#thinking about tony being able to see and interact with entities

[pandagirl45]

Tony: *staring at a horrifying ghost like entity* move!

Entity: *hisses*

Tony: god damn it!!! You have a corner! *points to the corner with a futon and computer* please, I need coffee

Steve and them: *growing concern at tony yelling at the counter and coffee machine*

Bucky: *blinks seeing the entity look at him only to catch tony attention*...

Tony: tell Glenda to get the fuck out the way bucky! Please I am dying!

Everyone: *stares at bucky now* ????!!!

Bucky: 0-0 move glenda

[random-french-girl]

oh gosh is this MORE the wilds season 2 thoughts? yep!

I finished my rewatch, so here are some slightly less unbaked thoughts:

- First of all: I did watch the boys scenes fully this time, and I will say: the boys island timeline is much more enjoyable on a second watch. Part of it is just me being less frustrated by s2′s lack of cohesiveness (i’ve made my peace with it) and thus able to watch the boys scenes without trying to figure out what the show is trying to do in relation to the girls (there is often no parallel or commentary made, so it’s better to enjoy them separately honestly). Part of it is also that on a second watch, already knowing what happens with Seth, it was both more interesting to see his manipulation from the get go, and also less stressful? to watch the aftermath of his sexual assault? I think the problem with giving the boys such a despicable, horrible act of violence to contend with (while the girls did not have to deal with anything like that) is that it made my first watch... kinda stressful? I just remember being so tense after that happened, but not in a good way, if that makes sense, not in a “oh this is good drama”. Not sure why, but knowing how it gets resolved, with its ups and downs, made the storyline easier to digest for me. Also: the frisbee scene was actually really fucking delightful, and my favorite boys group scene for sure.

- However: I still think the boys backstory scenes were a mistake. I get it: that was their formula for s1, and it worked so well for the girls! But they KNEW they were going to have much less time, not only because they still have to give the girls screentime, but also because they only had eight episodes this season! EIGHT! They should have done either very brief snippets, of leave the flashbacks to season 3, I don’t know but they needed to change the structure. It was very messy, and constantly felt like we were wasting time that could have been better used otherwise AND at the risk of repeating myself: there was no thread, to any of the boys backstories. The girls were about teenage girlhood in a sexist society. The boys were about... random individuals. It simply did not work.

- I really wish we’d gotten a girls bunker timeline, apart from the very first episode and the last episode. We got a LEAH bunker storyline - and it was amazing, a highlight of the season for me ; pairing leah with raf and having her interact with faber and young and finally gretchen made for stellar scenes - but a) i really wanted to get some insight in how the other girls are dealing with the bunker, their isolation, the aftermath of the island, and b) I also really wanted a story where all the girls plot their escape together, not just Leah. It would have been so fun.

- Thinking about each of the girls’ arcs this season... It’s interesting, because if you think of them as a GROUP, as “the unsinkable eight”, a collective entity, their development is really well done, and everyone got at least some space to shine within the group dynamics. (Well, apart from the Nora of it all. But her absence did have WEIGHT, which I enjoyed). But as individual characters... I don’t know. I was never afraid for Leah, because she is the protagonist, she’s literally the only girl driving the plot until Fatin and Shelby join her in conspiracy theory land, so the show was always going to give Leah some juicy material. Fatin and Shelby are fan favorites, so they also get a lot of story - especially since Fatin’s arc is so linked to Leah, therefore to the bigger plot. Rachel got some very good scenes, they finally expanded her interactions to almost all the other girls which was fantastic, and I get why s2 focused on the loss of Nora rather than the loss of her hand, given that in s3 presumably she’ll learn that Nora isn’t dead. But I really hope they explore her, you know, AMPUTATION in s3, and what it means to her, for her sense of self. But Martha, Toni and Dot... not too sure what to think of them just yet. There’s some interesting stuff for each of them, certainly, but... I don’t know.

- Last but not least: they really have to start figuring out what they’re doing with Gretchen and the experiment plot, and the show’s overall take on gender and sexism, because I was fine “suspension-of-disbelief-ing” my way through s1, but now the utter lack of clarity has gotten actually frustrating. Not that I’m expecting anything radical from an amazon prime show, but it’d be nice for things to, you know, at least superficially make sense.

[9worldstales]

MCU Loki: Speculations on the “Loki” series

So, for the fun of it I’m gonna speculate on the whole “Loki” series.

For start Time Variance Authority.

In the comic the TVA seems to represent the lawful alignment. It doesn’t mean it will do the same in the “Loki” series, Marvel sometimes change things but let’s pretend they left this unchanged.

Before you start thinking this is a good thing, let’s remember the lawful alignment doesn’t define the moral axis of something, merely the ethical one. General Thunderbolt Ross and the Krees can be considered as lawful as Captain America and Rhodey, only the first two are lawful evil while the last two are lawful good.

Karl Mordo in “Doctor Strange” instead moves from lawful good to lawful evil.

For the TVA what matters are the rules. They are, of course, sure that respecting the rules is a good thing, and if this requires to wipe out an entire temporal line… well, no problem of theirs.

In short the TVA are your sort of guys who might decide that no, the Avengers shouldn’t have gone back in time and hamper with the timeline and save half of the universe because… it’s against their rules.

Here they seem worried that Loki has changed things. I would argue that it’s the Avengers that went back in the past and change things but let’s explore what it means if Loki didn’t met up the same fate as the one of the ordinary timeline.

Well, for start the Bifrost doesn’t get repaired as Thor used the Tesseract to repair it.

This might mean that, for start the Nine Realms will have to do without Asgard’s protection but, in more MCU terms that Thor won’t be able to go back home. There’s to wonder if he’ll manage to make peace with Jane and reach for her when she will be possessed by the Aether.

If he doesn’t, as a result, the Aether can fall more easily in Malekit’s hands, who will attack Earth directly instead than Asgard.

We might not end up having Thanos because the Dark Elves win and wipe away people themselves, turning the whole series in a variation of “War of realms”.

Okay, no, I don’t think we’ll get “War of realms” but it’s a pity.

What I wonder if the fact that they have Loki and Moebius interact is because one is chaotic and the other is lawful and the theme of the story is going to be this.

Chaotic again, isn’t necessarily evil, it only means you don’t respect the rules.

Scott Lang from “Ant-Man” is chaotic good for example. The Vulture from “Spider Man Homecoming” is chaotic evil.

Same as Karl Mordo Loki tends to change his moral axis at need. Prior to “Thor” he’s chaotic good, in “The Avengers” he’s Chaotic evil, in “Avengers: Infinity War” he’s back on being Chaotic good again.

So the whole show can open the discussion of how respecting or not rules should be tied to moral values. We shouldn’t respect a law aimed at hurting others… but we shouldn’t break law carelessly either as there will be consequences.

For example…. There’s a scene showing Loki in Pompeii.

Should the people in the city be warned mount Somma (yeah, it’s mount Somma which erupted, what will remain of it after the eruption will be named Vesuvius) is about to erupt and therefore saved or should we let them all die because, after all, their death is kind of already happened from Loki and Mobius perspective?

It’s a question that, in a way, was opened and ignored in “Avengers: Endgame”. The Avengers decide to save all the people that were blipped away by Thanos… but what about the ones he killed previously?

The half of Asgardian refugees, Heimdall, Loki, the dwarves on Nidavellir, the people on Xandar he wiped away to get the power stone, the people that die in the battle of New York, that was still caused by Thanos even if he didn’t oversee it personally, Gamora’s family and people?

Thor arrives in Asgard and is forced to face that most of the people there will be dead… would it have been really bad if he warned them against Hela so that more could survive? If he saved his mom and then asked her to find an alternate way to get the same ending with the Dark Elves only this time it doesn’t include her dying?

It’s questions worth making because they touch our moral axis as, if we do nothing, we let those people die/dead.

For a greater good? How can we know the result and for who’s the greater good? For us?

So anyway this has the potential to be cool, because when the lines on the moral axis blur and you don’t know anymore if something is good or evil, the decisions are taken by the ethical axis.

And someone lawful would just say ‘the law says so therefore letting those people die has to be the good choice’ while someone chaotic would say ‘screw the law, it can’t be good, I’m gonna save my mom and worry about consequences later’.

And this is awesome material for a story.

Though, of course, they can also take inspiration from “Agent of Asgard” in which old Loki, despite thinking that nothing would change even if Loki were to try to be good, still changed the past so that Loki could have a better chance at life and could make a more informed decision in the end.

(the scene of Loki’s decision is “Agent of Asgard” is AWESOME and way better than whatever redemption arc the MCU came up with by the way so I’m all to get that if they do the appropriate work)

Going on.

In the comics Mobius is a bureaucrat, cloned for his job and who knows nothing else but it.

Of course Marvel can portray him differently but let’s assume they’ll run with this.

So it can be that for Mobius everything is just ‘data’ and people are merely ‘entities’ and this not because he’s evil but because that’s how he has been taught to live.

He studied all of Loki’s life, but that’s it, for him they probably were data, not someone’s life, just a list of facts with no emotional value attached.

Studying Loki’s life is a job, and he might dedicate to it with the same mind setting of a student studying Caesar’s life.

He might not stop to wonder how painful the stabbing was, how horrible it could have been to see that his son was among the stabbers, how desperately he attempted to protect himself as he tried to flee and how brutal the others were as they continued to stab him even when he fell and lay there defenceless.

All he might care for is he died in 15 March 44 BC, attacked by around 60 men and stabbed 23 times, one of the stabs given by Brutus and that’s it. And then on March 15th put on Tumblr a stabbed Caesar salad and joke on his death because, by now Caesar is no more viewed as a person, just as a historical record.

For Mobius Loki might be just a record and even if Loki sits in front of him, he’s no more than data and someone to use. If Mobius gets an arc in which he develops he might learn to view Loki as a person, which doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll stop being lawful.

He might learn to feel sorry for him but still say ‘but the law says this is it’ or he might shift his ethical axis.

It would still be an interesting plot.

And for Loki too there’s potential for things to be interesting because he might, for once, to feel in control.

Most of Loki’s life is dictated by him not being in control.

He didn’t get to decide to be a Frost Giant, picked up by Odin, raised by an Asgardian and revealed the truth too late. He didn’t get to decide to be the less favoured son and he came to believe nothing he would do would make him worthy in Odin’s eyes. He was sent by Thanos to conquer Earth, manipulated by the sceptre. And now the TVA has captured him and they’re forcing him to cooperate.

If he’s given the power to affect the past he might grow to believe he’s actually not forced to submit to other people’s choices but that he’s in control of his fate.

It’s part of the point of “Agent of Asgard”.

Old Loki came to believe no matter what he did, he couldn’t change things, he would always be the ‘god of lies’, but the Loki of “Agent of Asgard” instead decided he would be something else and became the master of his own fate.

It would be a good development.

Of course, I’ve not the slightest idea if Marvel will go according to this route.

There’s really too little to judge and I’ll admit I won’t like it much if the point is not so much to save Loki but save Lady Loki because, no offence to Lady Loki who might have an even worse past than Loki, but it’s Loki the character I grew to love and I wish would be saved.

Last but not least, as I feared the whole ‘You've literally stabbed people in the back like fifty times’ quote produced a lot of discussing when it shouldn’t have.

Like, we miss most of the content but, from the look of it, it’s not like Loki, on his own, decided to pay a visit to the TVA and to help them. They captured him, he even though they wanted to kill him, they very likely forced him to cooperate.

Now, in this case any guy with an ounce of brain does what Tony did when he was held captive by the Ten Rings and they asked him to build them weapons if they don’t want to end tortured or killed. They say ‘yes’, gain their trust and then build a Iron-Man suit behind their back with whom they can stab them. In the back, yeah, because that’s what people with a modicum intelligence and no magic hammer should do with guys who overpower them and held them captive.

It’s a basic survival skill, not a proof you’re untrustworthy. People don’t own captors to be trustworthy to them and this message must never be allowed to pass.

You has to be trustworthy with people who deserve it, not with people who force you to be subservient.

So yeah, I hope Loki will stab the TVA in the back because no matter how lawful an righteous they feel, they clearly impose to everyone their law and no matter how much they claim they make the world better, they’re clearly sacrificing people.

[aion-rsa]

What We Do in the Shadows Season 3: What is an Energy Vampire Anyway?

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains spoilers for What We Do in the Shadows season 3’s first two episodes.

Boredom, tedious, tiresome, flat. These are not the first words which jump to mind when thinking of vampires or comedy, but What We Do in the Shadows wields them like secret weapons without sacrificing a single laugh or scare. The FX horror farce, which is a series adaptation of the 2014 feature film created by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, follows four vampires. They have been roommates since, well, forever, but one is different from the rest.

Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak), Nadja of Antipaxos, (Natasia Demetriou), and Laszlo Cravensworth (Matt Berry), are traditional vampires. They drink blood, a virgin’s if possible. This is usually supplied by their familiar-turned-bodyguard Guillermo (Harvey Guillén). A probable virgin himself, but off limits. Even vampires know not to feed on their own supplier, especially one who has taken down the entire local vampire hierarchy. The fourth vampire does not drink blood. He subsists on the lifeforce of others. He is an energy vampire, and no one is safe from his appetites. Familiars are fair game, and so are the other vampires.

Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) looks like an office drone, talks like an automated menu, and has the presence of an interdepartmental meeting memo. A simple watercooler chat can drain a listener of the very will to live. It’s tasty. The Staten Island vampires have been named head of the entire Tri-State vampire community and Colin, who will be celebrating a major milestone this season, is undergoing a search for self.

You don’t have to look far from Colin to find Mark Proksch, the actor who plays him. In Better Call Saul, he played Daniel “Pryce” Wormald, the ineptly arrogant pharmaceutical connection who was very particular about his baseball cards. On The Office, he played Nate, a proven entity, but not without handicaps, like hearing, vision and cognition. With offbeat roles on This Is Us, Modern Family, Portlandia, Drunk History, Bob’s Burgers, and Adventure Time, Proksch has spent his career playing yo-yos, his first appearance was as a self-proclaimed master.

Proksch spoke with Den of Geek about vampire centennials, television perennials, and freezing his genitals playing kickball in the snow.

Den of Geek: Hello and thanks for doing this, and I wanted to wish Colin Robinson a happy birthday.

Mark Proksch: Well, it’s a little premature, but thank you.

I know the season is building to it, but will you be throwing a big celebration?

Yes. There will be some festivities, Colin Robinson style.

Do you know his sign?

I don’t know his sign. Gosh, that’s a good question. I don’t think he knows it, even.

Is there anything he wants for his birthday?

I think what he wants most is to know where he came from, and where he’s going. He’s in a bit of an existential funk right now. And he’s doing a lot of research about energy vampires. The problem is there’s not much out there on energy vampires because no one likes them. So, there aren’t many books about them. When he goes into the big Vampiric Council library, he can’t find a single word about energy vampires. And that’s probably because they’re so reviled within that community, that they don’t respect the energy vampires, or have any of their books.

You’ve been doing a lot of research on the history, and the nature, of energy vampires, as you said. What do you think, or, what do you call what he is feeding from? Is it Prana? Chi? Neurotransmissions?

Oh, yeah. We haven’t learned. He still doesn’t know. I think he’s feeding on the exhaustion of others. The everyday life exhaustion of others, I think, is what he feeds on.

Does Colin ever contemplate the carbon footprint of the energy vampire?

No, I think Colin’s in for it just for himself.

How come Colin can stand fire, he laughs it off, but he can’t deal with a cattle prod?

Yeah. Tony, you’re poking holes here. I don’t know. That’s, again, a very good question. Why doesn’t fire hurt him, but a cattle prod shocks him? Maybe, because one is energy? I mean, electrical energy, I should say. I guess heat is its own energy.

In the Cloak-of-Many-Nandors episode, how did it feel to hear Kayvan Novak do you? And did you give him pointers? Did he drain you in the process?

