort of relationship with his daughter would be frowned upon. You sighed and sat down.

“Friday- run through the files Sergeant Barnes obtained. We then need to get into their servers and find out when the next deal is going to happen so we can stop them.”

“Right away Miss Stark.” It was going to be a very long night.

***

It had been a few days and you finally got a lead to where the drug ring might be next. You were running down to the gym where you knew Bucky was. You stopped when you saw it empty and stepped towards the locker room with trepidation.

“Barnes! “Are you decent?” You yelled into the doorway. You heard him laugh.

“Not morally, but I am wearing pants, if that’s what you’re asking.” you rolled your eyes and strolled in, your heels clacking on the floor. He had been more flirty than normal the past few days. It was knocking you off your guard. He shot you a grin when he saw you. True to his word, he was wearing pants and nothing else. His prosthetic arm was on the bench, and his impressive form was still damp from the shower. You didn’t realize you were staring until he cleared his throat. You felt the heat rush to your cheeks and you stepped forward looking at the still angry scars on shoulder where his arm used to be attached. He would normally be self conscious with someone staring at him the way you were, but he saw interest, not pity. He sucked his breath in when you ran your fingers over the scar. You quickly realized what you were doing and jumped back.

“Sorry - I, uh, I’m sorry I shouldn’t have done that.” You had a sheepish look on your face. “Just...does that bother you?” Your head was tilted to the side.

“Not since Wakanda. Shuri fixed me up. Now it doesn’t hurt to wear the arm.” You looked up at him.

“You sure? I used the 3D printer to print skin grafts for another agent”

“Of course you did.” You narrowed your eyes at him and pursed your lips. “It’s more cosmetic now, no physical pain. So unless you think I need plastic surgery.”

“Shut up. That’s not what I meant. I’ve just never seen you without your prosthetic. Scars make a person more interesting. I have plenty of my own.” He watched you shudder. He remembered the deep cuts to your back during the battle with Thanos. You had been running to protect Peter and one of Thanos’ soldiers had slashed your back a few times. He remembered your screams from being cleaned and stitched up vividly.

“So...do you need something or just here to ogle me?” He wiggled his eyesbrows at you and winked when he saw your face go red again.”

“You’re obnoxious.” He was enjoying your fluster. “You need to get your shit. You, Steve and Sam are headed to Chicago to try and bust the drug ring. I finally found a lead.”

“You’re not coming?” He was certain after the last time that it would be a cold day in hell before you missed this.

“Well unfortunately I still have my Stark Industries responsibilities. And in two days we have a fundraiser. Please let me remind you that you three are on the guest list and help the elite open their big fat checkbooks. Don’t get killed and make sure Sam doesn’t mess up his pretty face.”

“Of course Doll.” He watched your eyes narrow again. You gave him a quick second look before you strutted out of the locker room completely flustered again. His skin still almost tingled where you had touched him.

***

You looked around the ball room at the richest of the rich. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits, but you felt a cloud over you. Steve and company were successful in stopping the shipment and a few of the ring members, but the leader had eluded them again. They were capitalizing on people’s pain and desperation. It hadn’t been any easy transition back for many who were snapped away. They often turned to substances to drown their sorrows. Maybe it was because you had found out your mother had recently overdosed. You took it personally. You didn’t know the woman, she was a stranger, but she was still your mother.

“Well look at you.” You turned to see a beaming Tony with Pepper holding onto his good arm. The arm that had been touched by the infinity stones was covered by a black brace.

“Hi Daddy.” You smiled and hugged him.

“Hi darling. Morgan misses you. She insists you come visit next weekend.”

“I know. I’m a terrible sister, I’ve just been distracted.”

“You’ve been working too hard.”

“Gee, I wonder where she gets it from?” Pepper quipped and you let out a genuine laugh.

“Well you are your father’s daughter. I couldn’t be more proud.” Tony kissed your cheek. “We’re going to make some rounds. I’ll see you later.” You nodded. You were by yourself again for a few moments and then saw Steve’s smiling face approaching you.

“Hey kid.”

“Steven.” You smiled at him.

“Ready?” You nodded and he led you up to the podium. Steve greeted the crowd and then introduced you. No matter how many crowds you spoke in front of, you always got nervous. As you approached the podium you looked out to the crowd and caught Bucky’s eye. He gave a reassuring smile that took your breath away. At some point between his mission and now he had gotten his long hair cut into a style similar to what it was before the war. He looked stunning in his tux. You cleared your throat and adverted your eyes away from the Sergeant’s.

“Thank you all so much for coming. It’s a happy occasion that brings us all here tonight as we celebrate the one year anniversary that so many of you were returned to us. I would be remised if I didn’t acknowledge the struggle that so many across not only our nation, but the world, have experienced as they’ve tried to adjust back to normal life. With that in mind, and the reason why we invited you here tonight is to announce a new program through Stark Industries that will aim to help those in need get to normalcy. The Romanova Foundation is named for Natasha Romanoff. You had to pause as your voice cracked on Natasha’s name. ”If it weren’t for Natasha’s bravery and sacrifice, many of us would not be standing here tonight. So I ask you to open your hearts and your wallets to help those of us in need as Natasha would have. Thank you.” You stepped away from the podium quickly as the crowd roared with applause. Steve tried to grab your arm but you shrunk away and shook your head. You bit back tears as you rushed towards a door towards a private balcony, grabbing a bottle of champagne on your way.

***

Bucky watched as you made a quick exit. He was going to follow you when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He was surprised to see a smiling Tony.

“Sergeant. I was informed you had a semi successful mission yesterday, glad the three of you stopped that shipment. I also heard you got your ass ripped by my daughter last week for bumping her off a mission and then you made a huge mess of it.” Bucky swallowed hard. Tony must have read his anxiety and held his hands up. “No judgment here. I made plenty of messes myself. And I don’t envy anyone that catches her temper. It burns a little. She gets it from my side.” Tony shrugged. “You know she talks about you a lot.” Tony fired off his comments quickly.

“She does?”

“Yeah...I don’t think she realizes how much she does. She has Morgan conflicted between who her favorite Super Soldier is. You or Cap. Naturally her favorite Avenger is me. I gather you and my daughter work together a lot.”

“We do. Steve or I are usually with her.”

“To protect her?”

“Yes. She’s not a super soldier, though she thinks she is.” Tony snickered. “She’s not enhanced like Wanda. But she’s a huge asset. I don’t know what we would do without her. But some of these people we’re up against are enhanced, So Steve and I, we stick close to Y/N.”

“How close is close Barnes?” Bucky paled as Tony stared him down. After a moment he laughed and clapped Bucky on his shoulder.

“I’m messing with you. Rogers and I had a conversation. While he’s not usually the type to butt in, I think he’s trying to cut through the red tape. Look, the past is the past. After everything that happened, I don’t live there anymore. The only thing I care about is that my daughter is safe and happy. I’ve been assured that the man that they made you is gone for good. And that is good enough for me. I don’t know if you know this, but my daughter and Natasha got very close in the 5 years between Thanos annihilating half the planet and when we got everyone back. She and Nat worked tirelessly with Carol and company to watch the universe. Nat’s death was hard on all of us, but especially my daughter. Today is a hard day for her. If I know her as well as I think I do, she’s hiding outside on the far left balcony. Probably with a bottle of booze drowning her sorrows. Do me a favor...go and check on our girl.” It took Bucky a moment to react but he nodded his head and started walking towards the other side of the room before Tony yelled his name and he turned. Tony approached him again. “I may be out of commission, but just remember that I still have a suit and if you hurt my daughter there’s no serum in the world that can protect you.” With that, Tony turned on his heel and walked away.

***

You tried to hold back your tears. You knew today was going to be hard. You didn’t realize how hard until you started talking about Natasha. You took a long drink out of your bottle and looked out over the lights of the nearby city. You heard the door open behind you and exhaled.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” When you heard the door shut you thought you had been left alone but then you felt the cool metal of Bucky’s hand in your shoulder.

“You don’t have to talk. I just don’t want you to be alone feeling like this.” You nodded but didn’t turn, you couldn’t face him. So instead he stood behind you, his arms on each side of yours protectively caging you in. “Is it okay if I talk?” You nodded.

“You know what I remembered first when we came back? Your face. For me, you represented redemption, forgiveness and all of the things I didn’t think I deserved. When Steve told me that you two had worked things out, that you understood, it was a huge relief. I knew how important you were to him. Tony too. I felt like I robbed him of the family he found after the ice.” He was leaning down so he could speak quietly in your ear. “Then he told me that you wanted to meet me. God, I was terrified. All I could remember was Tony when he saw that video. I couldn’t imagine seeing the monster I had been reflected in anyone else’s eyes. Saying you forgive someone is one thing, truly being able to mean it was another. But then when you all came to try and stop Thanos the first time you waltzed off that jet and gave me the biggest smile and then you hugged me instead of shaking my hand. You took my breath away. And it was so strange to come back and then realize that 5 years had gone by. For me, it was like we just picked the fight up where we left off. It wasn’t until after that I saw you were different. You were harder. More determined to keep fighting. More determined to be a pain in my ass and walk into the line of fire when all I wanted to do was make sure you were okay. Not because of Tony. But because you were the first person other than Steve to really make me feel like I was worth all of this, that I was with saving. The idea that you were going to be out there and possibly getting hurt I had to prevent that at all costs. I just wanted you protected and behind your computer at home. That wasn’t fair and I’m sorry for doing that to you. You’re strong and capable. Getting to know you over this past year, even if you were pissed off at me for most of it, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I’m sorry that you had to lose Natasha for me to get my life back. I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with Nat- but she was an incredible person. I would give my life up in a second to bring her back.” You spun around so you could face him. Even in sky high heels he was looking down at you.

“Don’t say that! Please don’t ever say that.” He studied your tear filled eyes with a kind smile. He slowly put both hands on your cheeks and swiped the unshed tears from your eyes. “As much as it hurts, Natasha had to make that sacrifice to find peace. And loosing you would be just as hard.” His blue eyes sparkled down at you and you felt a swoop in your stomach. He stroked your cheek with his non-metal hand before he dropped them to his side. He watched you take a deep breath and visibly relax.

“I haven’t talked about Natasha much. It just makes me so sad that she’s not here with us today. That she’s not here celebrating our victory. I think not talking about her has made it harder to heal.”

“Any time you want to talk, I’m here to listen.”

“And I will. But not now. This is supposed to be a party.” You smiled up at him, he was impossibly close.

“Well the 3/4 of that champagne bottle you drank will make this a real party for you in a few minutes when it hits you. You tipped your head back and laughed. “There it is.” He said it in a whisper. You have him a questioning look. “My favorite laugh.” He was making you blush again. This must have been what he was like before the war and it definitely wasn’t in your imagination. The flirting from the past few days was actually flirting. You weren’t sure what made him decide to be so obvious about it, but you didn’t care. “If no one else has told you, you look incredible tonight.” You were clad in a black strapless sweetheart neckline dress with a sequined bodice and jewel embellishments down the tulle skirt.

“You clean up pretty nicely yourself. I like the hair cut by the way.”

“It was time to get rid of the last thing that reminded me of The Winter Soldier...well other than the scary arm.”

“The arm isn’t scary.”

“No? Some of the looks I get say otherwise.”

“No. The metal arm is actually pretty sexy.” You didn’t even think before you said it. He had a smirk plastered to his face and this time you made yourself blush.

“You think I’m sexy?”

“I said the arm was sexy.” He stepped closer so you were leaning against the high railing again, his arms on either side of you caging you in again. You felt the tip of his nose run across your shoulder and up your neck as he whispered in your ear.

“You’re going to be the death of me, you know that?” The two of you had been dancing around each other for the last year, neither brave enough to make the next move. “If it wasn’t obvious by now, I have feelings for you. Big ones. The only question is, do you feel the same?”

“Do you really have to ask? Of course I do.” You felt his lips press against your shoulder and then your neck and it was like someone sucked the air out of you. He placed his hand in the side of your face and looked into your eyes for a moment and then put you out of your misery by pressing his lips to yours. It was like the missing piece had finally been put in its place. As you gripped his shoulders to deepen the kiss you heard someone clear their throat.

“Gross. Get a room.” Sam’s teasing voice rang out through the air. Bucky groaned and dropped his head as you peered around him to look at Sam. “Listen, this is your party Stark, you better get in there before someone else comes out here looking for you. Last thing we need is a reporter snapping a picture of this and ruining everyone’s breakfast tomorrow.”

“Yeah yeah we’re coming.” Bucky’s voice was laced with irritation. When Sam had retreated back inside you cupped both sides of Bucky’s face and pressed your lips to his again.

“Come dance with me. I’ve heard you’ve got some moves.”

“They May be outdated sweetheart.” You grabbed the bottle of champagne and downed the rest of it and then took Bucky’s hand and pulled him towards the entrance.

***

“You okay? I mean you seem okay now, but I know you’re good at hiding it.” You were standing with Steve side by side at the bar. The bar that Nat would often mix drinks at during one of the many party’s your father would throw. Bucky had excused himself to go dig out more of Thor’s Asgardian liquor for him and Steve. You were pleasantly buzzed if not a little bit drunk. Your face hurt from laughing. You had spent the evening dancing with Bucky, Sam and Sam’s date. She worked for you at Stark Industries in research and development. You had introduced her and Sam a few months ago and they, as you knew they would hit it off. She was funny like Sam but tough enough to not take his shit. He needed someone to keep him in line.

“I really am Steve. I promise. It just hit me hard when I was standing up there. Bucky, he.-“ Steve grinned and cut you off.

“It’s about time. I’ve watched the two of you tip toe around liking each other since he joined us. There’s a reason you get so angry with him.” You gave him your infamous eye narrow and lip pursed expression. “Y/N- even your father knew. He encouraged Bucky to go to you.” Your eyes widened.

“He did?!” You knew Tony had let go of what happened but you never would have expected him to be okay with you having any sort of romantic relationship with James Buchanan Barnes...let alone encourage it.”

“He wants you to be happy. He’s happy. After everything that has happened he knows how important it is to say how you feel. He wants you to have what he has. He sees how Buck looks at you, how you look at him. How you talk about him. He’d never deny you that.” You looked over at your father and Pepper dancing and felt your heart swell for him. Your attention was drawn back when you heard Bucky set a glass down in front of Steve.

“God that smells like turpentine” you scrunched your nose in disgust.

“Well sweetheart not all of us can still be light weights.” Bucky grinned at you. Steve excused himself to head over to Sharon. You were happy that he seemed to find some happiness after everything. He had thought about going back and staying with Peggy. But creating a new timeline could have consequences. Plus the idea of leaving Bucky behind what inconceivable. You watched as Bucky downed his drink and shuddered a little bit. You both laughed and then he put his hand out as a slow song started playing over the crowd. You placed your hand in his and led him lead you to the dance floor. His one hand found the small of your back and pulled you flush against him while your other hand was still in his. You placed your free hand on the back of his neck, enjoying the feeling of his freshly buzzed hair. He kissed you lightly and you enjoyed being so close to him. If anyone would have told you this was how you would spend your night, you would have laughed at them.

“So my father gave you his blessing I hear?” Bucky let out a throaty laugh.

“And then threatened my life if I ever hurt you. He said he still has a suit.” You laughed and rolled your eyes.

“That sounds like my father. I’m glad he did. I’ve been hoping you’d make a move for a long time.”

“You could have made a move on me you know.”

“True- but you’re old. I didn’t want to offend your old fashioned ways.”

“You wound me.” You gave Bucky a grin.

“Speaking of old fashioned...your dance moves are pretty nice.”

“Oh yeah?” He flirted. Before you could respond, gun shots rang through the air and a group of men bounded in the room with semi-automatic weapons.”

“That’s the leader of the drug ring. Samuel O’Brien.” You were wide eyed and pulled away from Bucky. Samuel narrowed his eyes at you.

“So I assume it’s you and your friends that took want was mine. Now, I’ll take what is yours.” You watched as his eyes locked on your fathers. Before Bucky could stop you, you ran towards your father and pushed him out of the way as a bullet sank into your abdomen as the both of you crashed to the ground. Your ears were ringing and it seemed like everything was moving in slow motion.

“Dammit Y/N! You shouldn’t have done that!” Tony cried out as he pulled his jacket off to put pressure on the bullet. You couldn’t speak. You locked eyes with your father for a moment and then everything faded to black.

***

You felt pain, white hot searing pain. Your eye lids felt like they weighed a thousand pounds as you struggled to open them. As the white room came into focus you heard the steady beeping of a hospital monitor.

“Y/N?!” You slowly glanced to your right and saw the worried looks of your father and Steve Rogers. Your father had jumped up and was fussing over you and you groaned. “What? What is it? What hurts?”

“Everything.” You saw Steve reach over and click a button on your IV.

“Thank God you woke up.” Tony ran his hand over your head and kissed your forehead. You started to feel fuzzy again and felt yourself slowly slip from consciousness from the pain meds Steve had sent into your veins.

You didn’t know how long you had been out for as you slowly blinked your eyes open again. You felt the heat of someone’s arm next to yours. When you looked to the side there sat James Buchanan Barnes with his head resting on his arms. You picked your hand up and slowly ran your fingers through his hair. It took him a moment to wake up. He slowly picked his head up and gave you a sleep smile.

“Hey.” You whispered.

“Hey yourself.” He sat up and pulled his chair closer and took your hand. “Any pain.” You shook your head no. “Good, I mean they have you pretty drugged. Jesus you scared the shit out of me. I can’t believe you did that.”

“He’s my dad.” Was all you could say. “Did you get him?”

“Yes. We got every damn one of them.”

“How long?”

“You’ve been unconscious for almost two weeks. Most of it was medically induced. There was a lot of damage and internal bleeding. They tapered you’re meds down and it took two more days for you to wake up. We thought we were going to lose you. I thought I lost you and I just finally got you. Not that you belong to me.” Bucky sighed and stopped talking.

“You didn’t lose me. And if you’ll have me, I’d love to belong to you.” He pulled your hand to his mouth and kissed it.

“I love you Y/N...I think I have for a long time. I don’t know what I would have done if you didn’t pull through.” His voice caught with emotion.

“Hey- Bucky- I’m not going anywhere. I love you too.” He wiped a tear that slipped from your eye. He stood up and leaned over to place an gentle kiss on your lips. Your recovery would be tough, but you would get through it with Bucky by your side.

#avengers imagne #avengers imagines #avengers #marvel #marvel imagine #marvel imagines #avengers fanfic #avengers fanfiction #bucky barns imagines #bucky barnes reader insert #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x stark!reader #bucky barnes fic #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes fanfic #james buchanan barnes

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tonystarkbingo · 3 years

Photo

TSB MIV Week 17 Roundup!

We have only TWO MONTHS LEFT for this round of TSB!

Title: When We Break With Tradtions - Chapter 1: A New Path Collaborator: J_Gun_i (Fighting_for_Creativity) Card Number: 4004 Link: AO3 Square Filled: T5 - Fatigue Ship: Ironhusbands, (pre)M'Baku/Rhodey/Tony Rating: Mature Major Tags: Spiritual Man M'Baku, Established Rhodey/Tony, Meddling Shuri, panic attack (?), strong opinion against outsiders (at first), kinda soulmates. Summary: M'Baku was approached by Princess Shuri who had an unusual request. Agreeing to it, M'Baku found soon out that he set things into motion, he'd never have dreamed of. But what can he do when souls are bound to be together. Also, no one is safe from a meddling Princess Shuri. Word Count: 8625

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Title: a moment in between Collaborator: ohjustpeachy Card Number: 4017 Link: AO3 Square Filled: S5 - Fears appear in reality Ship: IronHusbands Rating: Gen Major Tags: hurt/comfort, angst Summary: Those few blissful seconds right before he regains complete consciousness sometimes feel like all he has left. Then, of course, the realization hits, and Rhodey feels the loss all over again, hears the words anew every time. Complete paralysis. Tonight is one of those nights. Or, Rhodey wakes from a nightmare and Tony does what he can. Word Count: 1203

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Title: Rumor Has It Collaborator: Faustess Card Number: 4059 Link: AO3 Square Filled: K3 - Holding Hands Ship: IronHusbands; Pepper/Steve Rating: Gen Major Tags: Implied (not actual) Infidelity Summary: Rhodey wakes up to find Tony reading aloud to Pepper and Steve about his (supposed) wild, playboy lifestyle and their respective roles in it. Jim Rhodes is not caffeinated enough for this kind of hilarity. Word Count: 1319

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Title: m the Edge (Screaming My Name) Collaborator: ralsbecket Card Number: 4056 Link: AO3 Square Filled: A3 - Free Space Ship: Stony Rating: Mature Major Tags: Major character death, angst/tragedy, canon-typical violence Summary: They’d gotten there too late. Everyone used to joke with Steve about him being the Man Out of Time, and today of all days the reminder is just a sharp slap to the face. Maybe he needs a slap to the face, Steve thinks briefly, because then at least he would feel something. Word Count: 5128

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Title: a lifetime’s a short time (when love never ends) Collaborator: deehellcat Card Number: 4028 Link: AO3 Square Filled: A2 - whump Ship: Pepperony Rating: Teen Major Tags: Canonical Character Death, Dementia, Grief, Aging, Avengers Endgame compliant, with all that implies, I'm Sorry, Implied Suicidal Actions Summary: Years have taken a lot from Pepper, and in the waning of her life, even her memories begin to fall away. Word Count: 2101

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Title: Along Collaborator: periwinklepromise Card Number: 4053 Link: AO3 Square Filled: A1 - Lip Sync/Karaoke Ship: Maria Hill/Natasha Romanova Rating: Teen Major Tags: none Summary: “Remind me again why I agreed to this?” Maria grumbles. Natasha gives a slim smile. “Because I asked you to.” Word Count: 388

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Title: That’s Fiancé Badass Collaborator: JehBeeEh Card Number: 4058 Link: AO3 Square Filled: K3 - Image (IM3 - Tony Handcuffed by his captors) Ship: Stony Rating: Mature Major Tags: Mob AU, Fluff, BAMF Tony Summary: Steve Rogers was many things. Patient was not one of them. This usually seemed to be less of a problem where his beloved Tony was concerned, but tonight his patience was wearing thin. He had plans. And Tony was late for them. When his phone rang, 20 minutes past the hour, he did his best not to let his irritation show. He really did try. “Anthony,” he answered in a levelled but commanding voice. “You better have a very good reason for being late tonight of all nights, my love.” Word Count: 1880

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Title: At the End of the Day Collaborator: Politzania Card Number: 4007 Link: AO3 Square Filled: A2 - Writing Format: Past Tense Ship: Stony Rating: Gen Major Tags: domestic fluff, established relationship, sleep deprived!Tony Summary: Steve helps Tony get undressed after a long day, gently fending off his overtures along the way. Word Count: 416

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Title: i am the horizon that you ride towards - Chapter 1 Collaborator: deathsweetqueen Card Number: 4066 Link: AO3 Square Filled: R4 - Kink: Alpha/Beta/Omega Society Ship: Stony Rating: Explicit Major Tags: major character death, rape, underage content. Warnings for this Chapter: forced marriage Summary: Tony’s mother and father die when he is sixteen. He doesn’t mourn his father, but when he sees his mother’s still, gaunt face, the dark colour of her skin washed out, there are tears in his eyes that falls, running down his face in rivers, matting in the collar of his jerkin. “Come,” Obadiah says, coldly, his hand landing on Tony’s shoulder. Tony cringes, but follows, mostly because he has no other choice – Obadiah, as his father’s second-in-command, had made his feelings clear; he had no intention of caring for his dead liege lord’s omega son, not when he could get to business and begin making alliances with Tony as the thing to be sold to some stranger like a horse. Word Count: 4664

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Title: My Favourite Day Dream Collaborator: startrekkingaroundasgard Card Number: 4048 Link: Tumblr Square Filled: T5 - arranged marriage Ship: Stony, Natasha/Reader Rating: Teen Major Tags: mentions of homophobia Summary: Forced to marry as young nobles, both Anthony and the reader had to abandon the people they truly loved for status and reputation. When Sir Steven and his trusty assassin Natasha agree to spend a few nights at their estate, the pair have the chance to see their loves again. However, around Steven, Anthony is a blabbering mess and Natasha is still angry that the reader chose to marry for duty over running away with her. Can they find their happiness or will they waste their second chance? Word Count: 1581

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Title: Iron Man + Avengers A Collaborator: rebelmeg Card Number: 4034 Link: Tumblr Square Filled: T5 - framed Ship: none Rating: Gen Major Tags: cross stitch Summary: Cross stitch of tiny Iron Man flying around an arc reactor blue Avengers A

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Title: In Victory, and in Defeat Collaborator: JehBeeEh Card Number: 4058 Link: AO3 Square Filled: A3 - free space Ship: Stony Rating: Teen Major Tags: marriage proposal, fluff and angst Summary: The Battle of New York seems all but lost. Until it isn't. And Tony can't risk saving the world without knowing the answer to a very important question first. Word Count: 2146

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Title: soothing Collaborator: ohjustpeachy Card Number: 4017 Link: Tumblr Square Filled: A1 - writing format: drabble Ship: Stony Rating: Gen Major Tags: fluff, drabble Summary: Steve realizes that the arc reactor has a sound. Word Count: 100

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Title: untitled Collaborator: Nicnac Card Number: 4048 Link: Tumblr Square Filled: S2 - Riri Williams Ship: Tony Stark & Riri Williams Rating: Gen Major Tags: none Summary: Ironheart moldboard Word Count: N/A

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Title: Bowling for Platypuses Collaborator: newnewyorker93 Card Number: 4042 Link: Tumblr Square Filled: A5 - Dark Alleys Ship: IronBros Rating: Gen Major Tags: Moodboard Summary: A moodboard for rebelmeg’s and my yet-to-be-actually-written fic in which Rhodey out-pranks Tony at a glow-in-the-dark bowling alley using an intriguing fact of platypus biology. Word Count: N/A

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Title: Skinmage Collaborator: 27dragons Card Number: 4027 Link: AO3 Square Filled: R5 - AU: Urban Fantasy Ship: WinterIron Rating: Gen Major Tags: AU: Urban Fantasy, Tattoos, Magic, Pre-relationship Summary: The magic for making pictures move was relatively well-documented, though it was a difficult and costly process. But getting marks on the skin to react -- that was infinitely harder, complicated by the living cells of the canvas and compounded by the changeability of the shape.There was archaeological evidence of past civilizations that had dabbled in it, usually reserved for especially high-ranking leaders. But those cultures had jealously guarded those secrets, and to the best of Tony’s knowledge, no one had ever managed to actually replicate the art. Word Count: 1027

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Title: A nice day for self-discoveries Collaborator: Gottalovev Card Number: 4077 Link: AO3 Square Filled: A1 - Kink: Figging Ship: Stony Rating: Explicit Major Tags: Slight BDSM (hair pulling, exploring power dynamics, talk of kink, talks of figging-but do not get your hopes up, I didn't tag it for honesty), blow job, hand job. Summary: Tony gets the wrong idea when he sees what Steve bought at the grocery store. (It leads to sex anyway). Word Count: 3772

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Title: Stanley Cups Before Wedding Rings Collaborator: JehBeeEh Card Number: 4058 Link: AO3 Square Filled: R3 - Arena Ship: Stony Rating: Teen Major Tags: N/A Summary: Steve Rogers and his team just won the most coveted trophy in hockey. And yet, that's still not the best part of his night. Word Count: 2040

#tonystarkbingomarkiv #tsbmiv #tsb miv weekly roundup #tsb miv week 17

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wordywarriorwrites · 4 years

Text

Chapter 10: Behind Enemy Lines

Masterlist: The Boss of Brooklyn A03 Story Link Author: @wordywarriorwrites Summary: When it comes to being The Boss, James Buchanan “JB” Barnes rules with an iron fist. For him, there’s no room for sentiment, and certainly no time for distraction, even if it is in the form of an old flame. Steve Rogers had bowed out of the life a long time ago, but a twist of fate brings him right back into the fold, and face-to-face with a man he once loved. When a game of cat and mouse turns into a matter of life and death, both will be forced to decide whether they’ll be loyal to the business, or faithful to each other. A/N: Bucky Barnes Mob Boss AU. Stucky. For: @star-spangled-man-with-a-plan Star’s Multi-Fandom Follower Celebration with the prompt, “Why did you do it?” & @sherrybaby14 Sherry’s Fall Into You Challenge with the prompt, “Show me. Prove that you can handle me.” Warnings: Language, violence, drug use, alcohol, smoking, explicit sexual content, illegal activities. *Re-blogs are welcome. Plagiarism isn’t. *

There had been too many close calls and Steve knew it was well past time to get out of Brooklyn.

Fury had managed to incite enough fear to scatter the Families, and in less than six months, he’d infiltrated their city and obliterated generations worth of hard work by using a combination of violence and propaganda. He’d essentially given them just enough rope to hang themselves with, and as a result, the Families had lost their authority and credibility, and would soon lose their livelihoods.

Blood had been spilled, and if they didn’t take the fight to Fury, he would continue to push in. If anyone resisted, bodies would continue to drop, and if it went on for much longer, people would either turncoat or tuck tail and run. It didn’t take much to convince Bruce and Natasha that they needed to go on the offensive, but The Boss, per usual, had not been so easily swayed.

Precious time was wasted because Bucky squabbled about everything and nothing. When Natasha pointed out that arguing and delaying would only serve to give Fury even more opportunity to do further damage, Bucky finally conceded, and agreed to get out of dodge for a while.

Once the decision was made, it was only a matter of retrieving their passports and booking a flight. They decided not to tell anyone where they were going, didn’t bother with luggage, replaced their cellphones with burners, and only used cash. It wasn’t until they were in the air and flying over the Atlantic that Steve felt like he could breathe again.

They arrived in Jamaica and got out of the airport without any problems. Since it was the only island in the West Indians Fury had yet to infiltrate, it was the best place to lay low, recuperate, and do some recon. Montego Bay, located on the north coast, was home to a major cruise ship port. As a popular tourist destination, there were plenty of resorts available to hide away in, and the crowds made it easier for them to blend in.

While Bruce, Natasha, and Bucky focused on plans for taking back their city, Steve spent his time healing, and it took weeks for him to start feeling normal again. White-sand beaches; long, unobstructed stretches of ocean views; jerk food; Mento music; the freedom to go where he pleased; not having to look over his shoulder all the time; the kindness of the hotel staff – it all aided in both his mental and physical recovery, and when he felt ready, he set about making contact with the team he used to run with.

It took a few days to get the word out, but with Bruce’s help, he managed to do it without drawing attention or raising suspicion. Steve chose a restaurant on Gloucester Avenue for the meet and the outdoor seating offered just enough privacy and ambient noise to ensure they wouldn’t be overheard. He selected a table that offered a full view of the street, and made sure to sit at the end so nobody could sneak up on him. The scent of pimento wood and authentic, local cuisine wafted through the air, and though he was the first to arrive, he wasn’t alone for long.

Maria Hill, Scott Lang, Carol Danvers, and James Rhodes were an A-list squad of thieves and baddies. They made it appear as if they were meeting up with Steve for dinner, calmly took their seats at the table, and perused the menu. They kept their features schooled, but their furtive glances suggested they were truly shocked to see him, and after the waitress served them their drinks and took their food orders, they immediately started talking.

“Nick said things went sideways in Brooklyn,” Scott voiced after taking a long pull on his beer.

“You pissed off the Families,” Maria stated bluntly over the rim of her wine glass. “Went rogue.”

Carol toyed with the umbrella in her drink, “Your actions got a man killed.”

Rhodey sat back swirled the whiskey in his tumbler, “And your Boss put you down for it.”

Their assertions, however misinformed, were not at all surprising. Fury was cunning and knew how to maneuver and coax people to his way of thinking. If he couldn’t connive, cajole, or get something credible to use as leverage, he resulted to wild accusations and downright lies. People in their line of work were hardwired to look for betrayal in all forms, and expect it to come from any direction, and because Nick was their leader, he was never second-guessed or questioned.

It was difficult for Steve to come to terms with the fact that someone he had worked side-by-side with for four years could so easily turn on him. He knew Nick wasn’t a good man, but then again, Steve himself wasn’t exactly a choirboy, and that probably explained why Fury had hooked and reeled him in so easily. Nick had saved his life. Gave him a job. Helped him and guided him when he was at his most vulnerable and least deserving. Perhaps he’d been naive, or maybe it was just a flaw in his character, but Steve had trusted him.

He believed they’d been friends.

“Steve, what the hell is going on?” Carol prodded. “Why would he tell us you were dead when you’re clearly very much alive?”

Pulled out of his internal self-loathing, Steve just sighed, and shook his head.

“Fury’s good at what he does,” he told them. “He sent me to Brooklyn and it went pear-shaped, but I swear to you, I didn’t sabotage anything. It was all him.”

The declaration made everyone fall silent, and during the moment of quiet retrospection, servers arrived at their table with heaping plates of food. The grub was so good, they didn’t start speaking again until after the dishes were cleared and another round of drinks were delivered.

Maria furrowed her brow and crossed her arms over her chest, “He wanted a foothold in the States. When the Senator fell through, you were his ticket in.”

“Which means he set you up and got you pushed out,” Rhodey said. “And since he doesn’t like to share, he’s decided to take it all.”

“And he hung me out to dry in the process,” Steve finished.

“So, what’s the next move?” Scott wondered.

Steve swallowed hard and ran a hand through his hair, “Fury drew first blood and the Families aren’t going to let it slide. They have the numbers, and no matter the cost, they will fight to the last.”

“Meaning what, exactly?” Carol asked.

“That despite your best efforts, war is coming,” Steve declared gravely. “And whether you like it or not, you’re going to have to pick a side.”

Rhodey held up his hands, “Look, what Fury did to you was bad, but he’s been good to me – to all of us. We did what we could for you, but none of us signed on for a fight.”

Steve sat forward and rested his forearms on the table, “Treaties don’t work unless all parties stick to the arrangement, and Fury has no intention of upholding his end of the bargain. It may not be your fight, but he will sure as hell make it your business.”

“For the sake of argument, let’s say we switched allegiances,” Scott countered. “How can you guarantee your Boss won’t do exactly what Fury did?”

“Yeah, what’s to stop him from taking all we got?” Rhodey inquired.

“Or putting bullets between our eyes?” Maria tacked on.

Their interrogation, ignorance, and constant referral to Bucky as his “Boss” lit his fuse. Unable to stop himself, Steve let out a sound of frustration, and slammed his fist down hard on the table.

“I should’ve better than to think any of you would step up,” he snapped sharply.

In the wake of his outburst, the restaurant fell quiet, and more than a few heads turned in their direction. Hands shaking and heart pounding, Steve apologized loud enough for all to hear, and once it was clear to everyone that a fight wasn’t going to break out, they returned to their meals.

Carol cleared her throat and rubbed her arms, “We trust you. We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t.”

Steve arched an eyebrow, “But?”

“We looked into James Barnes,” Scott confessed. “And we don’t do what he does.”

He snorted, reached into his pocket, and tossed some cash onto the table, “Yeah, you do. You just prefer not to get your hands dirty.”

“We do what we can do avoid conflict,” Rhodey reminded him. “Your Boss doesn’t. In fact, he seems to enjoy mayhem and violence.”

“And I came up with him, so, you think we’re the same,” Steve fumed. “Because deep down, I’m still just a two-bit, gutter-rat thug like the rest of ‘em. So, fuck me, right?”

“Steve, you’re not being fair,” Maria argued.

“No, you want to know what’s not fair?” he snarled lowly as he got to his feet. “It’s not fair that one of my oldest friends is dead. It’s not fair that I keep getting fucked over. It’s not fair that I keep getting stabbed in the fucking back. It’s not fair that I’m being left to shovel the shit that every, goddamn one of you has dumped on me.”

Scott stood up, “Steve, come on, man. Let’s just talk about this.”

Without another word or backward glance, Steve stepped away from the table, and onto the street. Even though he could hear Maria and Carol call after him, he ignored them, and pushed onward. His rage carried him all the way out of the downtown area and back to the hotel, and as soon as the room’s door shut behind him, Steve reached for the chair tucked under the desk, lifted it above his head, and slammed it down as hard as he could onto the floor.