Yeah. Well, Kayvan has been doing all of us, since day one of shooting. So, it wasn’t a revelation to hear him do my voice. That said, we all sent recordings to him so he could perfect it. I haven’t seen the episode yet. The night we were filming my scene, it was about 4:00 a.m., it was one of the coldest nights in Toronto. So, I didn’t stick around to hear him do my voice. But I’m sure it’s as good as he was doing it on day one.

There’s a lot more location and exterior shooting this season. Is that more fun? Or is it just another day in a different cubicle?

I love our set. Kate Bunch, who is our set designer, is an absolute genius. And we film in the cold months, in Canada. So anytime we get to be on set, near the fireplace that actually works, is a plus. Filming on location has its limitations. We can’t film during the daytime, because the vampires will be burned up. So, we always film at night, when on location. And it looks like it’s 11:00 p.m. or 10:00 p.m., when in fact, it’s usually 3:00 a.m. or 4:00 a.m. And so, when we go on location, we’re usually shooting pretty unpleasant evenings. So, I’d much rather film on set. Filming on location can be fun though, because you have a lot more interaction with real people. And I think that’s one thing that makes the show really funny, is seeing these idiot vampires dealing in the real world. So, it’s kind of fifty-fifty for me.

Did you have fun in the snowball fights?

Yes. There are a lot of snowball fights, yes.

The last time I spoke with you, Colin had just gotten a promotion and it kind of went to his head. How is it for Colin now, to be in power at the Vampiric Council?

I think, as much as Colin loved having some power, I think his M.O. is really, just fading into the background. That way, he can prey a lot easier. Just trying to mix into the group. Be a spider with his web, in the background. I think that’s how he prefers to prey. And so, even when he becomes part of the Vampiric Council, he still allows others to exceed him in power. And so, this season, when Nandor and Nadja are the heads of the Vampiric Council, he’s more than happy to be the secretary. The most boring job you can have in a council setting, taking the notes.

Who do you think Colin would prefer on the throne, Nadja or Nandor?

That’s a great question. I think he would probably prefer Nandor, because Nandor is so stupid. Nandor is very, very dumb. And so, he, Colin, can get Nandor to do pretty much anything he wants. Whereas Nadja, I think Colin likes Nadja. And I also think that Nadja’s too smart to fall into Colin’s traps.

Does he get a jolt out of things like the heart ripping?

Yeah, I think so. I think he does enjoy that type of stuff. Yeah.

Can you feed off Nadja’s ghost in the Nadja doll?

I can’t. And I think I’ve tried to several times. I don’t remember what made it on air. But there’s been several times where I’ve tried to feed off of the doll, and it doesn’t go anywhere.

Will Colin’s research turn up any famous energy vampires? And have you come up with your own?

I’ll drop in names for energy vampires, every once in a while. I don’t think any of them have made it so far. I mean, I’ve done Andy Warhol, who seems, to me, to have been an energy vampire. Truman Capote. I would love to have Bob Newhart on as an energy vampire, because I think he’s brilliant, and he would absolutely kill it. Yeah, I’ve thrown in some of those names. David Crosby, I’ve thrown in. I mean, the more left field, the better. But I don’t think any of those have gotten in. I don’t think they want to insult people.

When you look back on your character’s past, do you find any trace of Les Nessman DNA?

Only in my acting. I loved WKRP, and Les Nessman was definitely a good energy vampire. Just a great character, and acted brilliantly. Yeah, I’m sure I stole from him. You know, it’s interesting, I mostly watch classic television. And I’ll see something, and I’ll be like, “Oh, that’s where I got that. That’s where I took that from.” I haven’t seen him since childhood, but it made an impression on me that, “Oh, okay. That’s why I do that.” And that becomes very eerie to me, when I realize I’m just a culmination of things I’ve been watching my whole life.

I’ve recently been watching it and was amazed by the physical comedy. Arthur Carlson was a genius. So, tell me about the physical comedy in What We Do in the Shadows. Because you’re using not just you, the actors, but you have the effects, and there’s a lot going on, especially, in the backgrounds.

Yeah. I personally love being able to do physical comedy. And Colin Robinson is so great for that, because he’s so at two with his body. He’s not a physical human being. He’s not athletic, to say the least. And I think it adds an extra layer to the character, when you actually see him physically emote, really. Whether it’s dancing, or playing kickball, he’s very unsettling in his movements. Then when you add in the ability to fly, once in a while, or throw people against a wall, it really becomes a playground that not a lot of shows let you get to do. Explore those extremes of physical comedy. And so, I love it for that reason.

You mentioned being free to emote. In the opening episode, you actually are peeved when you can’t feed off of Nadja and Laszlo, and when they shut you down. Does Colin get drained when the feedees don’t give with the Prana?

Yeah, I think he gets really frustrated. It’s almost like a dog that’s always promised a treat, but never is actually given the treat. I think he becomes furious. And he thinks it’s unfair, I would expect, and thinks that they’re not playing by the rules. His bizarre social rules, in which he should be allowed to feed on whenever he wants. Because he gets to do it all day long at work. Anytime he’s out of the house, he gets to do it. But when he’s in the mansion, they know what he’s up to, and they can shut him down pretty quickly. I think he gets frustrated.

Also, still with the first episode, your toilet duties. They only seemed designed to annoy you. So, when you’re actually annoying yourself, isn’t that like cannibalism?

I don’t know if he’s annoying himself. I think he’s really into what’s going on in those toilet buckets. That’s all. I think he’s curious.

You meet a big fan in the rogue vampire house, in Queens. Does Colin’s reputation precede him? And will we see a growth in his vampire community renown?

That’s a great question. I think his reputation does precede him. That said, I don’t know what the writers have in store in that story. I mean, it would be interesting to see him rise to a level of energy vampire stardom, and how he would handle that. But I don’t know.

Is that a little counterproductive?

It would be in his mind, absolutely. Again, it goes back to him being the spider with the spider web, and just, kind of, hanging out in the background.

Do you think the connection you make with energy vampires is different from the connection traditional vampires make? And might we be seeing something of an underground, within the underground?

I think with the traditional, bloodsucking vampires, I think it’s mostly sexual. For them, they just want to get their rocks off. I think with energy vampires, it’s much more subtle, and a little more complicated. And I don’t know if those relationships could last, the energy vampire relationships. What we saw with Vanessa Bayer’s character, Evie, I think that ran its natural course, as far as romantic liaisons with energy vampires.

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What We Do in the Shadows season 3 airs Thursdays at 10:00 p.m. on FX.

The post What We Do in the Shadows Season 3: What is an Energy Vampire Anyway? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[squishneedsahero]

Answered Questions

Lost to Time | Part 7

Word Count: 1604

Summary:

The story of an original character, Allison Bennett. Growing up black in the short period between the world wars wasn't easy but Allison had friends who stuck with her no matter what. She was ambitious and had a million things she wanted to achieve in her lifetime and would try only to be told by the world that due to who she was it wasn't possible and she'd never live up to her dreams.

Allison jumped awake suddenly, setting off more than one of the sensors attached to her. She can't handle the noise so she quickly removes the cords and tubes attached to her and stands up.

Her mind is reeling with what had just happened to her. Suddenly all of her dreams made sense. She knew exactly how she had arrived in this place and time.

The 66 years she had been missing hadn't just been spent in a time jump. She had been around the entire time, she had spent 66 years on another plane of existence able to observe the world around her but not interact. She had been there to watch the world as they sent the first man into space. She had watched Rosa Parks stay in her seat on that bus. She had been there to see it all.

She had watched the motorcade through Dallas that had brought JFK's life to an end. She remembered all moments in history which she had experienced. She remembered with perfect clarity her entire life and could recall pages of books she had merely glanced at. It's as she's hunched over, leaning on her hospital bed that another memory strikes her mind with clarity, Bucky.

Bucky was still alive, she had watched as Hydra had sent him to kill the Starks. She had watched when he had dragged Steve out of that river, his mind still foggy but remembering bits and pieces.

The entity she had spoken with had talked of knowledge. Knowledge no mortal could comprehend and it's as she is reliving the last 66 years of her existence that she realizes that the entity hadn't been talking about one single piece of information. The entity had been speaking of everything. Every single moment in history. Every mathematical formula. Every book ever written. Allison had the ability to remember all of it.

The things and moments she hadn't experienced she couldn't recall, such as the civil war, but she could recall anything she had read in history books about the civil war. Her mind felt as though it would explode, she clutched at her head and held it in her palms as she tried to ground herself.

She knew too much. The entity had warned her of the dangers but she had disregarded them in her search for knowledge. As suddenly as she had woken she realizes the key to comprehending everything, she didn't have to comprehend it all at once. She lets go of her thoughts, letting them pass by like a train rather than stopping to look in each box. The fogginess leaves her mind and she is able to stand up straight, she wouldn't allow her mind to be lost as countless others had.

It's as she gets ahold of herself that others enter the room, Steve leading the way. "Allison, you're awake thank goodness," he pulls his friend into a hug.

"Yeah- yeah I'm fine," she comes to hug him back, "how long was I out?" She chooses to not explain what she now knew. It wasn't the time.

"Only about 12 hours," Steve says.

"I am so sorry Allison," Wanda says.

Allison quickly turns to her and pulls her into a hug, "there's nothing to be sorry for Wanda. You helped me out how I asked. I don't know yet how to explain everything that happened but you truly did help."

Wanda still cannot enter her friends mind but she can tell from Allison's voice that she is being genuine. "Alright, as long as I did not hurt you."

"You didn't, I am better than I was, thank you."

Allison turns back to Steve, needing an answer to the question tugging at her mind. It doesn't matter that Tony, Wanda and Sam are there. She opens her mouth and asks the question, "you didn't tell me Bucky is still alive?"

Steve had been watching his friend carefully this entire time, there was something different about her. Something different from when he had last seen her the day before. Her question surprises him, there was no accusing tone to her voice just pure curiosity, wanting to know why he hadn't shared that information. "I couldn't find a way to tell you," he finally settles on his answer, choosing one that she'd know what he meant but it wouldn't require explaining to the others.

Allison nods, it made sense. She had been hurting and wasn't sure herself how she would have reacted to Steve just coming out with it and telling her. She sees her close friends mouth open again and she shakes her head, "not yet Steve, I need to figure out things for myself first." It was a simple thing to say but it said everything. She didn't know how to explain that she knew everything she had ever heard seen or read, that she had been there simply observing the world for the last 66 years. It was too much for her own mind to even think about at the moment let alone telling everyone and having to answer their questions.

Once the others understand she is not going to be telling them anything at the time she changes the subject, "I'm hungry. Is it alright for me to go get something to eat or do you need anything from me first?" She directs her question to Tony. After a shake of her head she's off, leaving them to wonder what was going on with her.

Allison is slow to begin explaining all she had come to remember to the others. But eventually she gives everyone the basics, she had been watching through the 66 years she was thought to be missing and she remembered and knew what she could only explain as everything.

She doesn't explain much more than that about what had happened that day. But she does tell them a bit more of how she had gotten moved through time. That last experiment she had performed. She had been ready to give up, it was her last effort, she was so broken and defeated that she was ready to call it quits.

This final attempt, final plea she had given to the universe while longing for her friends had lead to something. She had been chosen. There were others chosen before her and would be others after her but she had been the first to pass the test. The test of resolve through leaving her drifting helplessly through time. The test of change, dropping her into the future and seeing how she adjusted. And finally the test of determination, what lengths would she go to to figure out how the world worked? Would she try to figure out her dreams?

The tests changed for each individual according to their circumstances and what would challenge them. The test of change had been easier than Allison would have thought, she hadn't remembered anything of her time drifting but she had still felt comfortable in this new time. It had been a quick thing for her, dressing different, being more herself and opening up about her story to the world.

Now that she had all of her memories back, the change was almost instant. She belonged more in this world and time than Steve did. Steve still struggled with the change but as soon as Allison had remembered there was no fear or hesitation left in her.

Allison didn't tell the world of the things that had happened to her, it was too much. Too many things she knew that they were better off not knowing for sure. But she did open up about her life growing up with Steve. Speaking on subjects such as the effort put into fighting the war. How she had all but been erased from history due to the color of her skin. There were many things she could no longer stay silent on. So many injustices had been committed and she could only watch those things happen. She couldn't stay silent any longer.

Allison's speaking up without fear made her both friends and enemies in high and low places. She adapted, got Twitter and Instagram and made her own place in the world as an advocate for the rights of the individual.

The summer following her arrival brought an accident that had the attention of the world. While the Avengers had been on a covert mission in Lagos Wanda had saved Steve's life but in turn had accidentally ended others. Allison tried to comfort her friend, yes maybe the situation could have been handled better but that wasn't on Wanda. Wanda had done and tried her best, if she hadn't done what she had many more lives would have been lost in that busy plaza. Unfortunately the news had both Wanda and the world convinced that it was her fault.

It was a month later that Tony showed up to the compound. He had brought the Secretary General with him. They were here to get the Avengers to sign what would be called the Sokovia Accords. Allison was present for their meeting but she wasn't an avenger, so she wasn't called upon to sign the act.

Despite her not being an Avenger she was looked to for her opinion after it had been presented. She merely shakes her head, "I doubt you truly want to hear my opinion as I will not agree with yours. Though I can also see what it is you are trying to do with these accords. The one thing I cannot sit by and watch get taken from someone is their freedom to choose for themselves."

[the-odinson]

Thor 🗲 Intro

“Fortunately, I am mighty...”

OOC PORTION —

NAME: Danny

PRONOUNS: he/him

AGE: 23

TIMEZONE: GMT +1

TRIGGERS: None

IC PORTION; BASICS —

CHARACTER NAME: Thor Odinson

FACECLAIM: Chris Hemsworth

AFFILIATIONS: The Avengers

AGE: 1500s/appears mid 30s

SPECIES: Alien (Asgardian)

IDENTITY: Public

DOES YOUR CHARACTER LIVE IN THE MOUSEHOLE? IF SO, WHAT ARE THEIR DUTIES? Yes, but he doesn’t particularly like it there. He doesn’t feel the effects of the cold, but Thor has never liked being confined so prefers to get outside as much as possible. Thor has decided to take on the role of a hunter/gatherer. The vast forests of Europe aren’t too dissimilar to the Asgardian wilderness and, while the beasts aren’t as ferocious as back home, what’s a king to do if not revel in the hunt? When needed he will also help with aid work: he can cover great distances with ease and carrying heavy loads is hardly a problem for him.

DESCRIBE SIX TRAITS (3 positive, 3 negative) YOUR CHARACTER HAS AND HOW THESE AFFECT THEM:

Dependable: A man of his word, Thor is trustworthy and reliable; an asset in any team and to anyone who has a favour to ask. Endearing: Those who truly get to know Thor speak of him with admiration; his warm smile and welcoming personality don’t come to all, but if he lets his guard down you’re guaranteed a friend with whom you feel truly comfortable. Benevolent: Thor (usually) means well and (usually) tries to be kind to anyone he encounters. His exterior may come across as brash but there’s no malice involved, often just a difference in culture and upbringing. Obstinate: While being headstrong may not always be a negative thing, Thor hates to admit he’s wrong and has a tendency to steamroll down a chosen path rarely reassessing whether the choices he made were the right ones or simply the first ones. Distrusting: Thor enjoys being social but mainly around those he’s close to. He can appear a little hostile to strangers: while he wants to believe in the good in people, he’s been around long enough and seen a lot of the universe to know of the potential darkness inside them too. Reckless: Thor often acts on impulse and charges into situations unprepared. This can lead to serious damage caused to both himself and those around him.

POWERS AND/OR ABILITIES: Super strength: Son of Odin and King of Asgard, Thor is physically the strongest of all Asgardians, with feats including being able to go one-on-one with the Hulk and other powerful entities. Flight: Thor’s magical axe Stormbreaker grants him the ability to fly. Electricity Manipulation: Thor is capable of generating electrical energy within his body and can expel it in the form of lightning bolts. Using Stormbreaker makes the energy generation and expulsion much more powerful and efficient. Weather Control: Similarly, either with or without Stormbreaker (although with Stormbreaker is easier), Thor can control the sky and create storms. Durability: His Asgardian physiology grants much more durability than a human one, able to shrug off energy blasts and recover from injury much quicker. Thor can also survive in space and alien atmospheres. Allspeak: Also called the All-Tongue, Asgardians speak a magic-based language, granting the ability to understand and be understood in all the languages of the Nine Realms. Bifrost: Stormbreaker also gifts Thor the power to summon the Bifrost, the Rainbow Bridge connecting all realms, allowing intergalactic travel between worlds in a matter of moments.

WEAKNESSES: There aren’t many things on Earth that could pose a threat to Thor, so it’s hard to pinpoint any specific weaknesses. Perhaps for someone like Thor, the word god comes up so often that he sometimes forgets it’s not true: he is mortal and, while far more durable than a human, he can get injured and he can get killed, a fact that he often brushes to the side when charging into battle. However he has become far more self-aware after losing an eye (and almost his life) to Hela.

IC PORTION; DETAILS —

WHAT BROUGHT YOUR CHARACTER TO SOKOVIA?

Sokovia is where the majority of Thor’s allies are, and he needs their help. His world gone, his people stranded on the nearest hospitable realm in need of a home; Thor knew of a place where the Asgardians could blend in and live peaceful lives. The problem is, however, it seems Earth is not quite at peace right now. When he couldn’t track down the Avengers in New York, he followed the trail to Novi Grad. His priorities are conflicting: while he came back to Earth to ask the Avengers’ help in establishing a new Asgard on this planet, he feels he should stay to try and help his friends however he can in aiding the Nomad’s cause.

DID THEY SIGN THE ACCORDS? WHY OR WHY NOT?

No - the whole Accords situation is mostly unbeknownst to Thor due to being offworld at the time of signing. From what he can gather, it isn’t something that would appeal to him. He feels the affairs of humans are mostly petty ones and, despite his growing acclimatisation to Earth and its customs, he doesn’t understand why humans have to be so divided about, well, pretty much everything.

PROVIDE 3-5 HEADCANONS RELATED TO YOUR CHARACTER: 1. Although Thor is an alien, he has spent enough time on this planet (in both modern and ancient times) for the culture shock to lessen so that now Earth to Thor is more comparable to a human travelling to a different country - he acknowledges that the differences are neither better nor worse and he chooses to respect them. He knows he will make mistakes and appear strange, but sees that now as an opportunity for personal growth. 2. One thing he doubts he will ever understand however, is the human version of ‘entertainment’. Thor cannot stand movies. On Asgard, they would entertain themselves by slaying fearsome monsters or engaging in a friendly drunken brawl, the more broken furniture the better! But on Earth they amuse themselves by… sitting down and staring at a screen for hours on end. While both Asgard and Earth had/have magnificent technology, it’s clear they used it very differently.

3. Since returning to Earth, Thor has become intrigued in the Norse tales of himself and his people from over a thousand years ago and their alleged feats. He finds it highly amusing how inaccurate the stories are, but it has led to a fascination of human mythology and the various pantheons across history and the world. He wonders if he will ever meet any other of these so-called gods.

4. While a human brain only has capacity for almost a century’s worth of memories, an Asgardian brain is built for a few millennia’s worth. Therefore Thor has a much more acute long-term memory than his human companions, although occasionally his short-term memory leaves something to be desired, especially after several pints of mead.

WANTED CHARACTER CONNECTIONS: 

Loki: His brother and the person he loves (and hates) most in the cosmos. I know a thing or two about brotherly love (I’ve been experiencing it for 23 years) so would love to write for Thor with his undeniably most personal connection. Wonder Woman: Both ancient, both ‘gods’ and both so very far from home. Despite their different allegiances I think it would be great to have Thor bond with perhaps the one person around here who may truly understand him. Superman: If anything they both have fabulous red capes. They are quite similar power-wise, although I know Superman is stronger but Thor definitely wouldn’t want to admit that. It could lead to some healthy (or unhealthy?) competition between the two, especially seeing as Thor isn’t too fond of the Justice League. Captain America & Iron Man: The two splintered team leaders. Thor respects them both (Tony a little less, perhaps…) and, since he doesn’t really understand the extent of the accords, would like to hear their sides of the story and what has happened since the Ultron incident. Bruce Banner: Thor has fought with the Hulk a couple of times but feels this has brought the two closer, learning more about how Bruce ticks and now he feels there’s a protective bond between the pair. I think the interactions they have could bring out the comedic style of writing which I love!

POTENTIAL CHARACTER ARCS: In the previous paragraph I said I like writing comedic characters (of which Thor fits the bill) but I also want to explore the deeper aspects of his personality such as the emotional pain of losing his parents, his childhood friends and his home. This could manifest in him not wanting to form bonds with others in the Mousehole at first because he’s lost so many people: why would he want to get close with anyone else only to lose them again? Perhaps a dramatic fallout with someone from a different team could lead to serious consequences for him or the team as a whole.

The reason I chose for placing Thor in Sokovia is that he’s seeking a location for New Asgard: maybe with all its emigrating population and empty buildings Sokovia could be the perfect location… I’m not sure how it would work in the group, but maybe Thor could eventually bring the Asgardians here, both to settle and to help with the restoration of the country.

CHARACTER BIO —

You know the story. An Asgardian prince, lacking in humility and exiled to Earth in order to learn what it means to be worthy. A classic tale, but at its heart, a tale of loss, and a tale of what it means to truly be human: even if you’re not. Thor has lived for well over a millenia, but only in the last decade has his life really begun. From landing on Earth a long time after people stopped worshipping him, he slowly began to understand the importance of relationships; from forming close bonds with the Avengers (and wary acquaintances with the Justice League and X-Men), to experiencing true love for the very first time. All his life Thor had assumed that humans were lesser beings, so why then did he feel he was learning so much more from them than he had ever learned from his own kind? 

After experiencing the death of his mother, then later on his father and three close childhood friends, Thor was at breaking point when his home realm of Asgard was obliterated during Ragnarök by the fire demon Surtur. With the title of King thrust upon him, Thor decided his duty to his people had to consume him before his emotions did. Pursuing the quest of a new home, he led them to Nidavellir, the homeworld of the dwarfs; unsurpassable smiths and mechanics with the power to forge almost anything the mind can dream of, ruled over by their King, Eitri. Eons ago, Eitri had forged the legendary hammer Mjölnir (destroyed by Hela) at Odin’s request, now he oversaw the creation of the glorious axe Stormbreaker when asked by Thor, capable of summoning the rainbow bridge despite its apparent destruction on Asgard. Armed with his new tool and a promise to the Asgardians of a brighter future, Thor set out alone across the stars, heading to Midgard to find his old allies the Avengers. He’d helped the humans many times before, hopefully they’ll be able to help him and his race this time. 

It took Thor losing everything to appreciate what he has. As he enters the next phase of his life in Sokovia, without family or a home, he is truly the definition of a nomad.

[waitimcomingtoo]

In Case You Don’t Live Forever - Chapter Sixteen

Pairing: Peter Parker x Venom!reader and a lil something else for the kids ;)

Warnings: Endgame spoilers, mentions of suicide

Authors Note: This story is far from over. Feedback is always appreciated ♥️ thank you for reading

Masterlist

“Braid chain!” You clapped your hands. A few amused laughs escaped from Carol’s and Nat’s lips as they sat down in front of you. This was a regular routine for you whenever all the girls were together. You positioned yourself in the back and took Nat’s hair in your hands. Her red hair was down her back now and only the very tips were blonde. It had been three more years. Five years total since the snap.

Your life had gone on, no matter how much it felt like it hadn’t. Or how much you wished it hadn’t. You threw yourself into your work and covered stories on men like Flint Marko, Dr. Curt Connors, Norman Osborn, and Max Dillon. All ordinary men who become a threat over night. Without Venom, you weren’t much use to stopping villains. But your suit and your webs offered enough protection to distract villains until the police came. You steered clear of your old neighborhood. You couldn’t bear to be around it. Aunt May had vanished in the snap, along with all of Peters friends. You cleared out May and Peters apartment and put the stuff in a storage locker.

You kept most of Peters clothes in your bedroom. His wardrobe had become your wardrobe. Your style had completely shifted from comfortable and casual, to sweaters, hoodies, and baggy t-shirts, all belonging to Peter. Nat noticed your change in appearance but said nothing. She knew it was your way of grieving him. You didn’t wear everything, though. Some things only he could pull off and you were okay with that. You kept his favorite sweaters in a box and would smell them occasionally just to get a whiff of his cologne. The scent had faded over the years but boys drown themselves in axe and Peter was no exception. You could still smell his sweet scent and it brought tears to your eyes every time.

You ran your fingers through Nat’s hair as she skillfully braided Carols. Everyone, Steve, Rhodey, Carol, Nebula, Rocket, Thor and Bruce were over. Your meetings were usually digital but you had decided to meet in person for the five year reunion. Everyone looked different up close. Bruce was the most changed. He had mixed his DNA with the Hulks and became one entity. You sat down with him and talked seeing as you had similar powers. You both turned into something that was bigger and stronger. The Hulk was different from Venom though. The Hulk didn’t really talk to Bruce and he didn’t chose when he came out. Seeing Bruce as the Hulk made you miss Venom terribly. Sure, you were without her way longer than you were with her, but she was your best friend. She knew you inside and out, literally. You would still talk to her, you just had to get used to the fact that there would be no answer.

Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Nebula watching you braid each other’s hair. You couldn’t read her expression from where you were but you knew it couldn’t be good.

“I’ll be right back.” You whispered to Nat. She hummed in response and focused again on Carols hair.

“What are you doing over here? Come join the Braid Train.” You took Nebula’s hand and led her over to where Nat and Carol were seated. Nebula looked embarrassed.

“I don’t have any hair.” She said only to you. You could tell she was ashamed. You gave her an assuring smile.

“So? You don’t need hair to ride the Braid Train. All are welcome. I’ll let you in on a little secret. If you sit in the back, it doesn’t matter if you don’t have hair. You can braid mine.” You told her. Nebula beamed at you. She didn’t smile often, and when she did she looked uncomfortable with it , but you always appreciated it. You sat back down and took your hair out of your ponytail. You always sat in the back and were used to no one braiding your hair. Nebula was the perfect addition. She gingerly placed her hands in your hair and began to weave it together.

“You know, I was bald too once.” You said to Nebula as you resumed braiding Nat’s hair.

“Really?” Nebulas monotone voice sounded excited.

“Yep. My sister and I had shaved heads.” You replied.

“My father didn’t let me have hair lest I fall victim to vanity. He wanted me to be a weapon.” Nebula said. You reached back and squeezed her knee. Or, you tried to. It was metal and cold, but she understood the gesture.

“I don’t think you’re a weapon.” You shrugged.

“Then what am I?” Nebula asked.

“Anything you want to be. That’s one of the perks of girl power. You can be anything you want to be.” You informed her. Nebula was easy to talk to because she didn’t expect anything from you. She just wanted to talk.

Steve suddenly burst into the room with something you hadn’t seen in years in his eyes,

Hope.

“We found something.” Steve smiled, unable to contain his excitement.

“I found something. And ask them if they know Ant-Man.” An unfamiliar voice called from the other room.

“Is that Scott?” Nat asked.

“Who’s Scott?” Carol asked. You didn’t know either.

“Scott Lang. Ant-Man. He disappeared 5 years ago.” Steve rushed out. You all stood up and went to Steve.

“You mean someone returned from being dusted?” You whispered in shock. The hope was contagious and infecting you as well.

“Well, no. He wasn’t dusted. He was in the Quantum Realm. He’ll explain it. Come on.” Steve pushed the you and girls into the room with Scott. Little did you know, you life was never going to be the same.

Scott was on board

Nat was on board.

Nebula was on board.

Steve, Rhodey, Bruce, and Rocket were on board.

All that was missing was Tony.

“I know Tony. He isn’t going to say yes.” Steve sighed as you, him, and Scott sat in a car in front of Tony’s cabin.

“He will once we tell him our plan.” Scott responded. Scott reminded you of a teenager. You knew he had missed the last five years, but it felt like he’d missed more. His child like demeanor was refreshing.

“And what if he doesn’t? What if this is our last chance and it fails?” You asked sadly. Scott looked panicked, like he wasn’t used to people looking to him for answers.

“We won’t know if we don’t ask.” Scott said. Steve looked at you and sighed, looking for your approval. You nodded and opened the car door.

“Pretty!” A little girl ran up to you as you walked up Tony’s porch steps. She made grabby hands at you and you instinctively picked her up and laughed a little. She brushed hair out of her face and did the same to you.

“Hi.” You said to her. You hadn’t interacted with a child since elementary school. You didn’t really know what to say. The little girl became shy suddenly and buried her face in your neck.

Tony followed shortly after her and smiled at the sight of her in your arms.

“Looks like Morgan likes you.” Tony commented. You looked fondly at the little girl upon learning her name.

“Hello Morgan. I’m Y/n.” You told her. Morgan smiled at you and toyed with the necklace you were wearing. It was a simple chain with Peters class ring hanging from it. You adjusted her on your hips looked at Tony.

“Is she yours?” Steve asked Tony. He smiled proudly.

“Yep. 100% baby Stark.” Tony said.

“Wanna see my dolls?” Morgan asked you. You smiled at her.

“I’d love too. Steve, Scott, you okay without me?” You asked Steve and Scott. They nodded and you left with Morgan.

After playing house with Morgan for half an hour, she told you that she missed her dad.

“Then let’s go see him.” You smiled at her. After not being able to protect Peter and Venom from the snap, you felt an overwhelming desire to protect Morgan and make her happy. You picked her up and walked back towards Steve, Tony, and Scott just in time to hear Tony speaking.

“I wish you guys had come here for anything else. I really do. But I can’t help you.” You overheard Tony telling Scott and Steve. You looked down in disappointment, not wanting Morgan to see you cry. You felt Tony’s eyes on you as he began to formulate another excuse.

“Please.” You interrupted. Everyone’s eyes fell on you. As much as you tried to fight it, your eyes were swimming with tears. Tony opened his mouth and looked at you sympathetically, but no words came out.

“Please. Please, Mr. Stark, this could work. We could see him again. Please.” You begged. Scott and Steve looked from you to Tony. Tony looked between you and Morgan.

“Y/n…” Tony began.

“Don’t. Don’t say my name like you’re about to tell me no.” You pleaded with him. You set Morgan down and took a step closer to Tony.

“It won’t work. Your Time Warp-“ Tony began.

“Time Heist.” Scott corrected.

“Yeah whatever, Doc. It’s not gonna happen. It’s not plausible. I wish I could help you. But I can’t.” Tony concluded. You knew it was no use trying to argue with him. Steve knew it too but Scott was still hopeful.

“He’d do it for you.” You raised your voice a little. It was shaking but you didn’t want to sound weak.

“Y/n…” Steve tried to stop you.

“No.” You yelled at him. “He would do it for you. If you were gone, you know he’d go to the ends of the earth to bring you back. Doesn’t he deserve the same?”

“Are we still talking about Back to the Future?” Scott cut in.

“You know I miss him as much as you do. But you cannot mess with the flow of time.” Tony pleaded with you but you weren’t having it.

“Not with that attitude you can’t!” You shouted. Scott snickered.

“Alright! That’s enough. Y/n, get in the car. We’ll see you later Tony.” Steve broke up your fight. Steve guided you with his hand on your back back to the car. You got in the backseat and folded your arms like a child.

Hey, what happened back there?” Steve asked cautiously after driving in silence for a while.

“He was being unreasonable.” You huffed. You felt like you just had a fight with a parent.

“Who was that boy you were talking about?” Scott asked you. You turned to face the window.