The stream of expletives that flew out of his mouth was punctuated by the sound of snapping wood. The little chair didn’t stand much of a chance; it was pulverized in seconds, which prompted him to drop what remained, and send his fist sailing through the drywall. Steve was gearing up for another swing when the sliding door that connected to the private patio slid open.

“I take it your meeting didn’t go well?” Bucky taunted as he stepped inside.

Steve flipped him the bird, but said nothing.

“Well, as entertaining as your tantrum was to watch, you had better not continue,” he ordered. “If you do, someone will call security, and we don’t need that right now.”

“Thanks for the lecture,” he gritted out as he moved into the bathroom. “Now, fuck off.”

Steve waited until he heard the patio door shut before he stepped up to the sink. He cranked the water too hot, and the sting of it as it ran along his raw knuckles hurt like hell. When he glanced into the mirror, the reflection that stared back at him was all too familiar. Flushed face and hard-lined mouth; eyes full of something that bordered on madness; a wildness and furor that hadn’t been let loose since he was a too-angry, closeted, punk-ass kid.

It was this face – these feelings – that he’d been running from for so long. Steve had been on everyone’s side but his own and he was sick of it. Sick of the constant, nagging fear. Sick of being taken for a fool. Sick of the blame always being left at his feet. Sick of the orders, the lies, and the whole god-damn circus his life had turned into.

Disgusted with himself, he turned off the water, and dried his hands. He had every intention of packing what little he had and making a run for it, but when he stepped into the room, Bucky had returned, and that brought him up short.

Curtains drawn. Shoes lined up neatly by the dresser.

Box of condoms and a bottle of lube on the nightstand.

“Take off your clothes,” Bucky commanded lowly. “And get on the bed.”

Chapter 11: Strange Bedfellows

Everything: @jennmurawski13 @nerdy-bookworm-1998

Steve Rogers: @patzammit @hearttoearth The Boss of Brooklyn: @star-spangled-man-with-a-plan @jamesbarnesappreciationsociety @captain-rogers-beard

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petoskeystones · 5 years

Text

In Which They Go To The Amusement Park

stucky, pepperony, thruce, danbeau, platonic clintasha

no warnings

tw: cursing, maybe anxiety/panic attack

5,556 words

chapter 1/1

no beta because I’m not a coward

Tony was excited to go to his favorite amusement park with his best friends. He was not excited about the fact he had to wake up at three o’clock in the goddamn morning to get there. But he did wake up, and it only took him 25 minutes to get dressed and meander his way into the kitchen.

“Morning, Jarvis. Hey, Peter- what the hell?”

“Hey Tony!” Peter Parker sat at his breakfast table while Jarvis- bless him- made bacon.

“And what are you doing here?”

“You told me to be here at 3:15!”

“Oh yeah.”

And Tony sat down and ate a piece of bacon and inhaled three cups of coffee while Jarvis looked concerned.

“Master Tony, we have to pick up Bruce Banner at three-forty-five.” So the boys grabbed some food and jumped in the car. Once Bruce was safely in the seat next to Tony (Peter had grabbed shotgun, and he was so cheerful at this ungodly hour that Tony didn’t complain) and Peter was rambling away up front, they raced to school and made it to the bus in time to grab great seats. Once they were seated Tony took the opportunity to look around. He saw Thor get out of a black escalade in the parking lot smiling, and as it drove away a hand from the driver’s seat waved (Hela, probably) and a hand in the back flipped him off (Loki, definitely)

Bruce had sat in the window and Thor quickly joined him, just across from Carol and her girlfriend Maria. Carol and Thor were chatting while their respective girlfriend and boyfriend slept. Steve and Bucky were sitting upright like the ridiculously well-adjusted people they were: Bucky was reading some Russian novel and Steve was sketching him. Clint and Nat were not sitting together but opposite each other. Natasha was listening to music and Clint was interrupting her every fifteen seconds. Natasha was capable of murder and Clint seemed to forget that fact. Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne were watching Netflix and-

Pepper. Potts. She walked onto their bus? Pepper was on their bus? Tony nudged Peter, who was already vibrating with pent-up energy beside him: “Did you know Pepper, Rhodey, and Peggy were on our bus?”

“Yeah?”

“Sh-oot. Shoot.”

“You can swear in front of me, you know.”

And thus began the four hour bus ride to the competition and amusement park.

The ride up was actually fun? Peter was surprised that he made it either way though. He could barely make it from the Stark building to the school. And he usually would walk around the bus and maybe talk to someone at the front, or ask the teacher a question, but when Fury was the chaperone he decided to not risk it. He contented himself by scrolling his Tumblr dash for an hour, then checking his regular tags (“ravenclaw”, “adhd”, “thomas sanders” and “science side”), then he rearranged his apps. He also added some songs to his playlist and watched an episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved. Then he texted every group chat he was a part of, chatted with Steve who was across the aisle to him, and took some aesthetic pictures. He also went over his sheet music, scoured the website for the park, and finally fell down a Wikipedia rabbit hole about Dracula that ended up with the Korean revolution. And then they were there.

He was in band, and so was Tony, Bruce, Thor, Carol, Rhodey, Hope, and Bucky. Everyone else was in orchestra. That’s why they got to go on this sweet field trip: they were competing in their individual categories and then would spend the day going on roller coasters.

The performance went well, surprisingly. Peter yawned during their second song but that’s all and he was singled out by the moderator for being the youngest! Skipping two grades had its perks. Then they were on the bus getting ready to go! Peter had his headphones, his earplugs, his earbuds, his phone and his portable charger and his money and his raincoat in case it rained. His science teacher had gone over the weather the day before and it would almost definitely rain, and so everyone brought an umbrella or poncho or jacket. Except Steve and Bucky.

“How does the weatherman know?”

“All that technology can’t be trusted.”

“And besides, Ms Bowey gets things wrong.”

They hadn’t brought anything and everyone was waiting for it to rain to see the looks on their faces.

So after a lot of rules and yelling from Fury, and some smiles and reminders to have fun and to be at the ballroom area for the awards at five pm from Hill, they were off!

Bruce was happy. He was happy to do this forever, maybe: walk around the park holding hands with Thor, smiling while Peter talked and talked and talked, while Steve and Bucky walked side by side with whispers and scowls at Tony, and while Tony suggested every huge and scary coaster in the place, while Nat and Clint walked a ways behind and bickered. No school, no stress, no worrying. Even when Peter stopped to put his headphones over his ears when it got especially crowded and noisy, even when Tony stopped dead and hid behind a bench (Pepper had passed) and even when Clint tripped over absolutely nothing and they had to stop to check that he hadn’t broken anything he was absolutely fine! What a concept.

Carol and Maria were having the time of their lives. They had gone on every medium-level coaster in the park and were excited to try the especially fast and scary ones. The ride up had been nice too: Maria had napped and listened with one earbud to their Queen playlist and Carol had taken the other earbud while she chatted with Thor and exchanged pictures of their pets. Carol’s cat Goose was the greatest cat ever, but Mjolnir was a huge golden retriever and he was pretty freakin’ awesome too.

Carol had only joined band because Thor joined band. Thor only joined because Bruce joined. Bruce joined because Tony talked him into it in sixth grade. Thor had been dismayed to find he was the only jock. Carol had had to choose between orchestra with her girlfriend and band with her best friend, but she decided violins were dumb and took up the trombone. It wasn’t her favorite thing ever, but they got to take cool trips. And now they got in line, holding hands, hair windblown and messy. About five seconds after they got in line it someone put up a sign: the ride was closed due to weather. Good thing, too: it started to pour about five minutes after they left the line.

It started to rain while the group looked for food and Steve was going to punch something, he swore. Tony had an umbrella, Peter had a raincoat, even Nat brought a jacket. Clint had a dumb poncho. Thor and Bruce had jackets too and he and Bucky had nothing. As everyone started to snicker, Bucky scowled and Steve rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, keep laughing Poncho Boy. “

“Poncho boy!” Nat started to laugh. “New contact name.”

“Oh, you’re getting rid of Katniss Ever-lame?” Clint fake-smiled at her.

“Yep,” Natasha already had her phone out and was typing. “Smile!” Clint looked confused and so his new contact photo was him looking confused in a poncho while the rain poured with the new name “poncho boi”. Everyone was already changing the name too. Steve smiled while Clint looked disgruntled. He was still, however, wet. Peter’s hair was starting to frizz and Bucky looked less than enthusiastic. He dragged his boyfriend, along with Tony, Peter,. Thor and Bruce, and Clint and Nat, into a random store that apparently had candy and ice cream. And ice cream cheered everyone right up.

It stopped raining and they headed outside in the post-rain warmth and haze. Everyone else was smiling outside and when Bruce tugged on his hoodie sleeve Thor looked up and saw a double rainbow. He took a picture and posted it to instagram along with most of their friends, but Peter won Best Caption.

The sky said GAY RIGHTS

The speakers around the park had been playing music the whole time and all of a sudden, You’re My Best Friend was playing and through all of the people, Thor saw a tall girl with dark, short hair start wildly waltzing with a shorter blonde girl in a flannel. He smiled.

Their group had a problem, Clint soon realized. Natasha, Thor, Bucky and Tony wanted to go on every single ride and coaster in the park. Peter, Steve and Bruce, along with him, wanted nothing to do with scary rides. So they compromised. They built up to the scary rides and they started with some of the wild, spinny rides; those were Peter’s favorite anyways. There was no line for them. They rode them about five times in a row: Clint and Peter (he was mad at Nat), Nat and Steve, Bucky and Tony (they looked ready to throw the other out of the seat) and Thor and Bruce. Peter weighed about five pounds so he was repeatedly thrown into Clint while they laughed.

Then they went on the pirate-ship that rocked from side to side. Peter wasn’t allowed to have headphones and Nat saw him get worried, so she sat next to Peter and let him latch onto her wrist during the ride.

“HOLY FREAKING- OH MY- Oh wait, this isn’t so bad!” Natasha laughed as Peter relaxed next to her (even though he maintained his grip on her arm) and once they got off of the ride everyone was a lot less stressed.

“YOOOOOO,” Tony yelled. Bruce looked over and saw one of those cheesy games: Guess Your Age, Weight or Birthday! If I Guess Wrong, You Win A Prize! The prize was a large stuffed sloth that was about as big as Peter.

“Nope.” Natasha flat out forbid Tony. “You want to drag that thing around the rest of the day and then on the bus? Bad idea, Tony. Just buy one, you’re literally a billionai-”

He was already giving the lady five dollars and hopping on the scale. Natasha sighed and resolved to join the group with Pepper, Rhodey, Peggy, and Carol and Maria next time.

“So the way this works is that I guess the weight. If I’m wrong by five pounds you win a small prize. If I’m off by ten pounds you win a big prize.” Tony nodded.

“Hmmmm. I wanna say ninety pounds.” Tony stepped on the scale.

“A hundred and ten! Jeez, okay. You win a big sloth.”

“Fine. Nice job, Tony.”

“How on earth do you weigh a hundred and ten pounds? I can bench press you,” Steve wondered.

“It’s all muscle, Steve.” At that, Bucky choked on his water.

They sat down at some benches in order to get situated when Steve’s eyes opened wide and Tony turned around and Pepper Potts, the most beautiful girl in school, his best friend Rhodey’s new sort-of best friend, the girl who was rumored to already have been accepted to Harvard business school, she was walking right towards him and he was holding a ridiculous sloth and also hanging out with a bunch of nerds and Thor.

“Oh, hey, Peg. Hi, Rhodey, hey Pepper!”Steve smiled like he wasn’t talking to a literal goddess, the head of the debate team as well as the head of the Women’s Club at their school, and the greatest person possibly ever.

“Hey, so Tony, Rhodey pointed out your sloth and we were wondering where you got it? It’s so cute!” Pepper smiled at him and Tony would have come up with a good response, he swears, something like oh yeah I won it at that game over there they guessed my birthday wrong! And his friends would have maybe kept their damn mouths shut because they all knew how long he had liked Pepper. He forgot, however, that at the particular late-night study session when he had admitted this, Bucky hadn’t been there and so Bucky ruined it all.

“Yeah the lady at that booth guessed Tony’s weight as ninety pounds because he’s a midget, haha, and he actually weighs one-ten! Which is probably the snacks we’ve all been eating today. It’s funny because Steve’s maximum weight at the gym is one-thirty, Steve could literally bench press Tiny- sorry, Tony, here-”

A few things happened at this point.

Bruce yelled “Bucky, shut up!” while

Steve clamped a hand over his boyfriend’s mouth.

Meanwhile Peter and Thor began to ramble to cover everything up and

Natasha apologized for “my dumbass friends.”

Clint was giggling and the worst part was that

Rhodey shot Tony an I’m-so-sorry-dude-I’ll-talk-to-her look while

Pepper walked away, confused and probably thinking Tony was a short, weird, loser who could be bench-pressed by her best friend’s ex boyfriend, and most likely deciding to never speak to him again.

“BUCKY!” Steve was berating his boyfriend. “Why would you say that?”

“What does it matter, Steve?”

“Bucky. Pepper- Pepper’s the first person I ever really liked, like I really like her!”

“The first person you really-really like?” Steve arched an eyebrow. Tony had confessed to liking him in their freshman year, and Steve had felt the same way for a while too, but it was all in the past now. “The first person ever?”

Tony rolled his eyes. Bucky, meanwhile got the drift.

“Ohhhhhh, shit, Tony, I’m so sorry.”

“As entertaining as this is, guys, we’re going to be late for the awards if we don’t haul over to the pavilion thing. It’s four fifty-five,” Bruce interrupted. “C’mon.”

When Bruce said “C’mon”, the Panic! At The DIsco song got stuck in Peter’s head and he hummed it while they jogged through the park. They found everybody in their school standing at the pavilion, milling around with the students from a bunch of other schools in the area. Peter felt his chest getting tighter and took a few deep breaths in order to calm himself down. Hill and Fury called them all into the huge room and told them to sit with their groups on the ground. Peter hated sitting on the ground. Everybody was so darn loud, why were people so loud? He was sandwiched between Peter Quill, who was yelling something, and T’Challa, who was at least talking at a normal volume to Nakia, and Quill was touching him and everybody was so loud still, and where was Tony? Why were people touching him? Why couldn’t he breathe correctly? He heard Thor yell something across the floor, and his jeans felt weird on his knees, and he really hated the way those jeans felt, why did he wear them? Was the floor always slightly sticky? He grabbed his headphones and slid them over his ears, screwing up his eyes and humming “C’mon” a little louder and tapping a beat on the sides of his headphones. WAs that kid from another school laughing at him? He had to get out of here. Natasha and Clint were the closest to him. Clint noticed Peter and signed “are you o k?” at him. “No. SOS” Peter signed back. (Most of them knew sign language. Clint was deaf and Peter, when things got to be too much for him, would slide headphones over his ears and revert to signing everything.)

“I'm gonna take Pete outside, Nat.” Cluint stood up, earning a glare from Hill, and grabbed Peter’s arm and took him outside. They sat on a bench and watched the ceremony.

The band was the only one in the mixed highschool category and got first place, but the orchestra got third. Peter smiled and met up with ihs friends afterwards, keeping his headphones on but chatting with them nonetheless.

Maria and Carol were in line for the biggest roller coaster in the park. Again. They had been kicked out due to rain, had to leave the line to watch the awards, and now they were back. There was a huge line and Pepper and Peggy were supposed to meet them in the line after finding Tony and Peter and trading Rhodey for Thor. They were looking at a picture of Goose on Carol’s phone when they heard Thor’s loud voice from the back of the line (they were about halfway there, and the line was long as hell) yelling “Carol! Maria! I am here with Pepper and Peggy!”

The girls and Thor started to walk past the people waiting and were almost there when some lady stopped him.

‘Excuse me, where do you think you’re going, young man?” Karen (Carol decided to call her Karen because she looked like a Karen) asked him.

“Well, those are our friends right up there and we were going to ride the roller coaster with them.” Karen looked up at Carol and Maria, still holding hands, who waved at her and smiled. Karen faced Thor again.

“No.”

“But we have to be in a group together! It’s the rules for our school trip. Let us up!” Peggy looked angry.

“Young lady, go to the back of the line!”

Peggy was going to yell some more, and Pepper was seriously annoyed. But then there was a chime from their phones.

Maria: just leave it

Maria: legit it’s okay we can go on this one and y’all can pick another ride

Maria: and meet at another, cooler ride

Carol: my girlfriend is so smart❤❤❤❤❤❤

Pep: fine

Thor: sounds good!

Peggy: i will fight this lady tho

Carol and Maria advanced in the line, and they saw that the coaster even went upside down. They looked at each other and grinned.

“Good practice for when you’re in a fight and your plane goes upside down,” Maria said with a smirk.

“Yes, Maria. Because going on one roller coaster will prepare us for the Air Force. Mhmm. Yep. Okay. Put that on your application, Rambeau.

Carol and Maria continued the back-and-forth that Bruce and Thor loved to watch on their frequent double dates until it was their turn on the roller coaster-

“Sorry, girls. The ride’s full. You get to be first on the next turn!”

Carol was hopping up and down in excitement, and Maria was excited too (just a little less… bubbly) and that’s when the ride lurched forward and took off. They saw how fast it was and it was going to be so cool and then they heard the mechinery of the ride sort of stop. They waited for amminute but they couldn’t see the roller coaster come speeding back around. And then the announcement:

“Laaaaaaaaaaidies and gentlemen, the roller coaster is experiencing technical difficulties and we’re going to have to shut it down for the rest of the night. Our apologies again, and have a lovely evening!”

Maria snapped a picture of the priceless look on her girlfriend’s face.