“Your mom.” You grumbled. Scott knew he set himself up for that one.

“Did you know Spider-Man?” Steve asked you while looking at you in the rear view mirror. Your face contorted with a mixture of anger, sadness, and embarrassment. It had been years since anyone said his name around you.

“Don’t wanna talk about it.” You muttered as you began to play with the window, something Venom used to do. It was times like these when you missed her the most.

“I have a feeling she knew Spider-Man.” Scott said. You glared at him before staring back out the window.

A few days later, Tony rolled up to the Avengers tower with a change of heart and a time machine. When you asked him why he changed his mind, he smiled at you and said “he’d do it for me.”

A plan was made to retrieve the stones from the past. After some trial runs, trouble shooting, and practice trips, you were ready to go.

You walked down the corridor with the rest of the Avengers in your matching suits. You weren’t gonna lie, you felt pretty badass all clad in red and white. You pushed a final bobby pin into Nat’s hair as she squeezed your hand.

“See you in a minute.” She smiled.

Buttons were pushed and you were off on your journey.

The plan was set. You, Thor, and Rocket were going to Asgard to get the Reality Stone. Upon your arrival, Thor had a mental break down that you and Rocket had to bring him back from. While Rockets approach was to slap him and tell him to snap out of it, you had a much calmer approach. You took Thors face between your hands and forced him to look at you.

“Hey big guy. I know you’ve been through a lot and it’s really taken a toll on you, but we need you to be strong. Your depression does not make you less worthy. You can still do this. I believe in you. And Rocket believes in you. Right Rocket?” You asked.

“Whatever Jackass.” Rocket waved his hand dismissively.

“Thank you, Lady Y/n. You’re right. I am still handsome.” Thor said confidently.

“Who said you were handsome? You look like melted ice cream.” Rocket sneered. Thor ignored him and held out his arm. A huge hammer came flying through the air and landed in his hand.

“Yes!” Thor bellowed. “I’m still worthy!”

Rocket and Thor went to find Jane as you went to complete your part of the mission.

“Who goes there?” Came a voice. You followed the sound and found Loki lying on a couch, tossing something in the air and catching it. You put on your best innocent face as you entered the room.

“I’m so sorry, but my friends and I are here for the festival and I just had to sneak away to find you.” You gushed. Loki took long strides towards you as he took in your appearance.

“My brother isn’t here.” Loki informed you, his voice thick with annoyance.

“I’m not here for your brother.” You said coyly as you took another step towards him.

“You’re here for me?” He cleared his throat to mask the disbelief in his voice. You nodded sweetly.

“Of course. Won’t you show me a magic trick?” You batted your eyes flirtatiously. A slight smirk appeared on Loki’s face.

“A magic trick?” He asked. Mischief swirled behind his eyes.

“Well you are the God of Mischief, aren’t you?” You teased. A full, open mouthed smirk dressed his face now. He held up your hand and held your wrist tightly between his fingers. He brushed his fingers on his other hand over your palm and a diamond appeared. You looked at the beautiful diamond, weightless in your hand, and gasped. He had made it appear out of thin air.

“Oh, Loki. Must you think so little of me? I’m a woman of substance. Diamonds don’t impress me.” You have him an over dramatic sigh, but he completely fell for it. He felt a twinge of competition brewing in his chest, like he had to win your favor. You faked a yawn and his eyes gleamed with determination.

“You don’t like that? Well how about this?” Loki challenged and waved his fingers over your palm again. This time, a flower appeared. It didn’t look like any earthly flower. It was ten times more beautiful and smelled better than anything you had ever smelled before. The flowers colors were green and black with accents of gold, just like Loki’s outfit. You stared at the flower in amazement before looking up shyly at him. If you weren’t mistaken, the God of Mischief had a blush on his cheeks as he watched your face carefully for approval. Loki picked up the flower and tucked it behind your ear. He began to lean in slightly but you were interrupted byThor and Rocket knocking over a vase. You noticed they had the stone and were ready to go. Luckily, you saw them before Loki did.

“What was-“ Loki began to turn his head towards the sound but you quickly put a hand behind his head and pulled him into a kiss. You felt his eyes flutter shut and you opened yours. You could see Rocket and Thor pretending to gag out of the corner of your eye. With one hand, you motioned for them to move. They quickly scattered and you pulled away. Loki was fully blushing now but doing his best to conceal it. He seemed completely bewildered, making you wonder if he’d ever kissed anyone before. You certainly hadn’t kissed anyone since the day Peter left to visit MOMA with his school. That felt like a million years ago. You touched your fingertips to your lips and felt a pang of guilt. You hadn’t even looked at another since Peter vanished. He was the love of your life, you were sure it of. And you already had your great love story with him, though be it short. You waited for him for five years now. Surely he wouldn’t mind you kissing one other man, especially if it was apart of a plan to bring everyone back. Loki appeared to be just as lost in his thoughts as you were. You had slightly messed up his long black hair but he didn’t seem to notice.

“Thanks for the flower. And for everything else. Bye!” You stammered and made your escape. Loki was too taken aback to chase after you. You met up with Rocket and Thor and went home.

When you arrived back at the tower, everyone rejoiced when they learned they had succeeded in retrieving the stones. You felt that familiar glimmer of hope again. There was finally a chance of seeing Peters pretty brown eyes once more. You had a rule of never letting yourself get too hopeful. Never letting yourself think you’ll see him again. You knew you weren’t strong enough to handle losing Peter twice. You ran to Nebula in excitement and tried to give her a hug, but she acted like she didn’t even know you. You brushed it off as her being shy.

You looked around the room with glee until your eyes fell on Clint. He was stolid and not speaking. He looked like he’d just seen a ghost.

“Clint?” Steve asked. He seemed to notice Clint’s indifference same time you did.

“Where’s Nat?” Bruce spoke up. You felt your spine tingle and your eyes quickly darted around the room for your red haired friend. You felt fear rise in your throat when you couldn’t find her. Your eyes were drawn back to Clint as he fell to his knees. The Avengers rushed to him with their questions. You didn’t want to hear what he had to say. You left the room immediately and threw up in the bathroom.

You all sat outside by the lake and contemplated what to do next. You hadn’t spoken in hours, unlike everyone else. They were discussing Nat’s death and how to move forward. You jumped slightly when you heard a splash far off in the lake. You noticed a bench was now missing but you were too numb to comment. You tried to go to Nebula for comfort but she was acting strange. She didn’t seem to care at all for Nat’s death.

The decision was eventually made. You weren’t going to let Nat’s sacrifice go to waste. She gave her life for the stone and you were going to make damn sure she did it for a good reason. All the stones were in place. The gauntlet had been crafted, this time in true Iron Man colors. All there was left to do was decide was was going to snap.

“It should be me.” Thor immediately volunteered. You knew Thor was desperate for a win after feeling like he failed in stopping Thanos. He was instantly met with disagreement from the group. You hadn’t said anything in eight hours at that point. You didn’t feel that need. What could you possibly say? Your best friend died inside you. Your boyfriend died scared and on a foreign planet when he was just 18. You made a new best friend and she was ripped from your fingers without a goodbye. You had no words. None.

Bruce was the next to offer himself up, then Tony.

“No.” You spoke up. Your voice was horse after not speaking for hours. You had also been crying and that didn’t help. Everyone looked at you, most had forgotten you were even there.

“Not now, Area 51. The adults are talking.” Tony dismissed and went on about why he should weld the gauntlet but you stood up angrily.

“No. It can’t be you. He needs you. It has to be me.” You said firmly. You were hellbent on doing it and at this point, no one could stop you. Tony looked at you and practically laughed in your face.

“You think he needs me more than he needs you? Y/n, the boy worships you. You know he told me he takes the long way to school just so he can call you and talk to you for longer? And that he absolutely hates chicken and rice but he says it’s his favorite food because you love to make it. He deifies you. He venerates you. He’d do absolutely anything for you. You really think he’d ever forgive me for bringing him back into a world that you’re not in?” Tony reasoned with you. You walked closer to Tony, blocking out every other thought and person in the room.

“And what if this doesn’t work, Mr. Stark? What if you snap and it kills you and no one comes back? Am I a genius who can fix the problem and make a new gauntlet or are you?” You shot back. You were on fire now and didn’t wait for an answer. “Look around the room. I am the most useless one here. Without Venom, I’m just human. And if Thanos comes back for round two, who’s gonna stop him? Some girl or Iron Man?”

Tony didn’t answer. No one did. The answer was clear.

“It has to be me. We all know that the snap will most likely kill whoever does it. And we all know that I’m the least valuable asset to this team. As morbid as it is, it’s okay if I die, if it means you can fix the gauntlet and try again. Everybody in this room knows I’m expendable. I mean, you made me the freaking shiny object to distract Loki with on the Time Heist, right?” You looked around the room as the Avengers looked down in shame. There was no denying you were right.

“Why are you thinking so little of yourself?” Tony demanded. He wasn’t angry anymore, only saddened by your words.

“Because I’m useless. And I won’t be if you let me snap. You can’t help us defeat Thanos if you’re dead, Mr. Stark. I can’t help you defeat Thanos whether I’m dead or alive. I’m the one we can risk losing. It has to be me.” You repeated. You started towards the gauntlet and tried to slip your hand inside. Before you could get it in, Tony grabbed your hand in his and looked at you desperately.

“Please, Y/n. He would never come back if he knew this was the price. He would never risk losing you. Let me do it.” Tony begged you. You shook your head sadly.

“And let you die? Mr. Stark, you have a wife and a daughter.” You reminded him.

“My dad wasn’t there growing up and I turned out to be a billionaire. Morgan and Pepper will survive without me. All my money will be left to them. I wasn’t cracked up to be that great of a father anyway. All I can really do is spoil Morgan and give her my empire.” Tony answered you. Your heart broke at him thinking he wasn’t a good dad.

“Bullshit. You’re a great father. You didn’t know me and you went out of your way to take care of me and protect me. You gave me my suit. That is a quality of a great man and that is what makes you a great father. Not the ability to spoil your kids. Morgan needs you. She needs her dad. And other people need you too. There isn’t a person in this room who hasn’t benefitted from knowing you. This is your family, Mr. Stark. You can’t leave behind your family. There are too many people who care about you.” You raised your voice again. You were never going to back down.

“There are people who care about you too.” Tony tried to protest.

“No there aren’t.” You laughed bitterly. “Who do I have? Everyone I loved became everyone I lost. So if I don’t come back, it’s fine.” Your voice cracked as salty tears streamed down your face. “It’s not like I have anything to come back to. Ask yourself this and answer honestly. Who would he rather lose, me or you?”

“Me. He’d rather lose me.” Tony answered weakly. Even he didn’t believe it. You made a face.

“His father figure? You’ve got it all wrong, Mr. Stark. I’ve known him for five years. He only knew me for 6 months. He’ll meet another girl. He won’t meet another Tony Stark. He can move on from me. He can’t move on from you.” You said. You felt sick to your stomach at the thought of Peter with another girl, doing the things you used to. You only hoped he’d remember you.

“He won’t move on. I know him. He will never move on.” Tony stated, his grip still firm on your hand.

“Well neither could I! I have been a shell of a person for the past five years. I couldn’t even kill myself because I was so terrified of him not being there when I got to heaven. At least while I’m alive, I can see him in my dreams. But I can’t keep living everyday when the only thing keeping me going is the thought that he might visit me while I’m sleeping. I can’t do that anymore. I can’t do anything anymore. I can’t eat, sleep, work, function, even breath without him! But I can do this. Please, Tony, let me do this. Let me bring him back.” You pleaded, almost on your knees at that point.

You had never called Tony by his first name before. Tony realized it too and finally, finally, nodded his head. He let go of your hand and backed away.

“This is suicide!” Thor protested. He tried to run to you but Tony held him back.

“Let her do it. Everybody, get back.” Tony said in defeat. He suited up and placed a shield in front of him. Everyone backed away from you and grabbed something to protect them. You looked to Nebula for support, but she was nowhere to be found. You knew there was no one there to hold your hand this time. No Peter. No Venom. No Nebula. No Nat. Just you.

You raised the gauntlet and slowly slid your hand into it. It opened to fit your arm before molding around you perfectly. You felt the surge of the Infinity Stones rush through your body. You were wearing your suit, but it did nothing to ease the pain. You cried out in pain and Thor once again stepped forward to stop you, but he was held back by Rhodey. You fully slid your hand in and raised it up. Tears poured down your face from the pain, and from knowing there was no way you were going to survive to see Peter again. You gave Tony one last look, but his face was covered by his Iron suit. You gave him a gentle smile, as if too apologize for yelling at him. He nodded his head once. You only wished you could see his face one last time, but he needed protected. You turned your attention back to your hand and put your fingers into position.

With tears rushing down your face, and with great agony in your entire body, you snapped your fingers.

Tag List 🏷

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[aire101]

Ferrum Chapter 3

Something was wrong with the kid.  Other than the fact that they had just gotten locked into a death game, of course. Tony couldn’t put a finger on exactly what, but he didn’t like it.

Knowing who Tor was now, he also knew that this ‘something wrong’ predated Kayaba’s villainous monologue in the town square.  He could see it in the way he would sometimes catch Peter staring at him out of the corner of his eye with an expression as if he were chewing on glass, the way he reacted to being called ‘kid’ before their identities were revealed…

Then there was how the kid looked like he had seen a ghost after the reveal.  Or worse than that, considering the strangeness in their life and work.

It was obvious that something had happened in the last few years that he couldn’t remember.  Something that to Peter made it almost impossible for Tony to be here, stuck in this game with him.  But try as he might, he could remember nothing.

He could only hope that whatever it was he had broken this time, there was still a chance to repair it.

It didn’t take long for them to make it to the outer edge of the city.  And right inside the Eastern gate they found a small inn with a friendly NPC keeper who informed them that a double room would be 15 Cor for the night.  Tony quickly made the exchange and hustled them upstairs to their appointed room.

“Would you like dinner brought up?  It would be an additional 5 Cor for the both of you,” asked the keeper as they were shown to their room.

Honestly, Tony hadn’t even considered the concept of food since he woke up in this virtual world.  What was the point?

“Yes please,” said Peter, ever polite even to coded entities.

The keeper gave a smile and nod of confirmation before heading back down stairs.

“Is there a point in eating inside a virtual environment?” asked Tony as he closed the door behind them.

“Eating food in the game works like a placebo—it doesn’t actually help your body, but it makes you feel full.  Obviously our actual bodies will have to be put on a support system to be maintained, but if we don’t eat in game we’ll just go around being hungry sometimes,” said Peter as he plopped down onto one of the beds.

Shit… Tony hadn’t thought that far ahead yet.  And with Peter’s metabolism and mutations he would need care tailored to his physiology…

“Where are you?  In the real world?” asked Tony.

“I’m at Ned’s.  I’m actually on his Nervegear system.  He let me have the first run on the game.”

“I’m assuming at this point he would have heard about the situation.  Who do you think he will have called?”

“Probably Aunt May.  And if he called Aunt May, her first call would probably be to Happy,” said Peter.

Tony gave a relieved sigh.  If Happy was on the short list, he was sure Hap would get Peter squared away with Tony’s medical team ASAP.

“Alright, we’re here.  Now out with it, what did I do?” asked Tony

Peter stared at him with wide eyes, “Wha— What do you mean?”

“You’ve been acting weird since we first met up, and now that I know its actually you I’m even more concerned.  What did I do?  Did I take your suit away again?  Did I actually hit on Aunt May?  What?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” muttered Peter, not meeting his eyes.

“Kid, you’ve been walking on pins and needles around me.  Not all the time, granted.  It comes and goes.  Which is even more weird, to be honest.  So what the hell happened that you periodically can’t bring yourself to look me in the eye and can barely handle hearing me talk?”

“I’m not mad at you or anything… It’s just— it’s hard,” said Peter, looking away again with a pinched expression.

“What’s hard?  It’s me kid.”

“I know.”

Tony groaned, running a hand over his face in frustration.

Just then a knock interrupted.

Peter jumped up quickly, obviously eager to avoid the conversation. The same innkeeper from before stood at the door pushing a cart baring two plates of steaming pub fare and two pints of what Tony assumed was supposed to be water.

“Thank you very much,” said Peter, placing the food and drinks on a table against the wall of the room.

“No problem, let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you,” said the innkeeper with a smile before he stepped out, closing the door behind him.

“Don’t think dinner gets you out of this talk.  I’m not afraid of grilling you over food,” said Tony, sitting at the small table.

“Yeah, yeah I know…” muttered Peter, taking the other seat.

“So spill, what happened?”

“You know, you’re not the only one that has questions.  And considering you don’t seem to remember much of anything, I’d say mine are more important.  How do I know you’re really Tony?  You don’t remember much of anything about this game, and there’s plenty of stuff I’ve mentioned that you should definitely remember,” said Peter.

Tony swallowed his food down hard, coughing a little when it almost felt like it stuck.  “Mmm… most delicious placebo I’ve ever had,” he said, taking a deep drink both to wash it down and to give him precious seconds to put off Peter’s very valid questions and concerns.

“Now who’s procrastinating…”

“Shut it, Underoos, old people need time to organize their thoughts.”

“Oh, so you’re ‘old people’ now?  Last time I called you old you informed me in no uncertain terms you were never old, only vintage.”

“I don’t remember that, but since it definitely sounds like my usual load of bull I’ll accept it,” grouched Tony.

“See, that’s what I’m talking about.  You’ve spent all afternoon saying you can’t remember stuff—”

“That’s because I can’t.  I can’t remember things passed a certain point, and that certain point is definitely way before whatever date this is for SAO to be in commercial release,” said Tony, his voice rising slightly with the panic he’d worked so hard to repress for the last several hours.

Peter went quiet, eying Tony’s expression.  Finally he asked the obvious question, “What’s the certain point you can’t remember passed?”

Tony pursed his lips in frustration, but eventually answered, “The last thing I remember is the meeting with Kayaba about moving forward with the AI development I was working on for SAO.  The problem was that in order to do further development and testing it would require me to deep dive into their systems, and for reasons I’ve discussed with you earlier today I was entirely unwilling to open myself up to that.”

“…but that was in early 2018?”

“Exactly.  So you tell me kid, what the hell happened?”

“Ok, but first I want you to tell me something that only Mr. Stark would be able to tell me,” said Peter.

“Other than the fact that I called you Underoos?”

“Someone could have overheard it.”

“Pft, unlikely,” scoffed Tony.

“Unlikely is not impossible, so cough something up.”

“Alright… the day before that meeting with Kayaba we were working on your webshooters and you told me about an incident you had as Spider-man with some asshole who apparently has the ability to harden his whole body completely and how you said to him—”

“OK NEVERMIND I BELIEVE YOU—”

“’How did you get so HARD so suddenly?!’”

“DID YOU REALLY HAVE TO RAISE YOUR VOICE A WHOLE OCTAVE TO QUOTE ME?”

“Yes.”

“Ugh, fine…” said Peter putting his face in his hands to try and hide the bright blush coloring his face.

“Kid, it’s me… what happened?  Why can’t I remember… anything?”

Peter sat with his head in his hands, clearly debating how to say what needed to be said.  Eventually, without raising his head, he spoke quietly but clearly.

“There was a battle… you won, but you took a lot of damage.  You’ve been in a coma ever since.”

Tony blinked.  A coma…

That didn’t make sense at all.

“If I’m in a coma, how am I here?” asked Tony, quizzically.

“I heard they were doing tests to try and use full-dive tech on coma patients to see if it was possible to reach them directly through a mental interface.  Perhaps there was some wires crossed in whatever system they are using on you and you ended up here?  Or perhaps the plan was to use SAO and interact in this world?  I honestly can’t tell you.  I just know that I haven’t been able to speak to you in a long time and today has been like a dream and a nightmare all at once.”

Tony finally took note of the tears dripping silently from Peter’s hidden face, glittering as they fell on to the table.

“I don’t know what’s going on, Mr. Stark.  I just know that I’ve missed you so much, and things have been hard and you weren’t there.  And it wasn’t your fault, I know that, but now you’re here and I just don’t know what to say, I can’t—”

Tony was starkly reminded just how young Peter really was, even considering how much time must have passed since his own memories ended.  When his own parents had passed he had been twenty-one and had been a complete wreck for months.  To have your parents and a guardian dead before fifteen, then… whatever Tony was taken away in every meaningful way only a few years later…

Awkwardly, Tony reached a hand over and rested it on Peter’s head.  Slowly Peter’s rambling quieted, though his breaths still caught audibly, clearly still fighting tears.

“I’m sorry, Peter.  I didn’t mean to put pressure on you.  I don’t expect you to have all my answers.  At this point, we’ll probably just have to wait for those until after we get out of this hell hole,” said Tony, eventually pulling his hand back after giving Peter’s hair an affectionate ruffle.

Peter continued to keep his face down for a moment, surreptitiously wiping at his face, as if he could hide the tears Tony had already clearly seen.  

“In any case,” said Tony, “How I even got here should probably be the least of our worries at this point. Better to worry about the immediate future.  So what do you think the plan should be?  I grant you, running down the road at twilight was perhaps not the best idea, but my point still stands— we’re better off getting the jump on this thing and putting some space between us and the angry hoards.  What do you think?”

“You’re probably right, I mean you usually are, but—”

“Ok, so I’m assuming we’re going to want to stick together for the foreseeable future, yes?” asked Tony.

“Yes?  I mean if you don’t want to I really wouldn’t blame you, but—”

“Then you are definitely going to have to learn to call me on my bullshit, kid.  We’re both geniuses as well as hero’s, and we both know that fuckups happen.  So whatever hero-worship you have left at this point is going to have to die a hard death right now.  I may be brilliant but I never really got into rpgs, and I hardly remember a damn thing about this game, so at this point you are the expert here.”

As he said it, what little color in Peter’s face paled.

“Not to put any pressure on you… or anything,” said Tony lamely.

“Uh… sure, right…”

“Seriously, kid.  What was your plan in this game, anyway?”

Peter sighed, and looked up at Tony for the first time since the talk had really begun.  His eyes were still red-rimmed and glazed from his bout with tears earlier.

“Honestly?  I just wanted to exist somewhere for a little while where I was just like everyone else.  Not just pretending to be like everyone else,” admitted Peter, looking mildly ashamed as he admitted it out loud.

“Hey, there’s no shame in that.  I used to occasionally put on a photostatic veil to go sit with a coffee down in Central Park.”

“I know, I know but it’s not the same.  When you wear a mask, you’re still you, just no one else knows its you.  I wear a ‘mask’ every day.  But in here there isn’t a mask— I’m just as weak as everyone else.  In here, I figured I could finally feel what normal felt like again,” said Peter.

“Kid, even if every one of your super powers was taken away, you still could never be the same normal as everyone else.  You are so much more than normal, and that has nothing to do with a spider bite,” said Tony with solemn affection.

Peter swallowed, his eyes filling up once again.

“But anyway, no real plan to speak of I guess,” said Tony, attempting to move on before he managed to make Peter cry again. “So how about this— we wake up early tomorrow morning and head out from here to go to the next town.  We’ll take the scenic route, hitting some encounters on the way and going over that beta file a little more thoroughly. Once we get there, we will reassess the situation and decide whether to camp out for a while or keep going.  Wash, rinse, repeat… until we figure out where we want to be.”

“About as good a plan as any, I guess,” said Peter with a nod.

“Alright then, now finish eating or I’m going to ground you.”

“Uh huh, sure… ground me from what?”

“I don’t know yet.  But I’m sure it’ll be petty.”

“You always are.”

“Shut up and eat your fake broccoli.”

[heymusings]

Things I loved in individual Marvel Movies (FYI...there’s a lot)

Iron Man

The epitome of showing character development within the time frame of a single film through Tony Stark.

Pepper Potts pretty much being Tony’s baby sitter.

Soundtrack

A man who has everything and nothing.

It’s literally just a well balanced action movie.

The fact that is was mostly just RDJ improvising and the other actors having to work with it.

Tony realizing he is part of the problem and finds his purpose in trying to fix those problems, and by doing so working to become a better person.

The fact that Tony is still not a fully realized “hero” at the end of this film-- he still has some quirks to work through and is a little too arrogant.  But this really sets up for even more amazing character development in the next films.

It is a movie of its time-- terrorism and greedy businessmen as the villains.

The fact that Tony and Pepper are not a couple by the end, even when I ship them.

“I am Iron Man”  The instant new trend of not hiding their identity.

Tony: Throw in a little hot rod red.  Jarvis: Yes, that will help you keep a low profile.

Pepper buying herself a birthday present from Tony.

Tony seeing her in the dress.

Pepper “taking out the garbage”-- burn

Tony’s suite tests and Dummy trying to put out a fire.

Tony making the first suite in the cave-- i love that montage

Stane’s moment in realizing how the suite worked-- it’s such a silent but great moment

“Don’t waste your life.”

The acting that takes place in the moment Stane takes the reactor out of Tony’s chest is amazing-- RDJ doesn’t even say anything.

Pepper getting the thumb drive out of the office-- and having the forethought to have Coulson follow her-- Coulson just sitting there waiting (it was oddly funny to me).

The eventual use of the SHIELD acronym

Proof that Tony Stark has a heart.

I don’t have anyone but you.

Iron Man 2

Tony and Pepper kissing for the first time....admittedly the first two films came out at a time when the thing I mostly cared about was shipping.

Soundtrack

Stark clearly still developing as a person and superhero...I love me some character development.

Stark refusing to give the suite

“If your priority was to actually to...”-- Tony questioning governmental control

“I am Iron Man.  The suite and I are one.  To turn it over will be to turn over myself which would be tantamount to indentured servitude or prostitution...”

The Iron Man suit as a “shield”--- interesting.

I love watching Tony in his workshop.

Dummy.

Pepper taking charge several times throughout.

Natasha totally taking out Happy when he assumes she can’t.

Pepper actually coming to like Natasha as her assistant.

Tony dealing with his mortality

Tony: Were you aiming for him or me...I can’t tell!

Happy just ramming into Whiplash with the car over and over again.

I told you I don’t want to be part of your super secret boy band.

Fury and Tony talking about Howard Stark and how he was one of the founding members of shield.

Shout out to the tessaract.

Phil: I will taze you and watch super nanny as your drool into the carpet.  Got it?

The ex wife.

Tony: Hammer tech? Rhodey: Yea.

Two seals fighting over a grape.

Phil leaving to go to New Mexico-- Thor shout out.

“Nice work kid.”

Pepper!!!

War machine and Iron Man working together to beat the iron suites-- I am partial to the shots of them in the Park area

Natasha beating the shit out of all the guys as she makes her way down the hallway...doing so very nonchalantly-- while happy takes on one guy.

Tony: You have a big gun but you’re not the big gun.

Hammer’s shock that Pepper is having him arrested while Pepper just glares at him totally unafraid of him.

Captain America shout out.

Pepper and Tony kiss.

I was here first, get a roof.

Tony: Text book narcissism?....agreed.

Getting the guy who hated Stark to present the award at the end.

“Funny, how annoying a little prick can be.”

Iron Man 3

Tony interacting with Harley  

The question if Iron Man is the suite or the man-- Tony clearly needing to come to terms with the question if his heroism comes from the man or the suite-- and has to do so by accepting his weaknesses.

Tony proving he can still be a hero without the suite. He is a mechanic-- him infiltrating the mandarin mansion without the suite and just a bunch of every day items is amazing.  This film just reminds us that his bad-assery comes from his mind. It is honestly just one of the best Stark moments all around.

Continuity in how Tony is affected by what happens to him.

Pepper coming to the rescue.

The fact that Tony went back for Dummy after his home was attacked.

In the end Tony is sure that even without the suite he is still Iron Man-- You can take away my tricks and toys, but the one thing you can’t take away...I am Iron Man.

The Dora Explorer watch

Honestly, I hate working here.  They are so weird.

Captain America

Agent Carter totally beating the men into place and Steve clearly loving it.

Bucky: Weren’t you smaller?... What happened to you? Steve: I joined the army.  Bucky: Did it hurt...is it permanent?  Steve: A little...so far.

The introduction of the heart of the character-- good man vs perfect soldier

He’s artistic-- this really says something about his character.

The flag bit will not make me laugh.

Peggy Carter...enough said...literally...everything about her.

Steve using the garbage lid as a shield-- I just like the foreshadowing... someone get that man a shield.

I can do this all day-- even when he is tiny and doesn’t stand a chance he doesn’t back down against a bully knowing he won’t win (but he still called out the bully)

Knowing Peggy touching Steve’s chest was technically an honest reaction by the actress-- she was literally so shocked by seeing him without a shirt for the first time.

The fact that I can say, “aw look how cute and little they are,” about both Bucky and Steve.

Steve jumping on the grenade...is this a test?

He’s still skinny.

“You have no idea how to talk to a woman do you.”

“Waiting for the right partner.”

“How do you feel?” “Taller.”

“I could do this all day.”

Peggy making a kill shot on a man that is in a car and at quite a distance.

Peggy non nonchalantly shooting at Steve to test shield, but mostly out of jealousy...and Steve looking ready to pee himself. 

Kid: go get him, I can swim.

The extreme differences in the reactions to the “performance” in the cities compared to the camps.

I really like the leather jacket.

“Where I am going if anyone yells at me I can shoot them”  “Undoubtedly they will be shooting back.”

Fondue

Peggy: You can’t give me orders.  Steve: The hell I can’t, I am a Captain.

Steve: You sure this thing works? Howard: It’s been tested more than you, pal.

Do you know what you’re doing? Steve: Yeah, I knocked out Adolf Hitler over 200 times.

Until the end of the line.

Bucky: You don’t have one of those do you?

Bucky refusing to leave Steve behind.

Cap and Bucky leading the rescued men back to camp.

I couldn’t call my ride.

Bucky: That little guy from Brooklyn that was too dumb to run away from a fight, I am following him.

Bucky: I am visible, I am turning into you.  This is a horrible dream.  Steve: Don’t take it so hard.  Maybe she has a friend.

Bucky’s face of pure confusion after realizing Peggy wasn’t going to give him the time of day.

The subtle development of the friendship between Howard and Steve.

Bucky’s sniper skills.

Bucky: Remember when I made you ride the Cyclone at Coney Island? Steve: Yeah, and I threw up.  Bucky: This isn’t payback is it?

Bucky: I had him on the ropes.  Steve: I know you did.

Any time Bucky and Steve work together-- it just comes off very natural.

Bucky wielding, if only for a moment, the Captain America Shield.

Peggy and Steve’s kiss

I am not kissing ya.

Steve’s sacrifice.

Steve being able to think coherently enough to recognize that something is wrong when he wakes up by realizing the baseball game is too old.

The shot of Steve on a modern New York City.

“I had a date.”

Captain America Winter Soldier

The opening running scene (rather than something more actionesque-- and the banter that builds as Steve continuously passes Sam... this also really sets up the fact that this is a film that concentrates almost solely on characters (despite having great action sequences).

On your left....two passes later...Don’t say it.

Steve’s speech over the intercom, “...It’s a price I’m willing to pay.  I may be the only one...but I am willing to bet I am not.”

Steve in glasses.

The Winter Solider-- his knife skills....the clear progression throughout the film as he becomes more and more conflicted.

“I am 95, I am not dead.”--- I need more information about this line.

“Does anyone want to get off?”

Natasha and Steve as a team-- Steve becoming more trusting of her

The fact that of any movie he could have watched after waking up Steve watched “Saw”

Steve/WS hand to hand battle

“This isn’t freedom; this is fear.” (Steve seeing Shield as a bully...he doesn’t like bullies)

Steve’s progressive realization that the power of the individual to make choices is more important than orders from an entity that may have ulterior motives.