Peggy, Pepper and Rhodey were having a great time on their own. Peggy was happy to see how much fun all of her friends were having, but the one thing that would have made her day almost-perfect was having a boyfriend there with her. Not because she particularly cared about romance right now, not because she was pining over Steve (she wasn’t) but because she was in a group of either five or three all day. Carol and Maria were roller coaster buddies for life, and Pepper rode with Rhodey because she was the one who had invited him along with their group to spend the day away from his best friend anyways, it would be rude to make him ride with Peggy or with a stranger. So Peggy was stuck with the “dad in the family of three” or the “third wheel” or the “flirty boy who had no sense of boundaries” and she was sick of it. On this ride, which might be one of their last, she turned around to see her prospects and decided that she might as well be proactive and pick someone who looked nice and her age and who would be willing to shriek with terror and exhilaration in the front seat.

There was a group of about seven boys directly behind them and so she took a deep breath and pivoted around, smiling.

“Hey, I’m Peggy. I’m in a group of three-” she indicated Pep and Rhodey, “-and so I was wondering if any of you guys would want to ride the roller coaster with me? Preferably someone who doesn’t mind the front seat and my incessant yelling.”

The boys looked at each other and Peggy worried she was about to be made fun of, or worse, put in yet another bad situation, but instead a boy with a smile and a crutch walked forward.

“Daniel Sousa, roller-coaster-rider extraordinaire, at your service, Peggy.” He smiled and she smiled back and the boys behind her started to giggle and Pepper did too. Peggy didn’t care, though.

Apparently Daniel wanted to go into the military, maybe the government, same as Peggy. He was here with a different school and had lost his leg after a bad car crash when he was a kid. He did martial arts and liked roller coasters and Peggy had a good feeling about her roller-coaster buddy.

The coaster itself was great. Pepper hated it but Rhodey, Peggy and Daniel loved it. And afterwards, when they were leaving to meet Carol and Maria at another ride, Peggy said “Well, it’s been lovely riding roller coasters with you.”

“Come on, Daniel! Give her your number and let’s get outta here,” one of Daniel’s friends called. Peggy and Daniel turned red.

“Shut up, Ray.”

“Wait!” Peggy grabbed a random piece of paper in her pocket, it turned out to be a note Steve had tossed her on the bus reading “does peter quill ever shut the heck up” but she scribbled her number on it and handed it to Daniel.

‘If you ever want to talk more about politics and martial arts, let me know.” Daniel nodded and Peggy smiled before walking away with her friends. As soon as they were out of earshot from the boys, Pepper whooped and Rhodey high-fived her.

“Tooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnyyyyyyyyyy,” Peter groaned in the arcade. “Lend me a dollar. Please. You’re part of the reason I lost five bucks on the bus! You’re a billionaire. Please.”

“What do you want to play, anyways?”

“I want to do the claw machine? They have a stuffed Bulbasaur I’m almost positive I could win.”

“Fine. Have a dollar. One dollar only.” Tony handed it to Peter, who grinned and ran to the machine. Clint was trying to get a stuffed Rowlet, and as soon as he lost Peter pushed him aside.

“My turn, poncho boy.”

Peter did win the Bulbasaur, and he gloated to Tony the whole way to the next ride.

“Okay. So some of us want to go on the huge, scary rides. And some of us want to go on the smaller ones. So Rhodey and Maria are meeting us here, and I’m going with Thor, Bucky and Tony and meeting Pep, Peggy and Carol at that ride that goes up the huge pole thing and drops down? And you guys can go on another ride. Deal?” Natasha finished speaking and nodded at Rhodey and Maria.

“Pep and Peg are at the Big Scary ride, Carol’s meeting them there after she eats her ice cream. Have fun!” Maria waved them off and the new group set off for some smaller rides.

They found one that didn’t have a very long line. It was basically a tilted platform, with a big circle on top with the seats. The circle spun around, slightly elevated, and Bruce took a long look at the machinery underneath. It was greasy and not very well maintained, but still cool.

Peter was hugging his Bulbasaur (“Her name is Delilah!”) and while they stood in line and watched some smaller kids go around and around, Maria picked Delilah up.

“Aww, how cute.” Clint grabbed Delilah away and put her in between the metal railing separating them from the ride. And Peter made to grab Delilah but only knocked her onto the ride. He looked in horror as she spun around, fell off, rolled to the edge of the underneath platform, and settled mere centimeters from falling into the greasy, deep pit of machinery and despair.

“Clint! Look what you did!” Peter said as they watched, transfixed by the steady brushing of the top platform brushing her bulb. The ride stopped, finally after what seemed like an eternity. Peter rushed forward and rescued Delilah, sticking his tongue out at Clint. The ride was starting, and Rhodey yelled “Steve! Your hat!” but it was too late and Steve’s army patterned baseball hat was blown off onto the platform, then off the platform, then it slid down to the gate. After the ride he grabbed it, ignoring the snickers from his friends, and they set off to find their friends. They were not in line for the Big Scary ride, on the ride, or anywhere near the ride.

“I’ll call Natasha.” Clint grabbed his phone and the conversation on the end Peter heard went like this:

“Hey Natasha, where are you? I can’t hear you. Yes I’m wearing my hearing aids, zhopa. I’m hanging up now.” Clint hung up and then said “No idea, couldn’t hear.”

Peter, Bruce and Rhodey went to their group chat with Tony:

Petey boi: tony where u at

Platypus: yeah tiny where r u

Bruce Banner: Tony, where are you guys?

Tiny stank: can’t talk rn guys

“Nothing.”

“Let’s get some food, then, we haven’t had dinner,” Maria suggested.

“Yeah! Let’s get this bread!” Peter punched the air and Btruce closed his eyes in silent pain. He missed his lab, with its complete silence and absence of memes.

They found the food and sat down on some benches in a sort of courtyard area, laughing at Peter as he stood on the tiptoes of his converse to order some tacos. Then Clint saw poor Delilah (who had already been through quite an ordeal) and grabbed her and sat on her.

Peter returned, saying “Dinner orders are in! For Maria, Clint and Steve: hotdogs! For Steve: a slice of pizza! For me and Bruce: Tacos! Where the frick-frack is Delilah?”

Clint snickered and everyone else maintained a poker face.

“You have to find her and then we can leave.”

“Give her to me, Clint!”

“Why do we always assume it’s me that does these things?”

“Because you’re the only one who does these things.” Everyone nodded.

Peter, resigned to his fate, walked in circles around the courtyard while Clint shouted “HOT” and “COLD” and Maria stifled laughs. FInally Peter gave up.

“Where is she?”

Clint stood up, Peter started to pounch Clint’s arm, and then their friends walked up.

“Topolino, what’d poncho boy do to you?”

“He took Delilah, Tony.”

“I swear to god, Tony- if you just referred to Peter using an Italian word that parents call their small children- I’m gonna-”

“Shut it, Steve. Like Bucky doesn’t call you dorogoi more than he calls you Steve.”

They kept bickering through two more small coasters, and another spinny ride, and then when it got dark they walked back to the bus. It was eight pm and they were going home.

Pepper was standing with Peggy and Carol, Rhodey and Maria jogged over and some of Peter’s group followed. Tony went over, too, and so Peter followed and left Clint, Nat and Steve on a bench looking at a vine compilation.

‘Hey… guys,” Tony said and Peter watched him not look at Pepper, but like in a subtle and chill way so it was less of a I’m-not-looking-at-you-because-Bucky-made-me-look-like-an-absolute-buffoon

And more of a I’m-just-really-interested-in-this-story-Rhodey’s-telling-about-that-one-guy-behind-you-on-the-ride

And Peter thought he was doing very well. Then they all drifted away to their own groups and Tony returned to casting wistful glances at Pepper, who was chatting with Peggy and some boy with a crutch and a wide grin.

“Y’know, in the cheesy romance movies, the boy wins a stuffed animal and gives it to the girl. Give your sloth to Pepper!” Bucky aid it like it was an amazing plan.

“No,” Natasha and Peter said in unison.

“If you had won the smaller sloth, and if Bucky had kept his mouth shut, and if you had given the hypothetical smaller sloth to her earlier, and if you were better friends with her, maybe. But if someone you were good acquaintances with gave you a sloth that was, like Peter’s size, and this was after that same person’s friends had acted like idiots- me and Peter not included- that would be red flags that that person had a huge crush on you. Don’t do it.”

Then they were called to get on the bus, and so they did.

AN HOUR LATER

Natasha was smiling at her phone. She was watching her favorite anime, First Squad. Her head was leaning on the chilly bus window, her feet were dangling off of the seat, one earbud was out, and she could hear the bus sounds around her.

Pepper and Peggy giggling and looking at Peggy’s phone.

Bruce and Thor watching Masterchef on Thor’s iPad.

Peter humming a Panic! At The Disco song right behind her.

Tony’s classic rock very faintly, he was blasting it in his headphones.

Carol and Maria quietly singing “Good Old-Fashioned Loverboy”.

Rhodey whispering to Tony, something like “it’s okay, she didn’t care.”

And of course, Clint Barton being a bitchass bus-mate.

Clint was her best friend, a decision she regretted almost every day. Right now she just wanted to watch some anime, relax, and maybe doze off a bit. But Clinton Francis “Poncho Boy” would not let that happen.

Natasha had brought snacks, and in the aisle of the grocery store at ten pm the night before, a big box of Welch’s Fruit Snacks seemed like a good idea.

“Nat, I want a fruit snack.”

“Natty, I can’t open the fruit snack!”

“Tasha, can I have another one? This one is mostly raspberries and those suck.”

“Natka, I started season three of Stranger Things and I swear to god, If Joyce Byers doesn’t get a break this time I will destroy the Monster Of The Year myself.”

“Holy shit, Tashie, you will love this season of Stranger Things.”

Finally Natasha opened her texts and just texted him with both earbuds in.

Poncho boy: it’s too loud on this fckin bus

Nat: take out your hearing aids and shut up

Nat: <shutthefuckupandgotosleep.mov>

Poncho boy: rude

Poncho boy: u know what

Nat: what

Poncho boy: imma watch buzzfeed unsolved

Poncho boy: also fuck you

Natasha was fine with that as long as Clint shut up, so she lay down and tried to fall asleep for a bit but Clint was also laying down (he took off his shoes because he was a horrible human being) and their legs were too long to fit on the seats, so after a brief (read: five minute) foot war they settled by having Clint put his legs on Nat’s seat and Natasha balanced her toes on the edge of Clint’s, she was shorter by about six inches. Clint soon fell asleep and Nat rested her head on her arm and finished her show.

Peter was less bouncy on the ride home. He got a seat to himself and so he curled up with The Office, spinning a fidget spinner and chuckling quietly, and then settled into his playlist until they pulled into the parking lot. That’s when the BIG THING, the thing that made this field trip go from “just another band trip” to a trip that was legendary in their friend group.

TOny had been eating the whole trip: chips in the morning, and then ice cream and tacos and cotton candy at the park, and on the bus home he finished off Natasha’s fruit snack stash with Clint and ate a Hershey's bar he found in his bag. Then he watched Netflix the way home on the bumpy bus ride. And the bus stopped, Peter Kept his earbuds in and then… something changed in the bus. Peter pulled out his earbuds:

So don't go breaking my heart

I won't go breaking your heart

Don't go breaking my heart

And nobody told us

'Cause nobody showed us-

“What the fuck just happened?”

“LANGUAGE, Mr. Lang.”

“Tony? You OK?”

Tony Stark, the heir to the biggest tech company in the world, a genius, the coolest dude in school, had just thrown up in the dimly lit bus aisle with his crush- the beautiful, incredibly smart and poised Pepper Potts, sitting two seats in front of him. Natasha started to yell.

“You guys. Let’s just get off of the bus, everyone.” Clint supplemented with “Shut up, Burch. It could have happened to anybody.”

Everybody got off of the bus except peter, Tony, Delilah, and the giant sloth that Tony named George. Tony looked at Peter. He really didn’t look that bad.

‘I should have given her the sloth, Pete.”

Peter laughed despite everything and helped Tony off of the bus, where JARVIS was waiting.

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w-m-blake · 5 years

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I’m very proud of the writing I’ve done this week! Mortal Truth; and You Wish You Didn’t Ask the Question came out on Sunday; You Are Dead, My Life, and I Still Breathe came out yesterday; and I just posted the fifth chapter of The Sands of Titan! This week has been very productive! To celebrate (and because I want to know what people are interested in reading next), under the cut I’m putting the titles and short synopses of fics I’ve got on my to-do list. Message me if you want more information/want to weigh in on what to write next.

If Even Death Were Grace: “we begin in the dark/and birth is the death of us,” Anne Carson, “antigonick.” Anthony Stark, son of Howard Stark, Titan of the Forge, and Maria Carbonell, Titaness of Family and the Hearth, God of Invention, finds himself like Iphigenia, a sacrifice—a pawn—to placate the furies of other deities, for transgressions he didn’t commit. Nevertheless, he holds his chin up and walks the path to Hel, averting a war and agreeing to a marriage both. Better this than the alternative. Frostiron, retelling of Persephone and Hades (at least inspired by) with Tony in the place of Persephone and Loki as Hades.

I’m Not Playing God: (All this time, I’ve been playing human.) Frostiron, ThorBruce. Tony Stark walks out of the abandoned bunker in Siberia having awakened, realizing he was a god born to walk with humans. Rewriting from about the end of Ragnarok to Endgame.

I Hear You Whisper underneath Your Breath/I Hear You Whisper You Have Nothing Left: Tony wakes from nightmares of a life he can hardly imagine, a life where he’s left behind in a freezing bunker by an enemy wearing Steve Rogers’ face. Loki tries to comfort him, to distract him from these visions, but they become harder and harder to ignore—until something has to give. Frostiron.

Desiring More Yet: Harley Keener is always hungry, always starving, always looking for the next thing to drive his teeth into. He burns through ideas, through petty lovers, through inventions and motivations and addictions, looking for something—anything—that will satisfy him. He was hungry before leaving Rose Hill, his hunger driving him to New York, and he's still hungry even now, even cared for and loved by Tony and Pepper, even in this place that was supposed to be everything that he wanted. Perhaps it was some kind of idle dream, expecting thing new place to be all that he wanted, all that he needed.It did, at least, provide more distractions from his hunger than Rose Hill, Tennessee did. Peter Parker is content with what he has. Most of the time, at least. Sure, sometimes he's a little lonely—but Aunt May, Ned, MJ, Tony, Pepper, they're all there for him, just a phone call or a text away at their farthest. Sure, sometimes he carries this guilt from not doing enough, not being enough, failing people—but he's Spiderman, and he can't afford to get too down, because he's got other people counting on him. He pulls through. Sure, sometimes, the night is so big and dark and he feels like it's so empty it's going to swallow him whole, but Karen's in his ear all night, keeping him going. He's fine. Really. Maybe he's not as fine as he wants to be. Parkner.

One-Part Sadness, Two-Parts Tragedy: a Harley Keener character study told in three parts: the first is his time in Rose Hill, the second his transition from Rose Hill to NYC with Tony and Pepper’s help, and the third NYC post-Endgame. Major character death, no happy ending.

Warfare and a Man at War: a Tony Stark character study that will be a series, beginning with Warfare and a Man at War, followed by Of Gods and Men and concluding with In Hope and Fear. Warfare and a Man at War will focus on human conflict, the struggles of human war and its effects. Of Gods and Men will be the introduction of aliens and Other threats, justified paranoia, and how one fights an outmatched battle to win. In Hope and Fear will conclude the series; it will be the end results, the conclusion, what happens to civilians once the threat is “gone.”

Brinesoaked Bodies: mermaid!au. Chapter titles: “Left Broadside onto Breaking Seas;” “The Black Hurricane;” “Worn by Winds on Every Sea;” “The Whole Uproar of the Great Sea Fell Silent;” “Serenity that Calms the Weather;” “Brinesoaked Bodies.”

Insensible Shades: a Rapunzel/Tangled au meets Orpheus/Eurydice. Harley is the stolen child of King Anthony and Queen Virginia. Peter, a thief/vigilante dubbed “Spiderman,” is on the run from the kingdom’s guards—a misunderstanding, he insists—and comes across a tower. He takes Harley to see the lanterns, initially rather unwillingly, only to accidentally drag Harley into the mess of his non-legal affairs. Peter sacrifices himself to save Harley; Harley, in turn, becomes like Orpheus and travels to Hel to trade for Peter. Parkner, angst with a happy ending.

Boyfriend Clothes: Harley Keener lives in the same dorm as his friend, Peter Parker. They aren’t the closest—Ned Leeds and Michelle Jones definitely take up more of Peter’s time than Harley does—but they share physics and engineering courses, and both work as personal interns for Tony Stark—which is kind of code for Tony pseudo-adopting the young geniuses. Harley’s best friend is Shuri. She laughs at how Harley gushes over Peter—so long as he isn’t around. In turn, Harley teases Shuri for how she stammers around MJ. They’re both disaster gays. One night, Harley sees Peter walking to/from the bathroom (or something similar in the dorm) in pajama bottoms (shorts, which barely come past the shirt he’s wearing over them) and a giant fleece button down. It reached down almost to his mid-thigh and hung off his shoulder a little, the top button undone so the shirt was open to about his mid-sternum. Harley took this as obvious evidence that Peter now had a boyfriend (maybe even staying in his room that very night) and had to get to the bottom of it; he had to at least know who Peter was with—if only for the purposes of moving on. Parkner, college!au, no powers, silly fluff & humor, shenanigans.

Untitled #1: In order to keep the Time Stone from Thanos, Stephen Strange liquefies it (the way that the Reality Stone becomes Aether) and places it inside the only one on Titan who has withstood an infinity stone before: Tony. Thanos retreats temporarily to plan again; Tony must learn to use his newly-gained magic before he returns in order to save the universe.

Untitled #2: Disturbances occurring in the magical “ley lines” or Circumstances lead to Stephen investigating the multiverse; the disturbances aren’t coming from within this universe, or perhaps even any specific universe. They seem to be coming from all universes and none of them at the same time; it’s the roots of Yggdrasil, shaking with anticipation for whatever is on its way. A horror lurks in the void between Yggdrasil’s roots, and Stephen has to locate and banish it. Frostironstrange, Ironstrange, multiple universes, alternate timelines, horror/lovecraftian horror.