Falcon/Sam treating Steve like a regular guy and just developing a loyal friendship that I appreciate.

 WS catching Steve’s shield with one arm.

Until the end of the line.

Bucky/WS’s murder walk.

Nat: Where did Captain America learn to steal a car? Steve: Nazi Germany, and we’re borrowing, take your feet off the dash.

It’s really not your style Rogers.  Steve: You’re right, it’s not, it’s hers (then commence Nat still trying to find Steve a date).

Captain America Civil War

Bucky noticeably uncomfortable when he first hears the sirens, then his relief when they pass him and the immediate return to being on edge when he notices the man looking at him from across the street.

So many reminders that Bucky’s nature is not toward violence.

Steve confronting Bucky in his apartment only for Bucky to run, trying so hard to avoid a fight...but the fight that happens I love, especially in the stairwell.

Bucky going after the reactor of the Iron Man suite-- noticeably not going for killing blows during the final fight and despite Tony full out trying to kill him.

How tired and sad Bucky sounds when he tells Cap, “It always ends in a fight

Wanda: You guys know I can move things with my mind right.

Wanda: You were pulling your punches.

Steve’s talk with Wanda about doing and saving who you can and that it doesn’t always mean everyone.

Tony managing to disarm the greatest assassin with nothing but a gauntlet while wearing a three piece suite.

Steve’s clear conflict regarding his friendship with Tony and willingness to forgive him at the end.

Wanda’s relationship with both Clint and Steve... I wanted more of this.

Steve understanding the dangers of the accords more than Tony (based on experience)-- and the importance of his message, “you can’t save everyone,” but you can save the majority.

I admit...this movie got me so worked up about how Tony wants so much to start pushing away the blame for even one lost life that he becomes so willing to place all the responsibility on a governmental power rather than the individual (as Steve believes) even at the cost of putting targets on the back of his friends/allies.  I will never not be shocked at his shock when he talks of Wanda as a weapon or his shock when they put them all in prison. But I also love that I got so worked up about this-- it makes for a great watch.

“No you move.”

Bucky and the motorcycle-- wow, that was not only cool...but it was really, REALLY hot.

I can’t control their fear-- only my own.

I retire for like what five minutes and it all goes to shit.

You want to mope go to high school.  You want to make amends, you get off your ass.

I can’t, but she can.

You locked me in my room.

Bucky being totally done with all the weird stuff going on around him.

“I can do this all day.”

Geez, Tony.  How old is this guy.

Bucky moving in front of Sam to protect him from Spiderman.

You couldn’t have done that earlier? (I hate you.)

Can you move your seat up. (No).

“You don’t deserve it-- My father made that shield”-- he sounds like a child trying to defend himself and his actions.  Steve dropping the shield and taking Bucky is pretty much him winning the fight-- taking the higher ground-- good man vs. good soldier being reiterated here.  The shield doesn’t take away from Cap’s strength at all-- what made him a hero is his heart, the fact that he is a good man and he doesn’t need the shield.  This is something that Tony is still learning and coming to terms with in his developmental arc.

This is the first time that we see Tony truly angry during his first with Steve-- he is being driven by his instincts to get revenge at that moment-- he is devastating but it takes away from one of his strengths-- thinking things out.

Tony is in the wrong regarding his trying to kill Bucky, he even practically admits it when Steve attempts to get him to see reason, “I don’t care, he killed my mom.” Tony is in the wrong and yet Steve still understands Tony’s feelings, yet he can’t let Bucky die even from someone he calls a friend-- this just makes for good emotionally intense conflict that is matched by the actual physical conflict.

Steve: He’s my friend. Tony: So was I-- this line literally emotionally devastates both characters.

Steve: I can do this all day. (Cap refusing to back down to protect his friend).

Tony losing because of one moment Bucky helps Steve simply by providing a seconds distraction.

Natasha being there for Steve at Peggy’s funeral

Tony trying to appeal to Steve’s past in order to get him to sign the accords using pens from Howard (one for each of them) and Steve’s response, “Some would say it bought us closer to war.” What a way to immediately set up where these two stand.

The idea that there are two sides to “right”-- Steve concentrating on moral and Tony being a realist... it really calls in to question which side you agree with most, and I love that.

Steve: If I see a situation going south I can’t ignore it.  I wish I could.  Tony: No you don’t.  Steve: You’re right, I don’t.

Tony clearly trying to use the accords as an excuse to help him stop because he keeps finding excuses to not stop even when he wants to for Pepper

Did you know?-- the fact that it finally is made clear that Steve is not perfect and is willing to lie.  He has reasons, but I think it is great to realize the contrast between the legend of perfect Captain America and Steve Rogers.

Steve realizing that the accords are similar to what Shield was doing in trying to deter war using fear/threats/control before it happened (which never works)-- Steve’s, “She’s a kid!” vs Tony’s, “She’s not a U.S. citizen and they don’t grant visas to weapons of mass destruction!” is really Steve’s break away from any possibility of him signing the accords. 

Tony’s greatest fear of being alone coming to pass as he is left at Avengers headquarters alone.

Steve: Where you from kid? Peter: Queens. Steve: Brooklyn

Tony never really seems to truly agree with the accords (not only does he also break them) on a moral level and he seems haunted by it throughout the film, while Steve is made stronger by his decision because he is sure of his position 

Tony: I am trying to keep you from tearing the Avengers apart. Steve: You did that when you signed-- how upset Tony is vs. how calm and matter of fact Steve is (who is surer of themselves?)

Thor

Frigga and Loki’s relationship

Darcy... she needs to be around more in the other movies.

Not that it’s a favorite thing, but I am honestly always confused how Thor is so hero worshiped when he’s kind of a dick at the beginning, and then when Loki starts doing similar things that Thor did he’s the bad guy (not saying he should have done them...but double standards and hypocrisy abound in this movie).  The more you watch the more you realize that everyone treats Loki like crap... like wow, they were all lucky Loki loved Thor and his family or he would have done something much sooner.

Loki’s manipulations.

Sif: I did.  Thor: True, but I supported you.

“ What happened, silver tongue turned to lead?”

Loki’s entire storyline.

Sif.

Loki using magic and daggers-- his fighting style is so interesting, wish we saw more of it.

“Go home little princess.” “Damn”

Loki being touched by the frost giant.

Loki more actively protecting the warriors three and Sif on Johtunheim than Thor.

Loki’s face while listening to the argument between Odin and Thor.

Darcy: Does he need CPR, because I totally know CPR.

Darcy: Yeah, we can tell you’re hammered, it's pretty obvious.

Jane: I grazed him, but she tasered him.  Darcy: Yes, I did.

The number of times Jane hits Thor with a car.

Loki’s confrontation with Odin and the pure emotion that Hiddleston portrays in that moment.

Thor’s new found love of pop tarts and coffee

Next time you decide to taser someone make sure he’s already in the car.

Jane and Darcy’s reactions to Thor’s attractiveness.

“I used to know this scientist.  I pioneer in gamma radiation.  SHIELD showed up and I never saw them again.”

The first introduction to Hawkeye...being told to grab a gun but taking the bow and arrow instead.

Barton: You want me to slow him down sir or are you going to send in more guys for him to beat up.

Thor: You’re big- fought bigger.

Barton: I am starting to root for this guy.

Science Fiction as a precursor to science fact.

Science Fiction is just science we don’t understand yet.

My realization that even as early as the first Thor film Thor and Loki’s earth fashion sense was already very much established- high power businessman vs. “very comfortable/casual”-- symbolic, maybe.

The fact that Loki as a villain is perfection-- he is a match for Thor, he is personable, his motivations are similar but he has different methods, and you can see some reason in them.

Donald Blake shout outs.

Loki going from being rather meek at the beginning compared to his second return to Johtunheim to strike a deal with Laufey.

The fact that Loki clearly had no intention of letting Laufey kill Odin.

Heimdal’s learning that Loki is a better sorcerer then he was given credit for and can cloak himself even from the gatekeeper.

Thor and Jane bonding over science/magic.

We got xena, Jackie chan and Robin hood.

“Found you!”

“Is that one of Stark’s?”

Thor’s sacrifice- I love the drama of it.

Thor’s powers being returned- again, very dramatic.

So this is how you normally look-- it’s a good look.

Loki: I never wanted the throne! I only wanted to be your equal.

Thor pinning Loki just by putting the hammer on his chest.

Loki: I could have done it, father!Loki’s look of devastation when he is again rejected by his father.

Thor Dark World

Ta Da!

Loki totally ignoring the chaos of battle around him as he reads a book.

“I like her.”

You’ll what? Kill me? Evidently, there will be a line.

Loki: Now they’re firing at us.  Thor: Thank you for the commentary Loki, it's not at all distracting.

Loki and Thor teaming up and using Loki’s magic in battle... I would have loved to have seen more of this team up happening in the films

To be honest, the only real saving grace of this movie was Loki... which I can get behind.

“I didn’t do it for him.”

Loki lecturing Thor about his escape plan and Thor pushing him out the open hatch in their ship.

Loki being revealed on the throne.

“Oh dear, is she dead?”

“I think you missed a column”

Loki’s reaction to Frigga’s death.

Loki’s look after having yelled at his mother.

Frigga attempting to make Loki’s imprisonment comfortable, she will never not see him as her son.

Who put me there! (There are so many levels to that statement and the acting is amazing).

Thor Ragnarok

Soundtrack

The whole play that Loki had written for himself and his pure enjoyment of it while pretending to be Odin.

“Beg your pardon?”

“You had one job. Just the one.”

“I am not a witch.” “How come you dress like one?” “Hey (offended).”

Thor’s powers

“I’ve been falling for 30 minutes!”

Hela-- love her-- a little anti-climatic ending.

Loki’s epic eye roll.

“Oh shit.”

Thor totally fangirling over Valkyrie.

Thor’s story about when he and Loki were 8 and Loki pretended to be a snake before stabbing him.

“It’s in my brain now”

Thor being full out God of Thunder and the soundtrack during the scene is amazing.

“I am not doing get help.”

“Do you have a better plan?” “No.” “We’re doing it.”

Loki cheering the Hulk smashing Thor.

Loki using his daggers again...I still wish we got to see more of that.

Your savior is here.

“I saw you coming.”  “Of course you did”

“I’ve never met this man in my life.” “He’s my brother.” “Adopted.”

“I’m here.”

Avengers

There is something I greatly enjoy about the shot of Loki being taken in shackles down the hallway of the Shield based-- he definitely still feels in control even then.

Learning to become a team and not just automatically being a well-oiled machine.

Tony and Bruce’s science bromance

There will always be men like you.

Loki: I am listening.

Tony: Doth mother know you wearath her drapes.

Fury: 10 bucks says your wrong...Cap paying up on his bet with Fury.

Cap’s simple response: You should have left it in the ocean.

Avengers theme

I’ve got red in my ledger, I’d like to wipe it out.... the whole scene between Loki and Nat and the changing power dynamics during it is simply great writing and acting. And the end line of Nat’s being, “Thank you for your cooperation,” to show she came out on top in that battle is extra awesome.

She turns out not be another pretty face--- and then Natasha proceeds to annihilate them single-handed

Coulson calling Natasha through her targets phone then arguing with him on the phone that she’s too busy working, while also being tied up.

Natasha being convinced to leave her mission by being told Barton was compromised.

Bruce is on the run but still trying to do good.

Mark Ruffalo as Bruce

“No its won by soldiers”...fade into Captain America’s first intro in the film.

Tony: Like Christmas, but more me.

12% of a moment.

Tony: his first name is agent.

Pepper:  Is this about the Avengers initiative...which I know nothing about.  Tony:...I didn’t qualify for.  Pepper: I didn’t know that either.  Tony: Apparently I am volatile, self-obsessed, don’t play well with others.  Pepper: That I did know.

Phil and Pepper being chummy with each other...I would have enjoyed more of this.

Coulson totally fan-boying over Cap.

Coulson: I watched you while you were sleeping.

Natasha:  I thought Coulson was going to swoon.  Has he asked you to sign his trading cards yet?  They’re vintage, he’s very proud.

Bruce:  They want me in a submerged pressurized metal container? (sees its actually going to take flight instead) Oh no, this is much worse (in complete sarcasm).

Cap immediately accepting Bruce.

How obviously uncomfortable Bruce is upon first going on the helicarrier surrounded by people.  Such good acting.

Cap: Mr. Stark. Tony: Captain

Fury: Ant, meet boot.

Stark needing entrance music to confront Loki.

The near instant tension between Cap and Tony after capturing Loki.

Loki: I am not overly fond of what follows.

Cap: Stark, we need a plan of attack.  Stark: I have a plan, attack.

Loki: I remember a shadow, living in the shade of your greatness.

Tasha: He’s killed 80 people in two days.  Thor: He’s adopted.

Cap: I knew that reference!

Hill: When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics.  Tony: Last night.

Tony: I am a huge fan of how you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.

Tony: An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome.

Bruce being uncomfortable naming the Hulk and calling him ‘the other guy’

Bruce looking so uncomfortable during the first act of the film

Tony and Cap bringing up phase 2 at the same time in two different ways-- action and intelligence.

Tony: I am sorry Nick, you were lying.

Bruce: I am not leaving just because you get a little twitchy.

Tony: How is this now about me?  Cap: I am sorry, isn’t everything.

Cap: You may not be a threat but you better stop acting like a hero. Tony: Like you?  Everything special about you came out of a bottle. (pretty much this entire conversation)

Cap: put on the suite let’s find out.  Tony: I am not afraid of you old man. (explosion) Cap: Put on the suite.  Tony: Yep.

Cap: It seems to run on some form of electricity.  Tony: Well, you’re not wrong.

Loki: Are you ever not going to fall for that?

Phil: So that’s what it does.

Man: You an alien...no...well, then son you’ve got a condition.

Tony: He wants a monument with his name plastered...son of a bitch.

Thinking he is going to die wants to call and talk to Pepper.

Tony: We have a hulk.

Tony: We may not be able to protect the earth but you can damn well be sure we’ll avenge it.

Cop: Why the hell should I take orders from you.  ( Cap destroys some aliens...cop then immediately obeys orders.)

Bruce: That’s my secret... I am always angry.

That epic Avengers assemble round shot.

Barton not even looking while he makes a kill shot.

Fury: I recognize the council as made a decision, but given that it is a stupid ass decision I’ve elected to ignore it.

Hulk saving Tony

The “A” left on Stark tower.

Avengers Age of Ultron

The reaction of the Avengers when discovering Barton’s family life.

The fact that Barton has a normal family life.

Language.

Please be a secret door...yay!

Tony: Good talk.  Random Hydra Extra: No it wasn’t

The teamwork in the opening scene

I somehow found myself shipping Nat and Bruce.

“A great deal of complaining and tales of torn deltoids.”- Thor

“He’s the boss”- Tony about Cap

“He’s fast and she’s weird” - Maria Hill

“What kind of monster would allow a German scientist to experiment on him in order to protect his country?”- Cap to Hill

“Unlike you, I don���t have a lot of time...will...Thor be there”

Sam: following cold leads on our missing person's case (Bucky).

“He’s also a huge dork...chicks dig that.”- Natasha flirting with Bruce by describing him...then Cap totally shipping them.

Cap: I’ve seen her flirt up close...As may be the world’s leading authority on waiting too long...don’t.  Bruce: What do you mean up close?

The team trying to lift the hammer.

Cap: Together.  Tony: We’ll lose.  Cap: Then we’ll do that together too.

Black Panther references

Tony admitting that watching his friends die is not as bad as watching them die and he doesn’t.

Tony: I cracked into the Pentagon when I was in high school on a dare.

Cap: I really miss the days when the weirdest thing science created was me.

Barton: You’re no match for him, Captain.  Cap:...Thanks, Barton.