Untitled #3: Space pirates. The Ironfam (Tony, Pepper, Rhodey, Bruce, Peter, Harley, Morgan) are on the run from the imperial rule of the SHIELD system upon Tony, Rhodey, and Bruce discovering the way their military employers maintain and gain power. They’re pursued by a small task-force (Steve, Natasha, Clint, and Sam; Phil is their handler) from SHIELD and the Winter Soldier, a ship from the HYDRA system (once a colony of SHIELD which revolted and is now in the throes of a Reign of Terror, French revolution style) commandeered by a (brain-washed) captain proficient at hiding his ship using comets and ice rock fields. (The Winter Soldier is captained by James Barnes, a spy sent by SHIELD to keep an eye on HYDRA, only to fall into their hands.) The Winter Soldier has commands to capture Tony, Rhodey, and Bruce for their military & scientific knowledge. Yggdrasil is a system far enough from SHIELD and HYDRA that neither know of it; it’s ruled by Odin, king of Asgard and conqueror of Jotunheimr, Vanaheimr, Alfheim, Muspell, Svartalfheim, Niflheim, and Nidavellir. Loki was taken from Jotunheimr when it was the last planet to be subdued by Asgard, being the furthest planet from the system’s star; Odin intends on making Loki the ambassador for the Jotuns, knowing that they still mourn the loss of their prince. Loki doesn’t take this well when he finds out; his mother Freyja helps him to flee. Odin sends Thor after him to capture him “on grounds of treason.” Stephen Strange flees the Sanctum Sanctorum System when his planet, Kamar-Taj, is invaded by the rapidly-spreading empire Dormammu. The Ancient One had been grooming Stephen for taking her position as the protector of Kamar-Taj once she had stepped down, but Kaecilius, a jealous pupil of hers, aided Dormammu in infiltrating Kamar-Taj’s defenses as what he saw as retribution for being looked over for the position. The Ancient One, worried for the fate of the people she protects (not necessarily governs, though almost every government on Kamar-Taj recognized her as an influential power), sent Stephen away, having one of her trusted advisers, Wong, take him from the system. Kaecilius hears of the plot to sneak Stephen off the planet before the Dormammu forces could invade, and he attempts to prevent their escape. This fails, but Stephen does gain the favor of the Cloak of Levitation in this fight. Stephen and Wong escape, bringing the Cloak. Stephen intends on someday returning to rid Kamar-Taj of Dormammu rule, but he has a lot to learn from Wong and the universe first. All of these plotlines intersect, threading through, around, and with one another. Polycule: Tony, Pepper, Rhodey, Bruce. Eventual additions of Frostironstrange and ThorBruce

Untitled #4: sick!fic; I have the list of headcanons/ideas here. Parkner. Cute & fluffy, featuring trans Peter with an unidentified but minor sickness and Harley being a good boyfriend.

Untitled #5: Stardust!au. Part One: Tony Stark leaves Wall to explore the land beyond it which beckons him, but only for a short time, with people depending on him back home. He falls for an imprisoned fae, attempts to free him, but ultimately fails and must return to Wall. Not long after, the watcher of the wall brings him a child in a wicker basket named Harley. Part Two: Eighteen years later, Harley Keener is infatuated with a girl named Victoria. He, trying to win her hand over her other suitor, E.J., promises to bring her a star that they see falling from the sky. He expects something like a precious stone; he, instead, meets Peter. They get dragged into an adventure running from star-eating warlocks, meeting lightning-catching pirates—who always make sure to dock frequently, so their captain can see his alchemist spouse—and a wild scramble for a throne that seems to have no viable heir. (Whether the fae is Loki or Stephen, I haven’t yet decided. Weigh in if you have a preference.) Parkner, ThorBruce, either Frostiron or Ironstrange.

Beyond these, I have my NaNoWriMo story (rough hands//soft hearts) and my Clint Barton Bingo card.

#my work #update #okay I'm rlly happy about the SoT chapter ?? so i wanted to celebrate #& I also rlly like talking about what I'm working on #partially because it makes me think about it so I'm more likely to get it done sooner #but I also am just rlly excited to write them #!!

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plush-anon · 5 years

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you have seen 4 and half minutes of random low quality clips from a three hour movie. The Russo's are 3 for 3, and all test audiences have been raving about what they've seen from Endgame. You need to calm down until you actually see the film lol.

guess you missed that part huh friend

(also one of my tags literally read ‘plush rants’, that doesn’t necessarily mean calm and collected response. this is a post i made to vent about possible outcomes for Endgame based off of my own concerns and opinions about what came out in the Clips. literally a ‘Dead Dove Do Not Eat’ kind of post)

On the Russo’s being 3 for 3, I’m gonna have to disagree there friend just bc... lord knows there are a LOT of issues with poor writing, plot contrivances, and plot holes with both Civil War and Infinity War that came directly out of their creative choices and views on the characters they are responsible for portraying.

For example, in Civil War:

When Ross was grilling the Avengers over what happened with New York, how is it that no one mentioned that the government outright TRIED TO NUKE NEW YORK CITY? There was a portion of the movie with Tony Stark flying the nuclear missile sent to destroy everything and everyone in one fell swoop - literal millions of innocent civilians - into the alien wormhole. How is it that no one tries to argue this on Team Cap’s team?

Who the heck hired Crossbones in Civil War to fcuk up the shit in Lagos? Was he still working for some fragment of HYDRA? What was his purpose there, what was his plan? He wanted revenge on Cap, but what was his plan to achieve that? Did Zemo hire him?

How is it that the Winter Soldier found the one place on an abandoned road where there was a convenient security camera showing him killing Tony’s parents in a way that there was no doubt those were the two people he was killing in the 80s/90s? did HYDRA put it there to watch it like a sports game, and if so, how did they tell Bucky that so he knew where to pull over, and how did they know the Starks’ travel plans to the point they could predict exactly where to run them off the road to that specific camera?

What was the point about the Five Winter Soldiers subplot, except to get Steve, Tony, and Bucky in one room together to watch the video tape of the Starks’ brutal murder? If the whole point was to turn the Avengers on each other, why not first split them apart, frame Steve as protecting a man who blew up the UN (even if it wasn’t him, the gen public still thinks this), then publicly release/show the video verifying that yes, this is a dangerous criminal and Cap is protecting him?

Does Zemo have a Crystal Ball to tell him everything that’s happening, in order to predict how everything fell perfectly into place? He orchestrated the UN bombing to frame Bucky, but how on earth did he account for the Lagos incident with Scarlet Witch, or the Sokovia Accords’ creation, or Black Panther’s involvement? How did he perfectly predict the fall of the Avengers and the stressors needed to force a split, to where Tony, Steve, and Bucky would be in place for him to bring them to the Tape of Dismay?

What was the point of including Ant-Man apart from the fight scene? Scott Lang’s entry into the MCU focused entirely on him trying to prove that he’s not a criminal and wants to do the best possible by his family and the world around him... only to throw it all away to break the law, fight with Captain America, and immediately get thrown in jail for it.

Maybe he didn’t fully understand what he was getting into, but what about Hawkeye, who has a wife and three kids? At the end of AOU, he was hoping to retire and live a peaceful life with his family, which was the whole reason Quicksilver died. Now his kids have no dad bc... why, exactly? He got bored? He wasn’t involved in anything leading up to the Accords like the Lagos explosion, why would he come back now? He knew full well what he was getting into when he joined Steve, and got arrested for it.What was the point except to flatten out the roster?

Why did Howard Stark decide to transport the Super Soldier Serum without any form of bodyguards nearby, ESPECIALLY with his wife in the car? Was the plan to transport it as quietly as possible while a heavily armored decoy distracted whoever was after it? If so, 1.) what danger/risk was there that required this method? 2.) did no one think to put a tracker on the Starks’ personal car while they were doing this, to ensure no bumps or hiccups? 3.) if there was a suspected leak at SHIELD, why would Howard endanger his wife needlessly under the guise of a normal drive out? (short answer: he’s a dick, but I digress) 4.) Who the heck were they trying to fool by driving around on back roads in the middle of nowhere? Where was their destination? (This branch of questioning I do recognize as not having enough time to flesh out, but the whole scenario raises a shitton of questions in general).

During all of this, where was Maria Hill? She was a higher up with SHIELD, and she was still free and alive. Fury was still presumed dead at large, I’m assuming, but wouldn’t she have tried to speak up, or was she keeping her head down?

And now, for Infinity War:

Why is it that when Thanos showed up, Loki didn’t use the Tesseract to open up a Portal to help all of the Asgardian refugees escape directly to Midgard, or even a nearby planet? Thor and Loki used it to transport back to Asgard at the end of Avengers: Assemble, and Thanos used it to teleport between planets effortlessly; while it cannot open massive wormholes on its own, it could still be used to transport people in between space, which Loki is known to excel at.

Why is it that, as Thanos was leaving the ship with Thor still alive, that Loki decided to call out to him, calling attention back to himself when they could have reconvened and sought out the Avengers to make a plan, all to try to stab him with a tiny knife?

Why didn’t Hulk show up before when Thanos was destroying/slaughtering the entire ship of Asgardian Refugees until Thor was captured and Heimdall was killed - why did he wait?

How did Bruce know to warn about Thanos, when he’s never shown any sign of being able to recall knowledge he learned as Hulk or memories during his time as the Hulk before now?

What the heck happened to Nova when Thanos went to retrieve the Power Stone? Wouldn’t the Guardians have been alerted when Nova attacked, given both their experience with the Stone and Gamora’s past with Thanos? How about the fact that StarLord can actually wield the stone somewhat? Wouldn’t they be a strong contender to stop Thanos, based on power and knowledge of him?

How about Rhodey suddenly deciding to turn his back on everything he fought for in Civil War without any sort of precursor than ‘he looks annoyed at Ross’ when Cap walks in?

What the heck are the logistics of Red Skull being the Ghost of Infinity Stone Past protecting an Infinity Stone he never encountered? Did the Tesseract transport him there as a protector, and if so, why doesn’t Thanos use the Tesseract to travel instantly to where the other stones are located? Why did the Tesseract transport the spirit of Red Skull to protect/conveniently explain the terms & conditions of the Soul Stone to anyone who came looking for it?

What was the point of killing half of all life to “preserve resources” or bc there weren’t “enough resources” for the populations when you kill half of all plants and animals in the universe as well? Did none of this occur to him as he was making the plan?

Doctor Strange said in Thor 3 that he keeps a watchlist on potential threats to Earth, which is how he knows about Loki - so why doesn’t he know about the Mad Titan with massive armies seeking the Infinity Stones at the beginning of IW?

For that matter, why didn’t Doctor Strange trap Thanos in a time loop like he did with Dormammu? Without the Time Stone, Thanos couldn’t escape, so why didn’t that come into play?

Also, what about Doctor Strange’s portal creating sling rings? If he had an issue with Tony Stark or Peter Parker being on the space ship, why not sling them back to Earth (or do they only work on Earth)?

For that matter, why not cut off Thanos’ hand with the Gauntlet USING these portals once they have him pinned? Could Thanos control his hand even as it was severed from his body?

Where the fcuk did the whole Wanda/Vision relationship bloom from, when they were on very opposite sides in Civil War, and Vision contributed to keeping her under house arrest? Where did romance even pop up there?

The Infinity Stones are supposed to be indestructible, as outlined in both GOTG and Thor TDW - how is it then that Wanda can destroy one now? Was it weakened by Shuri’s removal process (which was never aimed at destroying the Stone, only separating it from Vision without killing him)?

Vision was willing to sacrifice himself to destroy the Stone in his head and keep Thanos from winning, yet Steve goes ‘We don’t trade lives’, even when that wouldn’t be his decision to make - it’s Vision’s and he’s willing. Then they go to Wakanda to have the stone removed, and potentially hundreds of soldiers die bc that’s where Thanos’ armies landed down. They all knew that Thanos could track Vision (given that Steve and Natasha come to rescue him from the Black Hand at that subway station), so why risk the lives of thousands in Wakanda on the chance that he survives having it removed, only to have to destroy him anyways AFTER gods know how many have already died?

How was the Black Hand powerful enough to kill/maim/capture a host of Asgardians (who have been proven to have much higher durablity in regards to injuries in general) along with Thor, Loki, Heimdall, Hulk, and presumably Valkyrie, all of whom (save Hulk), have literal CENTURIES of fighting experience under their belts - and yet struggle and lose to mildly superpowered humans with far less durability to injuries than Asgardians (who live on average for 5000 years at a time, and have accelerated healing, as seen in both Avengers Assemble and the Agents of SHIELD tv series, which does share a level of canon to the main MCU)?

How could Thor withstand the full blast of a DYING STAR and be up again by holding his axe summoning the Bifrost’s power to heal him (????), yet not be capable of breaking out of Ebony Maw’s iron bars holding him in place in the first ten minutes of the movie?

How did Thor know exactly where to beam in via his Bifrost-wielding axe to Wakanda? Did the axe come with a GPS on finding ‘big ass battles’ to join in, or can it track Infinity Stones? If he stopped somewhere else to find out where to go, where did he go to and who told him? The Avengers didn’t exactly publicize the Infinity Stones or Thanos’ arrival, or leave too many people behind that Thor could easily touch base with.

For that matter, Thor arrived on Midgard before Thanos - with his Bifrost-powered axe, why not go to Titan where the rest of the Guardians are? He’s already with Rocket and Groot, so being able to track them down should be relatively simple to do on their end - why not meet up with them again? Why go to Midgard when he could have gone to face off against Thanos BEFORE HE GOT ALL 6 STONES?!? In fact, wouldn’t it make MORE sense to meet up with the rest of the Guardians than Midgard? They know about Thanos, they planned AFTER MEETING THOR to retrieve the Reality Stone - why wouldn’t Thor go back to them on this one?

And that’s just off the top of my head. Go looking in any Infinity War Critical tag, and you will find a thousand more.

If you mean 3 for 3 in terms of profit, definitely. Their upcoming movie outright crashed ticket ordering webpages for hours on end, to the point that to order tickets online, you had to wait your turn. As far as strong writing though? I would argue against that, based off of everything listed above and then some.

Fans on all sides have issues with pretty much every character’s portrayals, actions, and reactions, along with how the plot ultimately progressed. Steve Stans, Tony Stans, Thor Stans, Loki Stans, T’Challa Stans, Scarlet Witch Stans, Guardian Stans, Spider-Stans, Strange Stans, Hulk Stans - a lot of people looked at this film and found it lacking for all of these characters and their arcs, portrayals, their inconsistent capabilities after literally 20 films showing us everything they can do.

So while the Russos have done well financially for the MCU (and admittedly, made Civil War much less of a mess than it ever was in the comics - which is saying something about how absolutely fucked up the comics were), in terms of delivering satisfying conclusions for these characters, they’ve been found lacking again and again. Their idea of groundbreaking character work is to destroy or take away everything they love in absolutes, or to kill off characters to fuel Emotional Pain.

Thor didn’t have to lose everything to have an arc - neither did the Guardians. And while death will inevitably be a part of any Infinity War story, it’s extremely telling that the only deaths that left an impact are two of three that were NOT a result of being dusted - the ones we Know can’t be reversed so easily: Gamora and Loki. Characters that have suffered endlessly and received no happy ending with the people they cherish, after having lost so much already. The only characters dusted that people feel viscerally upset about that I’ve seen was Groot and Shuri, and the latter was only revealed recently in the Twitter campaign posters (and is also complete bullshit to pull on the audience - "randomly” kill off half the world, my ass, you killed off how many people in Wakanda and then some?!? No).

No one else’s death has left as much an impact in a story where half the world dies - and when the primary ending of your tragedy, having been built up to over a goddamn decade of films, leaves mostly a ‘meh’ feeling? You have failed to make people care, and failed as storytellers.

#infinity war #captain america civil war #russos #infinity war critical #plush rants #some more i guess #but not as angrily #long ass post #mcu #mcu critical #plush vents #venting #i have Many Feelings about these films #and while i somewhat enjoy civil war #it had no actual understanding of a lot of issues with both sides of it #and failed to make the best use of their characters as a whole #are there good elements? yes #they do very well with their action scenes a la framing and choreography #and some of their humor is done pretty well too #but as a whole? i'm more often disappointed #i do recognize they have a very difficult task juggling these characters #but with the resources and teams they have access to #they could do so much better here #remember they were the ones to push for a 'sympathetic thanos villain' move #anakinskydaddy

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that-shamrock-vibe · 5 years

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Superhero Spotlight: Avengers Endgame Posters - Reveals and Theories

Alright so we have our first set of characters posters for the upcoming juggernaut that is Avengers: Endgame to conclude and capitalize on the equally huge Avengers: Infinity War and wrap up what has been called the Infinity Saga phase of the MCU.

As these posters have raised many opinions, questions, theories and rather touching memes relating to other franchises and properties, I thought I would give my thoughts to some of the questions and theories as well as raise my own.

Missed Opportunities:

Alright so I can’t really go into what’s good or bad in terms of breaking down the posters because, unlike others, these are simply more or less headshots of the characters. Now on the one hand, this is a rather touching throwback to the first Avengers movie where the character posters there were also somewhat headshots as the main six characters were only shown to the side of the posters half-in in full supersuit attire. But that raises the negative aspect to this choice in that, it would have been nice to have seen the characters that aren’t in full supersuit attire in supersuit attire.

Now I can understand both sides of the argument to why they didn’t do this. As to why it would have been a good idea is because, for some of them, this is most likely their last hoorah when it comes to starring in an MCU movie and so to show Iron Man, Captain America, War Machine, Spider-Man and Black Panther with their masks/helmets would have been a nice touch rather than just seeing the character end with the head and then the actors take over from the neck up. But at the same time I can see why they didn’t because it adds another layer of drama and likeability to these characters if you can see the defeated look in their eyes and the determination they have to “Avenge the Fallen”.

Falcon, Star-Lord and Captain Marvel I give passes to on that because the latter two’s headgear isn’t always used and goggles pretty much block out any emotion. Also Thor and Loki’s helmets haven’t been used recently, Ant-Man and Wasp I give passes to in the same way I give Iron Man a pass.

In terms of characters not getting a poster, I do believe this all but confirms that Peter Dinklage’s Eitri will not return because even some of those who died prior to the snap made the cut for a poster and we will get into that.