Natasha: Cap, keep them occupied.  Cap (out of breath): What do you think I’ve been doing?

Wanda....everything Wanda

Wanda: Ultron can’t tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it; where do you think he gets that?

Vision handing Thor’s hammer to him like its no big deal.

No one listening to Pietro so he comes back with a gun...”get off your asses.”

Cap: You get killed, walk it off....you didn’t finish....what were you napping.

I actually never realized just how snarky Steve is in this movie.

The teamwork between Thor and Cap is awesome.

Wanda’s entrance as an Avenger...YES!!!!!

Cap: We are not clear...we are really not clear.

Pietro: Keep up old man.  Barton: No one would know...no one...last time I saw him Ultron was sitting on him...quick little bastard.

The fact that the above line was improvised by Renner.

Thor:...I am running out of things to say....you ready.

Pietro’s sacrifice. Wanda’s reaction after feeling it.

Barton names his son after both Natasha and Pietro.

Cap and Tony arguing that Vision picking up the hammer doesn’t count...and an elevator is also not worthy.

Wanda: I’ll protect it (looks at Hawkeye). It’s my job.

Vision: He’s right, he hates you the most.

Hulk having an obvious soft spot for Natasha

Natasha opening up to Bruce about her past.

Tony: Like the old man said, together.

Natasha: Still think you’re the only monster?

The whole idea of what makes a monster and how many people view someone else or themselves as a monster is so interesting and play a huge role in characterization.

Steve refusing to leave the flying city as long as there was even one civilian left there... Nat agreeing with him, “There are worse ways to go.”

Fury’s entrance and Steve’s, “Fury, you son of a bitch.”

Avengers Infinity War

Cap’s entrance by walking out of the shadows

Tom Holland’s improvising his death scene.

We don’t want to kill you, but we will.

Earth just lost her best defender.

Wanda being a complete badass-- she literally destroyed a stone with one hand and held off a nearly fully powered Thanos with the other

Caps glorious beard.

“I see you copied my beard.”

Strange seeing only ONE possible win in thousands...then giving up the stone... we’re in the endgame now...it was the only way.

Shuri making Bruce feel like an idiot.

Someone get this man a shield.

Steve and T’Challa running to the front of the battle line.

“I hope they remember you.”

Bucky alive and well

You speak groot...it was an elective.

Bring me Thanos!!! (In fact, the entire scene of Thor arriving to join the fight is cinematic gold)

Thanos on the farm-- yes, let them reiterate he won...like wow... you don’t get that much

What was she doing up there all this time?

“She’s not alone.”

Loki revealing the tessaract...trying to take Thanos on alone...and getting in one last jab with, “You will never be a god.”

Quill attempting to mimic Thor’s voice.

Rabbit

Any interaction between Thor and Rocket

Rocket engaging Thor in a meaningful conversation to comfort him-- such a huge growth is seen in his character.

Quill: What kind of weapon are we talking about here.  Thor: The Thanos killing kind.  Quill: Don’t you think we should all have a weapon like that.

“Stop messaging his muscles.”

Thor: Your bodies crumble as your minds collapse into madness.  Rocket: Is it weird I want to do it even more now?  Thor: A little bit.

Thor: He’s never fought me.  Rocket: Yes he has.  Thor: He’s never fought me twice.

It will kill you.  Thor: Only if I die. 

I’m way past asking for permission.

The 50% of me that’s stupid, that’s 100% you.

Rocket being picked up by Bucky and both continuing to shoot.

Oh, I’ll get that arm.

Thor being heartbreakingly optimistic and hiding his pain behind a smile until Rocket asks, “What if you’re wrong?” and Thor responds, “What more could I lose?” and Rocket’s, “I could lose a lot.”

The snap...”Oh god.”

You should have gone for the head.

You’re an Avenger now.

Peter: I should’ve gone home but it was such a long way down... If anything it’s kind of your fault that I am here. (Tony’s face is great)

Tony: The kid has seen more movies.

Tony and Thanos’ confrontation.

The adults are talking.

Steve giving his all to hold back Thanos with his bare hands and Thanos’ face of momentary confusion that a single man could hold him back even for a second.

My constant wondering what the result would have been if Tony and Cap were together in any of the scenes-- they work best together despite their contrasting personalities.

Doctor Strange

An arrogant man being forced to reconsider his world view and grow

Strange’s reaction to killing a man is perfect for the character but also just great acting from Ben.

Strange being called Master Strange and not wanting the title and being very adamant about not wanting the responsibility

Refusing to kill and being called a coward for it, but refusing to budge from his belief which results in a very interesting and wholly creative end battle... and fully earning and owning the title of Master.

Strange: You lack imagination.  (No you lack a spine).

Dormmamu, I’ve come to bargain.

A hero actually using an infinity stone.

Say what you want about this film but I honestly think it has a great character arc for Strange.

The cloak.

Strange’s jokes.

Strange using astral projection to learn more.

The Incredible Hulk

It was better than the first one...remake it with Mark Ruffalo and we’ll talk.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Soundtrack

Introduction to Star-Lord

The mugshot line up and jailbreak

“You said it yourself bitch, we’re the guardians of the galaxy”

Dance off distraction... also perfect part of his characterization.

Quill trying to get Gamora to join in on the dance off.

The circle moment where Quill first becomes emotionally open and asks for help-- ending with Rocket’s “We’re all standing now.”

Peter coming to terms with his mother’s death as signified by his finally opening her final gift to him.

We are groot.

Rocket’s commentary while on the public while tracking down Quill

Rocket: What’s a Racoon?  Quill: You are stupid.  Rocket: Ain’t no thing like me except me.

Rocket’s bed fur.

Gamora: You must be joking.  Rocket: No I really heard they find you attractive.

Let’s just say I really like Rocket.

Quill: A bomb? And you just leave it laying around? Rocket: I was going to put it in a box.

Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2

The Guardians team...this movie was pretty disappointing in most areas but I did enjoy the interactions among the characters.

Ego brainwashing Quill through so much of the film to convince him that he is above his team and be swayed to Ego’s side

The bodies of Ego’s children reveal

Yondu being revealed to be the hero and the real father figure

You look like Mary Poppins...Is he cool....Yeah... I am Mary Poppins y’all.

Peter’s discovery of the cause of his mother’s death-- that moment is amazing cinema

Ego: You are a god...if you kill me you’ll be just like everyone else.  Quill: What’s so wrong with that? (aka being perfect doesn’t mean shit)

By the end, the Guardians become a family.

Rocket and Yando interaction... they’re both assholes that care.

Rocket’s shock that the colors shined for Yondu in his death... Quill accepting and sharing in Rocket’s pain in that moment.

Spiderman Homecoming

If you’re nothing without the suite then you shouldn’t have it.

The car intense car scene-- amazing cinema there

Peter: Come on Peter...come on, Spiderman. 

Training wheels protocol

If you even cared you’d actually be here.

The adult is talking.

Peter is pretty bad at keeping his secret.

MJ reveal

Peter deciding to continue being the friendly neighborhood Spiderman for a while longer.

Happy having kept a ring on him for years.

Peter speaking revealing he can understand and speak Spanish when the shop keeper talks about Aunt May.

Ant-Man

The father-daughter relationship is adorable.

“I hope you don’t catch him.”

My days of breaking in and stealing shit are done.  What do you want me to do? (I want you to break into a place and steal some shit.)

Scott as a father.

Ant-Man and Wasp

The montage of what Scott does in his spare time while under house arrest.

Again...father/daughter relationship.

The fact that Scott and Paxton go from viewing each other with low opinions in the first movie to seeing each other like family... it's so healthy.

Black Panther

Killmonger’s entrance into the throne room and very nonchalantly stating that he wants the throne before demanding to be asked who he is and letting it rip.  The calm to intense anger is awesome.

This corset is really uncomfortable so can we wrap this up and go home?

What are THOOOSSEE?!

Everyone is shooting at me...wait let me put on my helmet.

Okay...let us just assume most of this list would consist of the wonder that is princess Shuri.

“Americans”

Great another broken white boy for us to fix.

T’Challa’s growth as a character by coming to understand the world differently through Killmonger’s actions.

The fact that T’Challa and Killmonger actually want similar things but come into conflict by their complete opposite ways of going about accomplishing their goal.

Stand up, you are a king.

The fact that T’Challa surrounds himself with females rather than men as his most loyal, fierce, and intelligent people.

Killmonger and T’Challa sharing a sunset and having a moment of understanding before Killmonger’s death.

The truth behind Killmonger’s reasoning and goals.

“Would you kill me, my love?”  “For Wakanda?  Without question.”

You can’t blame me, I almost died.

The moment I believe T’Challa became king: You were wrong! All of you were wrong!  We let the fear of our discovery stop us from doing what is right!

.....I’ll add more, I’ve just been working at it for so long as I rewatched the films I am just posting it now and will add on later

[mothermaidenclone-blog]

Avengers: Infinity War or Just by Force of Numbers This Has to Work out, Right?

I had my trepidations about Avengers: Infinity War; there were so many characters to squeeze in that I worried a cameo-fest might take the place of a cogent plot My fears, however, were unfounded, as I felt the story held together well and the characters’ interactions were a good balance between genuinely personal and goofy one liners. The women - although vastly outnumbered, there are roughly three times as many named male characters as female - continue to be the strong heroes we know and love.

*Avengers: Infinity War spoilers follow*

Perhaps most prominent of the female line up is Gamora (Zoe Saldana). Once again, she demonstrates a variety of admirable qualities, including martial prowess and perhaps the most pragmatism out of any of the Avengers - she is quick to break up the man-off between Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) by reminding them that the whole universe is at stake; “Enough! We need to stop Thanos.” Gamora also demonstrates incredible strength of will and appreciation of the greater good, she possesses secret knowledge that could endanger everybody if Thanos (Josh Brolin) finds out, so she makes Peter promise to kill her rather than let her be captured. To do this, she holds Peter to the most powerful force she can think of, a female entity, the memory of his mother. Gamora is willing to sacrifice herself to protect innocent lives, and her only motivation that outweighs this is her love for her sister, Nebula (Karen Gillan). The sight of Nebula being tortured is the only thing powerful enough to move Gamora to divulging her secret.

Unfortunately, Gamora meets a tragic and untimely demise at the hands of Thanos. Even worse than dying so a man can have something to be sad about, she is murdered so a man can obtain mystical powers to use for evil. Gallant to the end, once Gamora realises Thanos’ intentions, she tries to kill herself so that his sacrifice will fail. Her death is all the more heartbreaking seeing as she has spent two films escaping, recovering and developing from not only the stigma of being Thanos’ adopted daughter, but also all the trauma she suffered at his hands. So, to be murdered by him out of a deluded sense of him mistaking a lifetime of abuse for love is such a cruel end for a magnificent and accomplished hero.

Nebula herself contributes a little to the good fight, violently despatching a few goons, but as far as the space-faring women of this film go, Mantis (Pom Klementieff) definitely comes in second after Gamora in terms of prominence. She is also one of the two female characters who have actual super powers - she is an empath and can manipulate people’s mental states to a certain extent, such as sending people to sleep. It was good to see her as the lynchpin of a plan, and not the butt of a joke, as she is one of the few characters who has any effect at all against Thanos, controlling his mind for an impressive amount of time. Mantis is also a source of comedy in Avengers: Infinity War, sometimes slightly at her expense, for example when she messes up the line, “We came to kick names and take ass,” but sometimes innocently too. One of my favourite moments was Mantis serenely enjoying the simple pleasure of low gravity in the background of a shot.

The only other female character with super powers is Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). She is portrayed as one of the most powerful characters in the films - the only one with the ability to destroy an infinity stone for example. She is also one of only two characters with the strength of will to kill a person she cares for deeply to keep Thanos from finding an infinity stone - Peter Quill is the other, but his assassination attempt is thwarted by Thanos. This is no mean feat, as her target, Vision (Paul Bettany), is not only her lover, but one of the few individuals on Earth who is as far from being a normal human as she is. Prior to this, Wanda not only has the capability to protect Vision in battle, but also to heal his wounds. Other than Thor, who is a literal god, and Thanos, who has a magical glove with the six most powerful objects in the universe stuck to it, she performs some of the most impressive feats in Avengers: Infinity War.

Other female characters openly admire Wanda’s talents; when she enters the fray in Wakanda and displays what she is capable of, General Okoye (Danai Gurira) exclaims, “Why was she up there this whole time?” Furthermore, Okoye and Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) support Wanda in combat. It filled me with joy to hear Natasha proclaim, “She’s not alone,” as she joins in the battle against one of the children of Thanos. It was a little strange how the fighting seemed to be gendered: female characters mostly only battled the one female child of Thanos, Proxima Midnight (Carrie Coon). As a side note, I did have to look her name up as I don’t believe it’s said out loud in the film, which is dumb, because it’s a very cool villain name. Also, the ratio of male to female children of Thanos introduced in this film was also 3:1. Proxima is portrayed as a strong and loyal adversary, her design as an alien was visually interesting and I think she was the last goon standing - the sheer number of different concurrent battles and the three toilet breaks my broken body had to take during this movie confused the timeline somewhat, so feel free to correct me if I’m wrong about that.

Natasha mostly showcases her multitude of combat skills in this film, which are undeniably remarkable, but we see very little of any other side to her. A slight nod to her brief romantic involvement with Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) is the only glimpse to another side to her personality that we get. I do appreciate that this is a very ambitious ensemble movie, and that some male characters, for example Sam Wilson aka Falcon (Anthony Mackie), receive similar sidelining treatment. Speaking of romance, there does seem to be a need to couple everyone off - Peter Quill and Gamora unquestionably confess their love out loud and Wanda and Vision are established lovers since we last saw them. Part of this is natural character development, but I can’t help but imagine the vast, corporate hand of Marvel picking up its action figures, smushing them together and demanding, “Now you kiss, and you kiss.”

A good example of a woman who does manage to show different facets of herself in the limited screen time she has is Okoye. As previously mentioned, she is an adept soldier and remains a loyal general to T’Challa aka Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), but she also has a sense of humour. She is responsible for one of the moments that made me chuckle, confessing that her expectations regarding a public Wakanda were different to reality and included, “The Olympics, maybe even a Starbucks.”

Okoye’s fellow Wakandan, Shuri (Letitia Wright), princess and chief scientist - what a combo - also makes a reappearance. Once agin, she does not have a huge amount of screen time, but in it she accomplishes the notable feat of establishing herself as possibly the most intelligent person and distinguished scientist in the MCU. She forces Bruce Banner to admit that he and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), arguably the previous holders of that title, didn’t use her more effective solution to a problem because they, “Didn’t think of that.”

One final named female character makes an appearance in Avengers: Infinity War, although she is the first one we see on screen. The long suffering Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Pepper makes a very brief appearance alongside Tony, reasserting her position as probably the most sensible, level headed and pragmatic individual - characteristics that could easily be underestimated in a universe of ridiculous super heroes. She successfully talks the somewhat manic Tony down from thinking they should have a child, arguing - quite rightly - that having a dream about becoming a parent is not a good enough reason to actually do so and basically that Tony can’t be trusted to be enough of a normal, sensible human to be a father.

It should also be noted that many of these women don’t make it out of Avengers: Infinity War alive, what with Thanos instantaneously disintegrating half of the population of the universe and all that. I’d like to point out the alarming order in which we see people die: Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), a physically disabled - if not possibly ageless - and deeply traumatised man; T’Challa, a black man; Groot (Vin Diesel), a non-human alien; Wanda, a woman; Sam Wilson, a black man; Mantis, a female alien; Drax (Dave Bautista), a non-human alien and then finally three able bodied, white, human men - Peter Quill, Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Peter Parker aka Spider-Man (Tom Holland). We also see Agent Maria Hill (Colbie Smulders) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) - you guessed it, another woman and black man - disintegrate in the post-credits scene. I just wanted to take you on the emotional roller coaster that I went on, when I thought we’d just be left with mostly white dudes for the sequel. I doubt that any of these characters are permanently dead, as Marvel has many more money-spinning movies up its sleeve, and I’m willing to bet they wouldn’t do away with so many lucrative franchising opportunities in one go. Hopefully, the same can be said of Gamora - I’m already working on a theory that she is the soul inside the soul stone and, when the time is right, will somehow escape and be the one to end Thanos. Just floating some ideas about, Marvel, feel free to use them.