Others who didn’t get a poster, who I am not so much surprised about but if Wong and Happy got posters why not them, are Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, Maria Hill, Nakia, M’Baku, Erik Selvig and Jane Foster. While we don’t know the fate of the latter four we didn’t know the confirmed fates of Valkyrie or Shuri to be certain.

Another missed opportunity is not having Ruffalo pictured with some sort of Hulk colouring. I still say his full promo shot for The Avengers which showed the Jekyll/Hyde of the character perfectly was one of the best promos the MCU has had. Whether or not they don’t want to reveal too much of this new Hulk they’re teasing may explain his absence but we’ll see.

The Reveals:

Alright so three major things are revealed in these posters alone. 1) Valkyrie, Wong and Happy survived the Snap, Valkyrie’s survival most likely means her rumoured appearance in the movie is true. I do find it interesting how all of the shippers who try pairing Cap and Bucky together in a romantic way are now also pairing Carol Danvers and Valkyrie together, yet unlike “Stucky” this pairing actually seems to be a potential thing as not only has Captain Marvel become an overnight LGBT icon akin to Wonder Woman, but because Tessa Thompson has already revealed Valkyrie is bisexual there are grounds for this ship to become canon and for us to have our first LGBT superhero romance in superhero movies either kicking off or teased in Phase 4.

The second thing that is revealed is Shuri apparently did not survive the snap, I genuinely believe this is a fake-out by Kevin Feige and/or the Russo Brothers as a way of throwing us off guard for a massive shock reveal.

I suspect, much like a lot of fans, that the shot of Shuri’s image among the list of the missing which also includes Spider-Man and Ant-Man is simply that, a list of the missing...not deceased or dusted. Yes Spider-Man is dead but unless Tony and/or Nebula are back on Earth at the time of this scene, no one knows if he’s actually dusted or not. We know Ant-Man isn’t dusted but trapped in the Quantum Realm so it stands to reason that after being knocked out by the Black Order during the Battle of Wakanda, she came around and simply went into hiding. There is every chance she survived the Snap because unless we see them turn into dust I wouldn’t trust the word of directors.

The third thing is the fact that only all of Tony’s supporting players survived the Snap. Rhodey, Pepper and Happy all survived to potentially see Iron Man’s last stand? It is weird that both Falcon and Bucky are dusted, no mention of Erik, Darcy and Jane, Fury and Maria Hill are both dusted and Banner lost his supporting players before Mark Ruffalo took over. So out of all the main six’s supporting players only Iron Man has his full team with him, maybe with the exception of Spider-Man but he’s a superhero in his own right.

Heroes are going to die in this movie, thee is no doubt about that. It is just a question of how gut-punching they want to make the deaths.as memorable and outstanding as possible. In my opinion, any of the main six dying would be a gut punch for the MCU but I feel at least Captain America or Iron Man will be one if not two of the casualties in this movie.

I don’t see Black Widow or Thor dying because Thor’s popularity of late has most likely saved him and he’ll hopefully go off and find a new Asgard while Black Widow, who looks fantastic here by the way, has her own movie coming out.

Banner and Hawkeye are the two I am on the fence about from a business and directorial standpoint, I love Hawkeye and am thrilled Renner looks set to finally full realize the character’s awesomeness here but when you think there have to be some casualties here it doesn’t look good. Also I think Bruce Banner/Hulk has run his course within the MCU.

The Theories:

So I have or have heard 3 major theories to come out of these posters, the first is my own Shuri theory in that her colourless photo here is simply a rouse.

The second is one I’ve heard revolving around Loki with fans saying that because he legitimately died prior to the Snap that it is a little bit odd that his photo is among those who have been dusted...unless he is going to return in Endgame. Firstly I am believing the same theory applies to Gamora because while she is in the Soul Stone rather than suffocated to death, she was never dusted and therefore technically shouldn’t be among these photos, otherwise where is Heimdell?

But secondly, I genuinely believe this is simply a list of fallen heroes who fell at the hands or Snap of Thanos and, for better or worse, Loki was a hero in the end as he tried standing up to Thanos. Do I think that means he’s getting a revival with everyone else, well I still say they need to make some deaths stick but because Loki is getting his own series and he has survived death a couple of times before, I would this it is plausible for him to make a surprise return.

The third, long-standing theory is that Marvel and Disney will use the Snap as a way of keeping certain Guardians members dead. This was something brought up in the aftermath of the original blow for James Gunn...but then it turned out he was never really fired and it was all just a fake-out.

When fans thought he had been fired though, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was in flux to the point where it was getting pushed back and fans believed it would be easier on Disney to keep the dusted Guardians members dead and have Rocket and Nebula either join the Avengers or go off on their own, but again this is now not the case.

If Gunn wants to wrap up his trilogy with his original team, as to be honest I think he should, then it makes sense for the four dusted Guardians members to come back. However, in this fan’s personal opinion, I think the MCU and Guardians 3 could do without at least Drax and Mantis. Star-Lord either needs to be held accountable for his stupidity on Titan or just needs to lead the team and be intimidated by Zac Efron’s Adam Warlock in Guardians 3, Gamora needs to return because she is currently in the Soul Stone. But of course, Dave Bautista is Gunn’s biggest supporter and so he will not stay dead.

Overall:

So it is sad because as nice as these posters look, we as fans already know they’re going to bring people back and looking at all of them lined up...if they don’t have a movie sequel or a co-star role in a movie sequel coming up, they have a television series in the works on Disney+. Now this again could be a rouse by Disney to try and lull us into a false sense of security but the ones who have TV shows like Falcon, Vision and Scarlet Witch are all three of my favourites so I don’t want it to be true and them to be reduced to TV but I also don’t want them to remain dead.

I would say the only ones on the dead side who currently could stay dead are either Hope van Dyne or Nick Fury. Hope because Ant-Man does not have a threequel planned while Doctor Strange, Black Panther, the Guardians and Spider-Man all have upcoming movies. Nick Fury because I can never remember how many more movie’s he has left on his contract and feel Spider-Man Far From Home would be a great fake-out not only if Fury in that movie was an illusion of Mysterio’s but also if it then when further to reveal that Fury was really dead.

So what do you guys think? What’s your favourite poster? Who do you think will stay dead? Do you see a romantic future for Captain Marvel and Valkyrie? Post your comments and check out more Superhero Spotlights as well as other posts

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dtissagirl · 5 years

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I fought the war but the war won

Warning: all the spoilers for Avengers: Endgame.

OF COURSE I have no doubt Natasha would sacrifice herself for the world in a heartbeat.

And between her and Clint, it's obvious her thinking is he can have a future with his ~family~, and she's obviously been insanely isolated these last five years, and filled with regret, and sacrificing herself for her found family [and saving the universe in the process] is worth it for her.

But my problem is I don't acknowledge the existence of Clint's family because that's a dumbass story idea from the worst movie ever GO AWAY LINDA CARDELLINI.

And watching Nat and Clint back together made my heart ache because those two belong together -- romantically if you prefer it so, but mainly together as in partners that work insanely well together in a fictional narrative. They have had this lived-in chemistry from the first Avengers, and I didn't realize how much I had missed it until this movie.

[Fuck Joss Whedon with a cactus forever.]

[Someone make me that Black Widow movie and show me Budapest. I DESERVE IT.]

...

And then the scene with all the dudes in the lake angry-mourning Nat looks REALLY REALLY BAD because the only thing that emotionally rings out of that scene is HOLY SHIT THEY FUCKING KILLED THE ONLY WOMAN OH MY GOD PLEASE END ALL MEN WRITING SUPERHERO STORIES BECAUSE THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW HORRIBLE THE OPTICS ARE WHEN THEY FUCKING KILL THE ONLY ORIGINAL WOMAN AVENGER IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE MOVIE THAT'S SUPPOSED TO CELEBRATE THEIR LEGACY. HOLY FUCK.

...

Holy motherfucking shitballs what they did to Thor was a supreme case of extreme fatphobia. So fucking embarrassing. And they could have done the exact same depression/PTSD shit without a fat suit. Fatness is NOT a character flaw, and for this movie to think it's okay to portray it as such, and for most people in the audience to not even realize how horrible this is... well, that's the fatphobic world we live in everyday wherein thin people don't realize how fucking horrible they are about fatness ALL THE TIME. Ugh.

And hey, I think Hemsworth is a comedic genius at this point, and I'm super glad Hollywood at large has realized he can run circles of funny and comic timing around everybody else [THANKS, GHOSTBUSTERS!], but the fat suit soured it forever in this movie.

...

Look, I know at this point Goop is a hazardous danger to women's health at large, and call me a hypocrite for separating actor and character this particular time when I usually don't, but I love and adore and cherish Pepper Potts with all my heart.

SHE is the reason I'm so connected to the MCU. My hook wasn't any of the superheroes, it was Pepper in the first Iron Man movie. She's the glue that has made me engage with this universe so deeply for the last ten years. All the fanart, all the fic, all the fanworks ever I've created or consumed in the last decade, it has been all about how much I adore Pepper.

And to see her in the Rescue armor in the final battle, I just. I wasn't expecting it. I hadn't even thought it was ever gonna happen, but THIS was the true culmination of the past ten years for me. From now on, I can say it without a doubt every single time someone asks me who's my favorite Avenger. It's Pepper Potts.

[I also kept thinking about my friend S. She would have been so fucking ecstatic about this. It hit me right in the face when Pepper showed up in battle -- I so dearly wish S were here to see this.]

...

Okay, so, disclaimer: I don't have a horse in the Steve Rogers 'shipping infinity wars. I crack 'ship Steve with Maria Hill forever and ever because they would make the prettiest babies on the planet and I don't even like babies. The only part of Ultron that I acknowledge is Maria wearing Steve's jacket at the party. It's the ONLY thing that happened in that movie, NOTHING ELSE DID.

And I don't even blame Steve in any of this mess, to be honest.

The problem here is structural. The narrative went OUT OF THIS WAY to establish HOW time-travel works in this universe. They even got all gloat-y about how every movie ever made was wrong about the ~quantum physics~ of it. They even had bald Tilda Swinton MAKE A POWER POINT PRESENTATION about the rules of time travel.

They set up ONE very specific rule -- changing the past doesn't alter one's own future, it creates a separate timeline of events. O-kay. Pretty simple rule.

...And then Old!Cap who looks scarily like Joe Biden broke that one rule.

Because he did. He went back in time and put all the stones in their proper place in the timeline[1]... and *after that* he went back to the 40s to live happily ever after with Peggy[2], THUS ***CHANGING THE PAST*** and *****CREATING AN ALTERNATE TIMELINE*****.

So there's no. fucking. possible. way. he could have grown old in the original timeline.

And like. They could have fixed that by having Joe Biden Old!Cap legit come back IN THE TIME TRAVEL SUIT IN THE QUANTUM PLATFORM. THAT WOULD HAVE FIXED THIS PROBLEM. But they didn't, so they broke their own story.

And the consequence of this fuck up is... Steve a horrible person. [And even writing that makes me sad because he isn't? He wouldn't ever?] But by breaking their story and their own time-travel rules, it fucks up Steve so badly I wanna cry. So what, he lived a whole life in this same timeline, and did nothing to change anything? Did he marry the future DIRECTOR OF SHIELD and never told her about Hydra? About Bucky? Did he open a newspaper one day and read that Howard and Maria Stark died in a car accident and went, oops? Did he pretend he was sick when his wife told him she was going to the funeral of her lifelong friend?

Do you see how badly it looks? It's bad. The Steve I know and love doesn't deserve this. Please go punch the Russos in the face, Cap.

Notes:

[1] HOW did Steve even put the stones in jewel form back in their proper places in the timeline when they stole the Tesseract in cube form, the mind stone with the scepter, the whatever stone that was they got from Star Lord that was inside an orb... HOW do you even put the soul stone back, like, does Cap go to Vormir and goes, oh hey, RED SKULL MY OLD BUDDY, MY OLE TIME FELLA, here's your soul stone back? Does he get Natasha back for the stone? Isn't it a soul for a soul? Does it work in reverse too?

[2] Hey, so if Steve lived happily ever after with Peggy in this timeline did he erase her future kids? This is Barry Allen levels of fuckupdness, Steve. Gah. And also -- I would pay actual monies to watch time-traveler Steve explain to Peggy that after he went to her funeral he kissed her niece. This is why I 'ship Steve with Maria Hill, man. No complications. Only pretty.

Also: STEVE ROGERS ERASED THE ENTIRETY OF THE AGENT CARTER TV SHOW. That's pretty unforgivable, man. They even had TV show Jarvis right there in this movie driving Tony's dad around in the 70s to make THIS BETRAYAL hurt more.

...

Four hours after I watched the movie I remembered Tony died and started ugly crying again. I'm glad he had those five years of a good life, I'm so glad he had a kid -- that kid, so obviously HIS kid it hurt, I'm so glad Pepper and Rhodey and Peter were there with him in his last moments. I'm glad he got the proper hero death. It still hurts like a son of a bitch.

...

Professor Hulk is a forever delight and he and I need to become besties so we can talk about quantum physics and eat hulkish amounts of breakfast foods every day.

...

I find Thanos to be a complete bore, so every time he sat and started monologuing I stopped paying attention because I DESERVE TO NOT have to listen to giant purple incels pretending they ~know best~ about anything.

But I did appreciate that there was a difference in tone. This was 2014 Thanos, before he went full on cray cray with the monologuing, so he spoke less [bless], and he went full nihilist I AM GOING TO DESTROY THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE instead of only half of it ~for balance~ or whatever. Because Infinity Wars tried to make it like Thanos wanting to kill 50% of the universe had some sort of ~logic~ behind it, and that was way too close to ~both sides~ shit, and, no, son. Him wanting to destroy EVERYTHING put him in the right proper category of batshit crazy bananapants deranged, and that's where he should have been ALL ALONG, no ~he has a point~ arguments ever valid, he doesn't, he never did, shut the fuck up.

...

I actually really really enjoyed the pacing of this movie. Granted, I'm not stupid and I took a muscle relaxant beforehand so that I could sit still for one hundred and eighty two fucking minutes, but I honestly didn't feel it drag at all at any time [and I felt all the other Avengers movies drag at some point or another].

I appreciated it so much that the set up for the final battle took waaaaay longer than the final battle. [I know people go ga-ga for battle scenes, but eh. I prefer my superheroes as pretty people who talk really fast, and battles make them stop talking.]

My favorite sequence was the revisiting of the previous movies. I loved every single piece of it, and I know in my heart that I'm gonna rewatch those sequences over and over and over again for the rest of forever. THE CAP 2 ELEVATOR SCENE REENACTMENT BUT NOT REALLY OH MY GOD THAT WAS GLORIOUS.

Also Loki stealing the Tesseract [again!] was aces. Sure it was to set up extra time-travel shenanigans, but still. Loki and the Tesseract belong together. Please let this be the premise of the Disney+ series.

...

Even though battle sequences aren't really my thing, I would like to express my DEEP ABIDING LOVE for the part when all the women got together to help Peter move the Big Glove of Kitsch towards the van. My packed theater clapped so hard. I cried.

...

HOW DOES PETER PARKER GO BACK TO SCHOOL FIVE YEARS LATER AND HIS BUDDY IS STILL THERE DID HIS BUDDY FLUNK HIGH SCHOOL FIVE YEARS IN A ROW? WHAT?

...

Also Cap and the Hammer, the actual true love story of this movie. Thor's little "I knew it". I knew it too, buddy.

...

I'm gonna need Marvel to release the behind the scenes footage of the filming of Tony's funeral. I hope the cast had an actual party right there, all somberly dressed in black and everything.

...

After a full season of 22 episodes of television in a movie screen, this was a pretty great finale. Congrats on making the most expensive tv show of all time, Marvel. Excelsior!

#mcu #marvel cinematic universe #avengers #avengers endgame #endgame #movie #spoilers

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inawickedlittletown · 5 years

Text

Walking The Wire (126/156)

Summary: Tony Stark always knew about Peter Parker. He didn’t know that Peter was going to get superpowers and become Spider-Man, but he always knew about Peter because Peter was his son.

This will span from pre-Iron Man up through the rest of the MCU (eventually including Infinity War) and will be for the most part canon compliant except where I’ve taken some liberties and interpreted canon a certain way.

Pairings: Pepper/Tony, Tony/Steve (endgame), Tony/Mary (past)

A/N: If you want me to tag you when I post new chapters let me know. This fic is also on AO3

I used Collider’s MCU timeline to stay canon and the title of this fic is an Imagine Dragons song that is just so fitting for Peter and Tony

@findmeinthestarss

Masterpost

Chapter One Hundred Twenty Five

The tower seemed emptier without Tony. Friday was still there, the bots were still there, and K-9 ran to meet them when they entered the tower. Steve barely had the energy to bend to down and pet the robot dog and Steve had to wonder if K-9 had noticed the absence of Tony and Peter. The dog followed him as they all crowded into the living room of the penthouse and stayed by his side. It was a little sad.

None of them knew what to do.

“We can’t -- we can’t just sit around and do nothing,” Natasha said eventually. “I’m going to try and contact Fury and Hill.”

Steve nodded.

“I’ll call Pepper,” Rhodey said.

None of them said it but they hoped that the three of them hadn’t been dusted. Steve didn’t really want to think about who else they had lost.

Steve didn’t know who turned on the tv, but the news came on and immediately it was obvious that things were worse than they could have imagined. There were accidents everywhere. People disappearing in their cars or worse while flying helicopters or airplanes. Everywhere there were people missing. A bunch of celebrities were mentioned in passing before the newscaster focused on the number of important world leaders that had become dust. There was a picture -- a horrible picture of a pile of dust in the oval office just in front of the President’s desk. All over it had happened. No one seemed to know what to do or how to handle it and worse no one knew who should handle it or how to get answers. Even the newscaster seemed emotional as she spoke and Steve expected that things were like that all over.

“Damn,” Rhodey said, phone in hand, clearly not having called Pepper just yet.

“Neither of them is answering,” Natasha said.

“Try Coulson,” Steve said, already fearing the worst. If Fury was gone--

“Coulson is -- didn’t Coulson die?” Bruce asked.

Thor looked towards Steve with the same question in his eyes.

“Turned out he didn’t. Well, it’s complicated. He has a team. Nat?”

“I’ll try,” Natasha said.

The news just kept going showing more and more images from around the world. The confusion and the mess that had been caused. So much that they had allowed to happen. Steve closed his eyes tightly. K-9’s paws landed on his legs and Steve reached down for the dog who climbed on his lap.

“Looks like Shield is off the grid again,” Natasha said after a few minutes. “We’re not going to get any help there.”

Rhodey did get through to Pepper. Steve let out a sigh of relief. With everything going on, they were definitely going to need Pepper. Rhodey spoke to her for a while and Steve was sure that Pepper was freaking out. Steve kept watching the news, unable to stop because he needed to face the reality and he needed to feel like he needed to do something. Anything. It was just a matter of figuring out what that something was.

Rhodey pulled his focus away from the news.

“Pepper has been conversing with UN representatives and some US officials. They reached out to her before this. She said she heard from Maria Hill before -- what did the news call it? The decimation?”

“And?” Natasha asked.

“She said that she didn’t know what they were doing but that they had some sort of plan -- it’s likely they got dusted. Everyone’s still trying to figure out how to keep track so who knows but…”

“Right,” Steve said. It made sense. Everything was a mess. It was worse than anything Steve could have imagined.

“My team is still out there,” Rocket said suddenly. He was seated next to Thor who was keeping relatively quiet. “Whatever of it is left.”

The racoon had introduced himself to Steve at some point during the flight. It was weird to talk to a racoon and yet maybe that wasn’t the weirdest thing to ever happen to Steve.

“At least I hope they are,” Rocket said. “I -- I need to find them. I need to know who else--”

Steve understood the distress that Rocket felt.

“The quinjet will work in space,” Bruce offered.

Which meant that if they wanted to, they could go look for Tony and Peter. Natasha seemed to realize what he was thinking and she shook her head because Natasha was always logical and she was a few steps of him. The problem was they didn’t have any way to know where in space to look for them. And what if they weren’t -- well, then, it would be pointless. Steve hated thinking about it that way.

“I cannot accompany you, Rabbit,” Thor said.

“I know,” Rocket said.

Steve didn’t know if this was a goodbye and if Rocket was going to just disappear and never be heard from again, but Steve hoped that it wouldn’t. If they did figure out a way to go against Thanos, they were going to need all the help that they could get. Steve didn’t know if it would even be possible to go up against Thanos or if that would even fix anything, but it would definitely make Steve feel better to avenge everyone they had lost.

“I’m Tony Stark’s son,” Peter said.

Bucky’s eyes widened. “You’re -- you’re the kid. You’re Peter! Of course, of course. You kind of look like your dad. And Steve’s told me a lot about you. But you’re -- you’re here--” His excitement fell into a sad look.

“I am,” Peter said.

Bucky keep looking sad and maybe a little annoyed and then he shook his head. “This isn’t right. This isn’t right at all.”

Orange vastness surrounded them and not much else. He was sort of getting used to it which was strange. Peter didn’t see anyone else even though there had to be other people. He couldn’t even be sure how much time had passed or much of anything else and it was entirely disconcerting.

“Stick with me, kid,” Bucky said, “whatever this is -- where ever we are, you stick with me.”

Peter nodded. “Sure.”

They walked for a while even if it seemed like they weren’t getting very far because everything seemed the same. Eventually they came upon a bench and they sat down. Things changed then. It was less orange tinged and it seemed like there was more noise -- more people.

“We turned to dust,” Peter said and suddenly remembered Star Lord and Strange and Mantis and Drax. They would all be here too and maybe his dad...but no, if he was he would have seen him already. Probably. “So what is this place?”

“We are in the Soul stone, Peter,” Dr. Strange said, appearing in front of them.

Peter frowned at him and then looked towards Bucky and back at Strange again. “You knew this was going to happen. You knew.”

Ned watched the news first with May and MJ and then with his dad. His mom had turned to dust. Watching the newscasters try to make heads or tails of the situation could have been amusing but mostly it was just sad and scary. No one had any answers. No one knew anything. All they knew was that it had to be alien related. It had to do with the attacks and the battle that had occurred in Wakanda and whatever else had happened.

There was some sort of statement from Pepper Potts about Tony Stark still being missing. It meant that so was Peter. Ned just didn’t know how much more he could cry. His mom was gone. Peter was essentially gone. MJ had lost her entire family. None of it made any sense. Ned just wanted all of it to stop and for someone to explain what was happening.

Seeing May and MJ and the empty look in their eyes was as difficult as anything else. His dad’s eyes were so red and Ned couldn’t handle it.

But what made the whole thing worse was that everything had turned into chaos. It wasn’t enough that people had turned to dust because that had had the added effect of other casualties and accidents and making all of it an even bigger mess. MJ was completely broken up about it.

Worse, the President was gone. So were other world leaders. So until things were set to some kind of order no one knew what to do or think and the media just fueled the fire with their speculation and with bringing on guest speakers that knew nothing and just wanted a platform. It was all such a mess. All everyone was waiting was to hear from The Avengers and get an idea as to what had happened in the first place.

It turned out that there was less food and water than Nebula had expected. What was worse was finding out that their oxygen was going to run out too. Probably around the same time that they lost all power. They were headed for certain doom and Tony had no idea how to feel about it.

Nebula piloted the ship with as much power reserved as possible which meant that they didn’t have the heat running and that any non-essential function had been turned off. Tony had had to go through what seemed to be Quill’s clothing to find something to keep him warm. At least that had served as a distraction. Tony had also gotten to go through a few of Quill’s belongings which was how he found the cassette player. It had amused him for a while, mostly because Tony hadn’t seen one of those in longer than he could remember. It made him just a little sad about Quill being turned to dust.

During the fight on Titan, a lot of his nanotech suit had gotten destroyed but Tony had had just a small bit left. It was enough to reform it into his helmet. He could even power it still, but Tony just didn’t know if that would actually help them or not. Tony was just glad to have a piece of the Iron Man suit to hold and look at. It made him feel a little more hopeful. The helmet still did power on but it wouldn’t be useful unless Tony could get it to connect to one of the Stark Satellites and they were too far away for that to work.

They took a few more jumps through space and Nebula seemed confident that even despite their low fuel that they would make it close to Earth. Tony didn’t want to consider that it wouldn’t matter how close they got if they couldn’t somehow alert anyone to rescue them. It was all a matter of how close to Earth they could manage to get and Tony was hoping for the best. He had to. It wasn’t even a closeness to Earth, it was more about getting into range with his satellites. If he could send a message, it would make all the difference.

Although the trip from Earth to Titan hadn’t taken all that long, the trip to Earth seemed longer. Tony couldn’t tell how much time had passed, but he knew it had been almost a full day. When he asked Nebula, she confirmed. Almost sixteen hours had gone by. It had been sixteen hours since Peter--

Tony took a breath.

There would be a time to mourn. Once he was back on Earth. He just had to hold on.

“Stark,” Nebula said, “I expect we just have another twelve hours at the most. We’ll be as close to Earth as possible.”

They just had to get close enough.

Rocket left after he spent a few hours working on one of the quinjets. Steve didn’t really follow any of his tech babble although he was sure that Tony probably would have. Tony would have definitely found a way to help too if he were around. Essentially, Steve got the gist that Rocket was trying to make the quinjet more space friendly before he left.

“I don’t know how Hulk managed to take one into space at all,” Bruce admitted. “Or how I ended up where I did.”

“Wormhole,” Thor said, “that’s how you ended in Sakaar. It’s kind of a dumping ground for anything that gets lost”

“Oh,” Bruce said.

Thor was sad. His devastation was so obvious to all of them and Steve couldn’t tell if it was because of the snap, the loss of, Loki, their loss against Thanos, or if it was something else altogether. He just knew that Thor was not acting like himself. He was withdrawn and sad. They were all some variation of that, it was just stranger to see it on Thor.

Although things were still a bit of a mess, people had started to organize and figure out what came next. People were reporting their missing family members. In some cases they knew for sure that they had been dusted, in others they had no idea. The numbers just kept rising and rising and Friday had started to compile her own list, pulling the people they knew -- Shield agents and friends and acquaintances and anyone that could be of use so that they could keep track. It was a hard list to look at. They made the list accessible online so that others could see it and know if their loved ones were on it. Steve hated looking at it, but he also wanted to keep watching it. Hating that the numbers never seemed to stop.

Keeping an eye on the list became the one thing he could do when there was no immediate task at hand. Natasha had taken on communications -- reaching out to anyone and everyone. She had friends in all kinds of places. Not all of them answered or responded. Natasha also reached out to Scott and to Clint but neither responded back and no one wanted to think about what that might mean.

Their one constant was Pepper who was still dealing directly with the UN and so much else. Steve was extremely grateful for her and everything that she was taking on when she didn’t even need to. It wasn’t even just Avengers stuff that she was taking on, but she was using SI as Tony would have wanted -- putting all resources on helping with search and rescue and rebuilding and things that Steve wouldn’t have even thought of. Pepper was also still the only one to speak out to the press on behalf of The Avengers and Steve was glad that he hadn’t been the one with that particular task. Pepper was the strongest person he knew.

After Rocket left, Steve wished he’d gone with him. The thought snuck up on him just a few minutes after he and Thor saw Rocket off.

“I don’t know if Tony’s out there,” Steve said to Thor, “but if he is, shouldn’t I be looking for him?”

Thor tilted his head. “If we knew where to start looking this would be different, but we don’t.”

“I know. I know. I just can’t do this -- this not knowing.”

Thor’s heavy hand landed on his shoulder. “Stark is a survivor.”

“Yeah. I just don’t know if this is one thing he can survive. Him and Peter.”

“I hope to meet yours and Stark’s son,” Thor said.

Steve didn’t correct him. It didn’t feel worth correcting...maybe Thor wasn’t even wrong.

It was when they got back into the penthouse that Friday caught their attention.

“Captain,” she said.

Steve figured it was Rocket. Maybe he was giving them a goodbye before he left Earth altogether. It wasn’t.

“There is a message,” Friday said. “It’s -- it’s from Mr. Stark.”

Chapter One Hundred Twenty Seven

#peter and tony #peter and tony fic #mcuwriting #mcu fic #iron dad #iron dad and spider son #stony #stony fic #marvel

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its-ok-to-smile · 6 years

Text

Some memorable scenes from Avengers: Infinity War

(and some of my thoughts)

{Spoilers beneath cut. Apologies to those on mobile, you’ll have to blindly scroll}

[Note: not a quotes will be verbatim]

The desperation in Loki’s voice in the distress call.

That whole opening scene, GOD DAMN!

We didn’t see them, but there’s a good chance, Valkerie, Korg, and Meek are dead as well

Like Thanos whole thing is that he kills half of wherever, so maybe he took a fraction of them prisoner, but STILL!

“We have a hulk”, reminds me of when the first Avengers came out, Chris said at some carpet interview he wished Loki was an Avenger

Some people were wondering why Heimdall sent Hulk to Earth, I personally thought it was that he was sent to warn them

HEIMDALL! LOKI!(I’m glad I got over my crush on him, I would’ve been ever more distraught than I already was)

Thor just clinging to his brother as the ship blows up, he’s lost everything, he’s broken.

‘‘You don’t believe in worldly possessions[...] Well maybe I can tell that to the Deli people and they’ll make you an ethereal sandwich.

Tony and Pepper talking about having kids! Also, matching jumpsuits!

Science bros hugging!

“Your embarrassing me in front of the wizards”

Hulk is scared!

“Cause a distraction” “WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!”

“Ain’t you kids ever seen a spaceship before”

But it can’t be a good sign if they’re getting the Stan Lee cameo out of the way so soon

“Whats going on?” “This guy wants to steal a necklace from a wizard”

Russo Brothers: “Ok look, we’ve got enough character in this movie as is, so Wong, you’re done now”

“I can’t be a ‘Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man’ if there’s no neighborhood. That sounded better in my head”

“The kids seen more movies than me”

THE GUARDIANS!! (Seriously their introduction was awesome)

Pretty much all the Guardians agreeing that Quill has put on weight

“This is a wake-up call[...] Gonna get a couple dumbbells” “You can’t eat dumbbells Quill”

“Thanos desecrated Xandar” does that mean Irani and Rhomann are dead as well?

Apparently they didn't have raccoons on Asgard, but they did have rabbits, which looked enough like raccoons to be mixed up

“Swear on your mother” “Ok”

FINALLY GOT A PETER/GAMORA KISS!

“How long have you been there?” “An hour”

I think this was the first time we ever heard Drax refer to his daughter by name(He said his wife’s name in GOTG2)

“I told you to go left”

Peter loves Gamora so much, he’s willing to live without her because of his promise to her

‘Groot’ is an Asgardian elective

Love how the series messes with expectations, such as Dwarfs being the closer to the size of Frost Giants

Groot stepping up to the plate and making the handle

Steve having a total Batman moment with that train

Alot of people pointed put that he ditched the star on his chest and the ‘A’ on his shoulder, but i don’t think anyone mentioned that he never wore his helmet either

Not gonna lie, when I saw promo art for Natasha, my first thought was ‘TRAITOR!’ (I have red hair)

“Arrest them” “Yes Sir” *hangs up”

So that’s why Clint and Scott weren’t in any of the promos

‘‘There’s an Ant-man and a Spider-man?”

“WHY IS GAMORA!!

“Is Footloose still the greatest movie ever?” “It never was” >:O

I know it’s horrifying, but that was a really cool perspective shot they did with Nebula

Thanos knew that torturing Gamora wouldn’t make her tell him where the stone is

Thanos: “I’ll just leave this woman, that I literally turned into a killing machine, in a room with just one guard”

I was actually nervous that the cloaked figure was Death, and they had decided to make her a man, but then RED SKULL!!

After so many movies, I thought they decided not to do anything with that cliffhanger.. but NOPE

PLEASE don’t let that be a permanent death, Quill has lost enough already, and obviously Gamora deserves so much better

“We can’t just wing it” “That’s kind of our whole thing”

“Tell them how you saved the galaxy with a dance-off”

“I was thinking the Olympics, or a Starbucks”

Rhodey trolling Bruce on Wakandan customs

[...]“And a war veteran whose 100 years old”

Steve and Bucky hugging!

“Why didn’t you just reprogram the synapses to work connectivity?” (pause) “Because we didn’t think of it..”(plus Vision’s expression when Shuri says it)

The look Okoye gives Bruce when he trips

Jabaris war cry(and they keep doing it throughout the battle)

The respect from M’Baku to T’Challa, considering how they used to be

“This is the end of Wakanda” “Then a glorious end it shall be” “WAKANDA FOREVER”

“Why was she up there the whole time?”

Okoye+Natasha team up!

Then Wanda joins in! (my gay heart couldn’t handle it)

“That was gross”

*Thor shows up* “Oh now you’re screwed”

“I am Groot” *Places hand on chest* “I. am. Steve Rogers”

Bucky just picking up Rocket and doing a spinning machine gun attack

“I am so getting that arm”

“Yeah you look a Thanos”

I remember after the credits started, I heard the guy next to me say, “All that could have been avoided if Quill hadn’t punched Thanos’’ But that is Quill’s character, he’s always been emotion-driven, it was because of his emotions that he saved the day in both of his movies(Illogically grabbing the stone, using his ‘heart’)

“I’ve got you! And you! I’m sorry I don’t remember your names!”

“If you throw another moon at me I’m gonna kick your ass”

+++++((Now the sad stuff))+++++

Wanda having to kill the love of her life, just for it to be pointless

“Steve?”

Wanda didn’t even seem to care when she died

When T’Challa went to help up Okoye, I was expecting her to ‘dust’, but then he did, the look of pure horror/confusion on her face

Rhodey searching for Sam(also just how they were constantly looking out for each other in the battle)

I see alot of people saying how sad it was Tony watching his adopted son die(and while I agree) I feel like they’re looking over the other adopted son dying scene: Rocket and Groot

The way Groot says his line almost like question but also with a hint of fear to it(As with every movie, props to Vin Diesel, for being able to portray so many emotions with one line) And Rocket just quietly going "No, oh, no-no-no”

Steve just saying ‘Dear God’’, anyone else think he was starting to pray

What’s going to happen when Rocket finds out he’s the only one left

“There was no other way” anyone else suspect that was Dr. Strange admitting that there was never a future where they won.

Peter sounding so scared when he knew what was coming, the way he was just clinging to Tony, hoping he could fix it.

That scene with Thanos sitting on the hill reminded me of that quote from someone’s dream-Obama: “To become God is the loneliest achievement there is’’

Maria and Fury still working together

Dust-censoring

The after credits/Captain Marvel teaser was cool, but I will admit I was a little disappointed, cause I was expecting/hoping it would be Coulson

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All the original Avengers are still alive(Hawkeye is unknown)

Everyone thought Steve and/or Tony would die, possibly Tony would die saving Peter, how wrong we were...

I suspect everyone who dusted will come back, due to several of them having sequels planned.

I also think Gamora will come back(though that’s more of a hope), like maybe they’ll use some excuse where, only she can be revived, cause she’s the only one whose body is intact.(Heimdall and Loki blew up, the stones may be destroyed, so Vision might not come back)

Where is Shuri? Last we saw her was when Vision was attacked, I feel they would have shown if she dusted. They’re obviously not going to get everyone back right away, so that leaves her as the next ruler of Wakanda

I assume all the movies planned to come out before the next part will be set before this, but I wonder how the TV shows will work around it. They can’t all go on a X amount of years hiatus (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was setting up Thanos’ arrival, so they certainly can’t pretend their a couple years behind)

#marvel cinematic universe #mcu #the avengers #avengers infinity war #avengers infinity war spoilers #thanos demands your silence #guardians of the galaxy #doctor strange #captain america #iron man #spiderman #thor #thanos #smile speaks

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imsfire2 · 6 years

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Marvel asks: All of them! Sorry, can't choose! ^^'

AAAAARRRGGHHHH!!! Well that’ll larn me!

Marvel asks

Tony Stark: favorite movie?

Close call; I’m very fond of “Avengers Assemble”, “Thor” and “CA:TWS”, but the one that has wowed me the most of all was “Black Panther”, which took everything to a new level of brilliance.

Drax: what character would you wanna be friends with?

I’m going to make this “characterS” and say Jane Foster, Aunt May, and General Okoye. A lot of my other faves probably wouldn’t be so easy to be friends with (too prickly, messed-up, hyper-focussed, downright dangerous, etc) but I would love to be mates with these three!

Valkyrie: favorite director?

Ryan Coogler, no question!

Pepper Potts: top 3 fave characters

Ugh, very hard to choose! Most of our protagonists are pretty cool, in their different ways. Let’s pick three of the women; Okoye, Gamora, Natasha. But I could just as easily have said Nakia, Hope and Hawkeye. Or Rocket, Groot and Shuri. Or...

Yeah, very hard to choose.

Sam Wilson: funniest scene?

Unlike a lot of people I loathed the relentless humour in “Ragnarok”. So I’m going to say, Sam and Cap’s first meeting in TWS, which is gentle and kind, and character-driven.

And (although it’s rather sick humour) “He’s adopted” is very funny.

Bucky Barnes: most heartbreaking moment?

The bit in TWS when the pilots try to take off and provide air support and are shot down before they can get to their planes. Reduces me to tears every time.

Nakia: character you wish had a bigger role?

I want to see more of Shuri!

Rocket Racoon: best nickname?

I don’t think I know the scripts well enough! “Legolas”, possibly?

Natasha Romanoff: favorite ass kicking scene?

Another one that’s very hard to choose.

Natasha’s first scene, maybe, when she’s barefoot and unarmed and still beats the shit out of half a dozen brawny guys. It’s such a great use of an action scene to establish character. I also love her fight with possessed!Hawkeye.

But on the other hand, the Dora Milje’s team fighting style is unbelievably awesome...

Ned Leeds: favorite villain?

Killmonger, no contest. He’s rounded, believable, well-motivated, and even though you know he’s wrong you empathise with him. Masterclass in how to write a top-notch antagonist.

I also really liked Toomes/Vulture in “Spiderman Homecoming”. Again, because he had good motivation and was an interesting rounded character, not a cardboard “I wanna rule/destroy the world >snarl snarl

Bruce Banner: guardians or avengers?

For sheer fun, Guardians. But I’m enjoying seeing them all meet up!

Thor Odinson: most attractive character?

Still Hawkeye. Give me those Renner arms.

Gamora: favorite pairing?

As in Ship? T’Challa/Nakia, and Gamora/Peter Q.

As in Best mates? Rocket & Groot, Peggy & Jarvis, and Peter P & Ned.

Mantis: what do you think will happen in Avengers 4?

I’m with @hanorganaas on this; it’ll have to involve time travel in some form, to bring back at least some of those lost. Also I have it on good authority from @spectralarchers that Hawkeye will come back as Ronin. And clearly a certain Carol Danvers is going to be involved.

There’ll be an opening section where the traumatised survivors are trying to regroup in a shattered world. Somehow or other the script will have to contrive another “lowest ebb” moment even lower than the end of “Infinity War” (& I don’t envy the people tasked with that!) because that’s how script dynamics work. But ultimately the big purple knob-head will be defeated.

Shuri: most rewatched movie?

Either “Avengers assemble” or “Guardians of the Galaxy”; I haven’t kept count, but they are the ones I go back to for a happy evening slobbed out in front of the telly with a big bag of tortilla chips.

Peter Parker: best outfit/suit?

As a Superhero Suit, I love the Ant-man suit!

As actual wearable clothes, I’d like to have Gamora’s leathers, especially the red coat; practical and sexy.

Happy Hogan: what ‘superpower’ is the coolest?

Well, I’ve always wanted to be able to fly, so any of the superpowers that give you that would be great!

I also love the way Mantis’ abilities take something that culturally is just expected of “nice good girls” (being empathetic, reading others emotions and reactions, being able to soothe down even the most aggressive person) and make it a fucking superpower!

Aunt may: most painful death?

After those brave pilots in TWS? Pietro. Really didn’t see that one coming.

Pietro Maximoff: Peter Quill or Peter Parker?

Aww, don’t make me chose! Quill is so cute!

I was never a Peter Parker fan until Tom Holland but now - ok, Peter Parker.

Heimdall: would you like a Deadpool crossover?

Properly done, then hell yeah! But it would need a very, very good script to juggle the emotional/tonal switchbacks required.

Steve Rogers: who resembles their role the most?

From what we get to see as fans? I’d have to go with Chris Evans.

Rhodey: who resembles their role the least?

Karen Gillan certainly doesn’t sound much like Nebula!

T’challa: favorite non-romantic pairing?

I’ve already suggested a couple of Best-mates relationships; so how about some siblings? Gamora and Nebula; so much tension, so much anger and yet so much torn, blood-soaked loyalty. It’s just as interesting a dynamic as the one between Thor and Loki, with a lot less screentime than that has had.

I also liked the sibling loyalty and love between Wanda and Pietro. Always good to see a happy sibling relationship, when Screenwriting 101 would have it that only sibling rivalry is interesting...

Peter Quill: favorite place in the mcu?

That’s going to be a tie between Know-where, for the visuals, and Wakanda, for - well, everything really.

Loki laufeyson: best line/quote?

Ugh, there have been a lot of great lines. Right now, I’m going to go with Okoye’s “For Wakanda? Without question.” Such a fantastic use of a single line to cement how her character is the embodiment of honour.

Scott Lang: do you think you’d have died in the snap?

Hmm. I kind of hope I would, to be honest; life afterwards is going to be spectacularly hellish until they manage to fix it.

Stephen strange: favorite song used?

The opening of “Guardians of the Galaxy”, with Quill slogging through the rain and then putting on “Come and get your love” on his walkman and starting to dance. Just gorgeous; as a sequence, as framing, as a way of telling us something about him very economically, as a device to show us this is going to be a hell of a fun ride...

Phil Coulson: the moment you fell in love with your favorite character?

Seeing as I find it impossibly difficult to pick a favourite in the first place, this is one I can’t answer!

Okoye: which movies did you see in cinema?

All of them bar the first two “Iron Man” films.

Maria Hill: favorite special credits?

What, as in “Mr Evans’ marmalade sandwiches made by” kind of thing? I’m not sure I pay enough attention to the credits to have ever noticed one (I made that one up, needless to say).

Or are “special credits” like cameos? A nod to the mourners for Yondu, then.

Erik Killmonger: favorite press moment/interview

Way back during the press tour for “Avengers assemble”; a journalist asked RDJ in-depth questions on Tony’s motivation and development, and then only asked Scarlett Johansson some ridiculous thing about her diet; and instead of answering with a patient smile she called him out on it.

It was only, what, five years ago, yet it was almost unheard-of then for a female actor to bite back publically like that. And the good thing is, that already seems pretty extraordinary.

Wanda Maximoff: favorite relationship of the actors?

I don’t know enough about their relationships to have one, really.

Nebula: favorite minor character?

Luis. An “ordinary person” character who is highly likeable in his own right and who does the right thing even when he knows it’s bloody dangerous & could get him killed. For similar reasons I’m also very fond of Cameron Klein and Dr Helen Cho.

Vision: Steve with or without a beard?

Without, definitely. Not a great fan of beards to be honest. There’s the odd face that looks great with one (thinking of a certain Mexican actor and rare fern collector) but mostly they’re just fashionable face-fur.

Nick Fury: what actor would you like to see join the mcu and for what role?

On one level, I’m content to wait and see what they come up with. I’m not a comic-reader, so I know almost nothing about any of the characters until they appear in the MCU, which makes dream-casting any of them pretty difficult.

On the other hand, I did read a rumour that John Boyega is in line for a future role; and as I’m a huge fan of his I would love for that to be true!

Hope Van Dyne: expectations for ‘Captain Marvel’?

As a non-comics person, I don’t know anything about the character or her story. Hopefully we’ll get an interesting, well-rounded female lead with solid motivation and her plot-line isn’t primarily about a) a man or b) not being able to have children. Or c) her children being dead.

Groot: I am Groot?

We are Groot.

Grandmaster: which characters would you like to see interact more?

Shuri with all the scientists!

Peggy Carter: Hulk or Banner?

Both. Both is good.

Luis: favorite Chris?

I’m sure they’re all lovely chaps.

Michelle Jones: would you like a Black Widow movie?

I’d like to see lots of the female characters get stand-alone films. So, yes please to a “Black Widow” movie, but also, hmm, let’s see; how about a “Shuri and Jane Foster Science the Shit Out Of This Mess” movie? A “Peggy Carter and the early days of SHIELD” movie? A “Nakia the Super-spy” movie?

Sif: long hair Thor or short hair Thor?

Long hair. Markedly more appealing with long hair.

Jane Foster: favorite character development?

I love the way Steve Rogers’ story kind-of goes in cycles of effort and hope and bitter experience, and always comes back round to situations where he affirms who he essentially is. It’s good to see a non-liner pattern of development like that, which is much closer to how real people deleop and change, instead of the standard narrative “A to B” model like Dr Strange (”was a jerk, learned to do better” - okay, he saves the world, so that’s good; but as for development, pish).

Yondu: favorite after-credit scene?

The Shawarma joint.

Also Hope seeing the Wasp suit for the first time.

Wong: favorite marvel intro?

Not sure I pay that much attention to the intros, tbh. I’m just sitting there thinking “Give me the story, folks!”

Thank you for asking! - and thank you, if you’ve had the patience to slog through all this, for reading!

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dajoezenone · 6 years

Text

TEXT REVIEW OF INFINITY WAR

UNFOLLOW ME IF YOU DONT WANT TO READ THESE SPOILERS I DONT USE THIS ACCOUNT SEE IF I CARE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Seriously this is gonna have spoilers go away if you dont wanna see.

I liked it. Kinda want to see it again and may change my mind on stuff at a later date but I want to get these thoughts out while they’re in my mind.

1. STORY STRUCTURE: The structure of this film is weird? But not really. It makes sense once you realize Thanos is the main character. Act One we’re being introduced to all the different heroes, which is done masterfully and paced really well so we never feel overwhelmed despite the sheer size of the cast. Act Two starts once Gamora tells Star Lord he may have to kill her, and then Thanos is re-introduced. I’ll come back to this later but I dislike that there’s a good couple scenes where its just GotG characters interacting with each other with no Avengers around. Like this is an Avengers movie. Couldn’t SOME Avengers character have been around for this Like this is a crossover why are these characters still with just their regular crew? Anyways from then on Thanos’s POV takes center stage. Once Gamora is dead Thanos, like Thor, has nothing he really cares about left to lose. He’s at his lowest, despite also being 2 stones away from infinite power. Act Three begins with him this way, recalling to Doctor Strange his origin, and reasserting his resolve to go through with this. He beats both of the split forces of the Avengers, one on Titan, and the other in Wakanda, and despite nearly being beaten three different times, he manages to snap his fingers. We see the results of the world he’s created, while he sits back and watches the sunset.

I like that they decided to let Thanos win and kill half the universe. I know it’ll traumatize a lot of kids watching the movie, but like, these things are rated PG 13. There have been sex references and character deaths and such in these for a long long time. Its the big bad final battle for the Avengers and they needed a cliff to hang on and so they hung people. I dont believe the people turned to ash will stay dead, but I didn’t expect a happy ending either. PLUS this gives us time to really focus on the characters that need more room to finish their arcs in the real finale.

I like the way the movie is structured. It doesn’t feel overcrowded and it makes a lot of sense when you realize its Thanos’s movie not any of the heroes’. And it helps make Thanos the most developed bad guy in any MCU film. SPEAKING OF WHICH.

2. CHARACTERS: (the long one)

-THANOS: The best bad guy in any MCU film. Not my FAVORITE bad guy in an MCU film though. Loki still holds that title, and if we’re counting the Netflix shows, Fisk and Kilgrave are still PRETTY dope. Thanos is WONDERFUL. But I neither love him or love to hate him. I appreciate what was done with him though. He earns his place as the biggest threat in this universe, despite a lack of real competition. You feel his struggle, even though you really want him to fail. Its really well done. Cant help but wonder why no mention of his love for Lady Death though? I at least expected Hela to show up and be like “SURPRISE IM LADY DEATH” or something idk. We never saw her die in Ragnarok. Is that really not something they’re gonna at least do something off of?

-THOR: despite spending MOST of the movie on what is basically a side quest, he’s the hero who gets the most development. I figured that the way Ragnarok was handled was done specifically to set this up and I got what I expected to fall out from that and then some. I love his arc in this. I love his conversations with Rocket and I love how powerful he is now. He’s just really well handled and I love how he’s developed as a character. Also, side note, I like that each Avengers movie changes which of its members gets the most development. Cap was the one who was still finding his place and going through an arc in the first one, Tony is dealing with paranoia and being the one to create Ultron in AoU, and Thor is still dealing with the death of his people here.

-TONY: I have less to say here. I hate nanite tech being used in pretty much anything. idk why it just bothers me. It always feels dumb. but it was fine here actually. I love his conflict with Strange and Peter and the other Peter. I love that he has to deal with watching everyone else die. The whole movie plays on your expectation that Tony is going to die in the end and then COMPLETELY subverts that and I love it.

-DOCTOR STRANGE: Great. Comes off a little more of a jerk than he does in his own film but we also mainly see him through the eyes of Tony, so I think thats why. I love his magic and how smart and calculated he is in combat compared to the other characters. The Russos are VERY aware and very good at showing the characters’ character traits via how they fight which is good considering how much action there is in this movie.

-SPIDER-MAN: I swear he’s more competent here than in his own movie. Also we see SPIDEY SENSE GO OFF which we NEVER SEE HAPPEN IN HIS OWN MOVIE. He still doesn’t REALLY feel like Peter Parker though which is weird bc he almost did by the end of Homecoming and now here he just kinda reverted back out of that.

-GAMORA: Really great. Somewhere in between Guardians 1 and now she stopped being every single one of Zoe Saldana’s characters in anything ever to being a pretty fleshed out character. Though its kinda weird that Thanos’s other children in this movie are so much more loyal to him than her and Nebula are? Like whats up with them? Why is Gamora the favorite when she openly hates him?

-STAR-LORD: Great. Not much else to say.

-ROCKET AND GROOT: ALSO great. They’re especially great as sidekicks to Thor. They have some great exchanges, even if their screentime was primarily spent on a side quest. I nearly squealed when Groot used his arm to create the Stormbreaker Axe. I’m annoyed Groot died again at the end. WE’VE SEEN ROCKET MOURN GROOT’S DEATH BEFORE THIS ISN’T INTERESTING OR NEW.

-DRAX AND MANTIS: pretty good. I like them both. If anything there’s probably too much of them. I love them so I cant complain too much but like idk I feel like we saw more of these Guardians side characters than some of the Avengers main characters in an Avengers movie.

-WANDA AND VISION: Wanda has always been one of my fav characters in the MCU and that doesn’t change here. Her romance with Vis is great. Honestly I love her whole arc and I love how its foreshadowed by Gamora telling Quill to kill her earlier in the film. Wanda having to lose the closest person to her AGAIN is emotional and sad and everything and idk Elizabeth and Paul give great performances and both do a great job playing some good characters. Vis is basically a damsel in distress the whole film, which seems disingenuous because he’s like the most powerful avenger prior to Thor’s buff over these last couple movies. But I guess it makes sense in context. They’re not GREAT but like I said I like them so I’m biased.

-CAP, FALCON, AND NAT: Kinda useless tbh. They dont do much. They dont even have many lines. Like they fight in the Wakanda battle. Thats it. They’re tired and grumpy because they’ve been on the run for TWO YEARS. Something we dont see at all. Not that thats what I want to see, but... they’re basically just there to shuttle Wanda and Vision to Wakanda and then fight a bit.

-T’CHALLA, OKOYE, SHURI, AND M’BAKU: Even quieter and less notable than the Cap crew. Which really cheapens how much of the film takes place in Wakanda. Like, why does the Cosmic stuff feel authentic to what James Gunn built in the Guardians movies, while this stuff feels so underwritten and underrepresented? We have four Wakandan characters here and they do so hecking little. AND THEN T’CHALLA IS ONE OF THE PEOPLE WE SEE TURN TO ASH. WHAT? WE ALREADY GOT A FAKE OUT DEATH WITH HIM IN HIS OWN MOVIE. I HATED IT THERE. WE GOTTA SEE HIS FAMILY DEAL WITH HIM BEING DEAD AGAIN??? Shuri better become black panther in avengers 4 man. thats the only way I’ll be ok with him dying a SeCONd TiME.

-BUCKY, RHODEY, NICK FURY, MARIA HILL, LOKI, RED SKULL AND HEIMDALL: all play really small parts but manage to do their jobs and be really notable anyways. Shoutouts to them.

-BRUCE BANNER: meh. Bruce has finally kind of accepted the Hulk but Hulk is scared of Thanos so he wont come out. So Bruce spends the whole movie in his head having conflict with himself and not really engaging with whats going on? Kind of a dumb choice imo like if CAP is a minor character whos mainly there to banter with other people so should Banner. We dont even really see him interact with Ross or Rhodes once he gets back to Avengers HQ. dumb but not a big deal.

3. SMALL DETAILS:

-Music was weirdly lacking from a lot of the movie. Like it feels like Silvestri only orchestrated like half of the film. So much of it is just left.. quiet. Empty. This is INFINITY WAR. IT SHOULD BE ALL ABOUT THE SPECTACLE.

-Are Valkyrie, Korg and Miek still alive? We dont see them at all on the Asgardian ship?

-What happened to Sean Gunn’s character? Also wasn’t Nebula still with the Guardians at the end of Vol 2? Did I miss something or...?

-How did Thor know to go to Wakanda? He should have been going to Titan to meet up with Quill, right?

-How does the Bifrost work if the Bifrost is broken? That was a big thing in Thor 1 wasn’t he?

-They didn’t get Hugo Weaving back to play Red Skull but thats fine I still geeked out when he showed up.

-Peter Dinklage was good but he was in the movie too long. Thor’s stuff really felt side questy even though its the best stuff in the film.

I think thats about everything it was good but not GREAT k bye

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