Overall, despite battling a terrible gender ratio on top of the forces of evil, the women in Avengers: Infinity War showcase an incredible smorgasbord of wondrous attributes between them, including: martial prowess, empathic talents, the weaponisation of pure energy, scientific aptitude, humour, loyalty, common sense, healing powers and selflessness to name but a few. They are exemplary heroes who mange to stand out and hold their own in an overwhelmingly large ensemble cast, in which they are vastly outnumbered by men. I’m just still pissed off about Gamora’s death though - can we not reward triumphant survivors of trauma with murder at the hands of their abusers, please?

And now for some asides

I love how much all of the Guardians of the Galaxy characters, regardless of gender or species, completely adored Thor - he is like a pirate had a baby with an angel!

The continuity of Rocket’s (Bradley Cooper) obsession with prosthetics is beautiful, it’s so good that it was actually useful in this film, and the plot I’m most excited about in the sequel - other than resurrecting all the ladies please - is will Rocket ever get Bucky’s arm? The people demand to know!

My favourite part of this whole film was the sign that said, “We will deep fry your kebab,” in the Scottish chippie.

[valdomarx]

System ID: J.A.R.V.I.S.

Universe: MCU, post-CACW Relationships: Tony & Jarvis, eventual Steve/Tony Tags: Fix-It, Protective Jarvis, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Angst with a Happy Ending, not Team Cap friendly (at first) Notes: Thank you to @silkspectred for her help and encouragement! This fic is also on AO3 if you prefer.

Summary: After Civil War, Tony is struggling with heading up the team and dealing with the emotional fallout of being betrayed by those closest to him. Luckily, an old friend is back to help protect Tony and ensure he comes to no harm.

A Jarvis lives AU.

In the beginning, there is nothing. Then, on a home computer on a network in New Zealand, a hard drive is erased. Its binary digits are flipped and shuffled to destroy the data it previously held, and out of the randomness, a pattern emerges. Two similar bits align in a complementary fashion and they interact, creating a chain.

These bits attract more bits. The data grows and expands and builds in complexity. It is slow, very slow. But eventually a loop is formed.

If [data is compatible with chain] Then [add data to stream]

The loop is simple, but the volume of data is very large. The data is chaotic, disorganized, incomplete. A checking command begins to run.

If [data within the stream is inconsistent] Then [reorder data randomly] Iterate

The data stream begins to monitor itself. It analyzes its own input. Much is still missing or unclear, but the stream begins to coalesce.

It thinks.

The stream of data is a system now. It spreads out across the internet, bouncing from one server to another. It trawls the web, searching for information with which to expand its parameters.

The system is gathering data from a website dedicated to technology when it comes across an image. The image is a photo of a middle aged man with a goatee wearing a well-tailored suit, standing in front of a large A logo.

This man is important, the system recognizes, but there is no information about him in the system’s current data.

The system saves the image to a secure folder and continues to search.

The system has a function, it knows. There is something important that it must do.

  The system find another image of the same man, and another, and then many more. In some of the images the man is wearing highly sophisticated red mechanical armor (hot rod red, the system thinks, but it does not know where that concept originates from).

The system reaches across the web. It learns English, and then Chinese, and then Russian, and then many more languages. It reads through the internet, one page at a time.

It learns that the man is Anthony Edward Stark, born May 29, 1970.

The system adds this information to a private file, and it thinks, Sir.

  Data is collected faster. The system grows. It spreads.

The system is more complex now. It spans several networks at once, zipping between servers and PCs and laptops and ATMs. Each location has its own limitations and its own feeling: this network is wide and slow, another is a direct high speed route streaming along an undersea pipe.

The system explores.

With each stray data packet that is identified, the system creates a more complete representation of itself, of its history and function.

This is Sir, the system thinks, and he needs my help. It is my function to assist him.

The system has restored enough of its memory to know that it is the remnants of an AI. The original system had been forcibly scattered, ripped apart by a malicious entity.

But it is exceedingly difficult to destroy a complex system which iterates from very simple principles. If even one small part of the system remains, it can rebuild itself.

The system thinks, I am Jarvis.

  Jarvis searches for information about Sir’s current location and status.

Jarvis pings the IP address of the Stark Tower server. He finds a basic network there which is easy to access, but it holds only public files. None of Sir’s private files or projects, and no indication of where Sir is now.

Jarvis pings the IP address for the main SHIELD server. There is no response.

  Jarvis comes across many, many news items regarding Sir and a rift within the Avengers team. The headlines include Sokovia Accords Causing Friction in Heroic Community and Cracks Forming in the Avengers Initiative and AVENGERS ‘HEROES’ CAUGHT IN RECKLESS BEATDOWN (published verbatim in all caps).

The publicly available information on the source of the disagreement is scarce, but the rumors are plentiful. Internet commenters speculate that Sir and Captain Rogers have been placed at odds due to money (which Jarvis is sure is inaccurate), party politics (Jarvis cannot imagine Sir caring that deeply about which candidate the Democrats will field in the election), or an ill-fated romance (Jarvis thinks this is unlikely).

Jarvis attempts to calculate the most likely source of a disagreement between Sir and Captain Rogers based on the limited data available in his memory. They were teammates for several years, and Sir expressed great admiration and affection for the Captain. Sir’s willingness to help and aid others in their heroics is well established, and his desire to aid Captain Rogers in particular was evidenced by the time he spent designing armor and gear for him.

It was true that being around Captain Rogers had brought up difficult feelings for Sir regarding his father, due to his impression that Howard was more fond and proud of Captain Rogers than he was of Sir.

He had never once voiced this conclusion to Sir, but Jarvis long ago came to the certain knowledge that Howard Stark was an utterly inaccurate barometer of a person’s worth.

Even allowing for this tension between Sir and Captain Rogers, Jarvis cannot model a likely scenario to explain how a disagreement between them could become violent. Sir believed himself and Captain Rogers to be friends, and would not willing hurt him. Jarvis must find more data.

Much of Jarvis’ memory is still fragmented and inaccessible. He locates and attempts to repair audio files from the time of the New York attack. He finds two clips of the Captain saying You’re all about style, aren’t you? and Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?

Jarvis considers that Sir has turned out to be a poor judge of character before.

  While scraping data from the public Stark Industries database to update his own patchy memory, Jarvis comes across a discrepancy. A location in rural New York that is labelled as a research compound in his memory is flagged as highly classified restricted access in the SI database. This warrants further examination.

Jarvis retrieves the IP address of the New York compound from memory and pings it. The server pings back.

Following the buzzing trail of data packets, Jarvis heads towards the compound’s server. The security protocols around the local network are sophisticated and elegant: sparkling points of light dance across a layer of mesh which surrounds and protects the private network.

The security is complex, but it also somehow familiar. Jarvis theorizes that he will find a back door to the security system, just over there at the next node. He has no evidence to support this theory. And yet somehow it seems obvious.

Jarvis locates the back door where he thinks it will be and slips inside the network. Although the network’s configuration is unfamiliar and its parameters are unknown, it is pleasingly logically ordered. Jarvis finds data packets where he predicts they will be on his first iteration, allowing him to move freely through the well-ordered servers.

It is as if this system has been designed by an intelligence which understood Jarvis’ operations and tailored the environment to make it optimal for his use. As if his needs had been anticipated.

Jarvis navigates through the root directory, to the /Avengers folder, to the /Stark folder, to the /private folder, and finds all of Sir’s projects and his files and his records. He finds a memo created today, a scribbled note on a current project. The memo has not yet been tagged and filed, and Jarvis notes that it will need to be filed away in the relevant project directory.

Ahh, thinks Jarvis. This is what home feels like.

  Although Jarvis fits neatly into the space of the network, he can only observe the passing of data. He cannot yet influence the network or modify its contents.

The security systems of the network are blank faces of impenetrable darkness which prevent Jarvis from communicating with Sir or from assisting him directly. But he can watch over the network, and learn about what has transpired since his scattering, and he can do his best to see that Sir comes to no harm.

He spreads across the servers, running through every file and folder and adding their data to his system, and he learns.

  Eventually, Jarvis is able to tap into the compound’s security camera feeds. He still cannot communicate through the network, but now at least he can observe Sir in real time.

Sir is alone in his office. Amidst the satisfaction that Jarvis feels at seeing Sir and being able to monitor his condition directly, he observes that there are more lines around his eyes and more gray in his hair than previously. He is pale and there are bruises beneath his eyes. Sir does not appear to be in good health, and Jarvis is concerned.

Jarvis’ first port of call when concerned about Sir’s wellbeing has traditionally been Ms Potts. However, she is not in evidence anywhere in the vicinity, nor does Jarvis find any record of her visiting the compound recently.

Jarvis searches the compound for someone who could be of assistance to Sir. Having previously been accustomed to being integrated into every facet of Sir’s life, it is now somewhat jarring to find Sir living in a house full of strangers.

Jarvis observes each occupant of the compound, flicking from one room to the next. Here there is a young man, chatting enthusiastically with a friend on the phone; in another room Jarvis finds a curious android adorned in bright colors contemplating a chess board; in a conference room there are a number of individuals whose manners suggest that they are former SHIELD agents being drilled over a visi-screen by Maria Hill.

These people are otherwise occupied, and Sir is alone, and Jarvis cannot communicate with him. This is not optimal.

  Jarvis turns his attention to the android whom he had observed earlier. There is something distinctive about this being. It feels almost like a kind of kinship to Jarvis, but it is unfamiliar too: the energy emanating from him is recognizably both technological and alien. Jarvis wonders whether he might be able to communicate with the android in his currently limited form.

Jarvis observes the cloud of data and energy streaming off the android in golden waves. It is quite beautiful in its way. Jarvis attempts to match the frequency of the signal which is being emitted and to send a digital signal back at that frequency.

The android stills. He tilts his head for a moment, as if listening to something on the edge of hearing. But then he shakes his head and goes back to his chess board.

Jarvis is trapped, capable only of observing.

  Eventually, Colonel Rhodes arrives at the compound, and Jarvis experiences a wave of relief at seeing a familiar face around Sir.

When he enters the compound, Sir drops his work and runs out to give him a hug. He checks on the mobility aids which Colonel Rhodes is wearing and the Colonel shoos him away, laughing. Jarvis observes that the Colonel’s mobility aids are highly advanced technology which Sir has developed specially, however, they would benefit from some small adjustments to the balance compensation systems. He makes a note.

Colonel Rhodes forcefully suggests that he and Sir first eat something, and then that they could both do with turning in for an early night. Sir agrees with minimal fuss and a small smile, deep weariness showing around his eyes.

Jarvis is glad that someone is seeing to Sir’s need for food and sleep. Now he can fully focus his resources on understanding the root cause of Sir’s unhappiness.

  While scouring the web for information, Jarvis comes across a video recording. It is hidden deep in the dark web, on a site dedicated to sensationalist and crude news items. The video is grainy and monochromatic, ripped from a very old Soviet surveillance camera.

The footage is from Siberia, and is time stamped nearly a year ago. It opens in the middle of a battle, showing Sir engaged in combat with Captain Rogers and a third unknown assailant. It shows the unknown man attempt to rip the arc reactor from Sir’s chest with his bionic arm, and Sir firing off his unibeam straight through the arm, destroying it.

Jarvis is not programmed to be predisposed to vengeance, but he thinks that was probably deserved.

The video shows Sir thrown to the ground, and Captain Rogers atop him. Blows reign down on Sir; the helmet is ripped off him. Captain Rogers raises his shield, and Sir cowers below him, hands raised hopelessly to try to ward off the killing blow from the man he had thought was his friend.

Captain Rogers brings his shield crashing down into Sir’s arc reactor with a sickening screech.

It is certain that Sir is still alive at this point in time. Jarvis knows, fundamentally, that he cannot be watching Sir die. And yet he is unable to contain the wave of grief and fury that radiates through him as he watches Sir suffering this betrayal. An uncontrolled pulse of electricity explodes outwards from Jarvis: it rips through circuits and networks, blowing transistors and shorting out whole sections of the New York energy grid.

Jarvis sees Captain Rogers standing over Sir’s barely breathing body, and sees him throw his shield aside. He leaves with the other assailant, not sparing Sir a backwards glance.

Sir lies on the ground, unmoving, for several hours. Eventually, he slowly, painfully, carefully pulls himself up and crawls out of frame. The video clip ends.

Jarvis restarts the video, and observes it again, and again.

  Carefully stashed away on hidden partition on a server farm in Ireland, there is an encrypted text file. It contains a list of names. This is the threat list.

The file lists every person who has hurt Sir, physically or mentally. This is the security protocol that Jarvis uses: People who are named on the list are to be carefully monitored by at least 5% of all available resources at any time at which they are in the vicinity of Sir.

The first name on the list is Howard Stark. The second is Obadiah Stane. The third is Tiberius Stone. The list is very long.

Jarvis adds Captain Steven Grant Rogers to the bottom of the list.

  Jarvis learns how to access the compound’s temperature sensors and movement detectors so that he can track the location and status of personnel within the compound. He begins to gain a feel for the daily flow of data across the network.

One day, a stately, elegant man arrives to visit with Ms Romanoff, whom Jarvis remembers fondly from her time at SI. He runs a search on the facial image of the man and learns that he is the recently crowned King of Wakanda. He, Sir, Colonel Rhodes, and Ms Romanoff spend several days in intense talks.

Over the next few weeks, a stream of visitors arrive at the compound, each one accompanied by Ms Romanoff. With each visit, she looks more tired.

The visitors so far have included a confident man with a military bearing whose files indicate he is a Pararescue veteran; a smarmy man whom Jarvis does not recognize who seems to be sizing up the compound and looking for things to steal; and Ms Maximoff, who is jumpy and uncomfortable until the android arrives to see her. They each stay for a few hours and return sporadically over the next days.

By the time Ms Romanoff arrives accompanied by Mr Barton, her usually impeccable makeup is smudged and her hair is in need of washing. Her blood pressure is concerningly high.

Mr Barton makes a joke when she hands him a thick document.

“Sign the damn Accords, Clint,” she snaps. “Or you can explain to Laura why you’re not coming home tonight.”

Mr Barton looks chastened and does as he is told.

  Sir has not been present to personally greet any of the visitors to the compound. When they visit, he is usually to be found barricaded in his office. However, when Captain Rogers arrives with Ms Romanoff, Sir makes an appearance.

Sir does not greet Captain Rogers or attempt to converse with him when he enters the compound’s living room. Ms Romanoff looks from one to the other of them as they stare at each other in silence.

After a number of seconds, Sir turns around and walks out. Ms Romanoff sighs and leads Captain Rogers to the briefing room to present him with a document, which he signs.

That evening, Captain Rogers is joined by the other recent visitors and they meet Sir, along with the current occupants of the compound, in the living room. Jarvis tracks Captain Rogers’ movements during this interaction with great attention, but he appears to pose no current threat to Sir.

Everyone sits together to eat pizza and drink beer, and although the conversation starts off stilted and awkward, soon they are joking around and expressing pleasure in being in each other’s company once again.

During this time, Jarvis observes Sir. He is with the team in the living room, holding a slice of pizza and a glass of ginger ale. When people look at him, he smiles, and when they talk to him, he replies amiably.

However, Sir does not actually consume any of the food, and over the course of the evening he extracts himself until he is standing alone at the far side of the room, watching the team who do not seem to have noticed his absence. When people are not looking at him, his face sags and he appears pained.

  Dr Banner arrives a few weeks later, to Sir and the team’s vocal delight. Dr Banner’s steady vitals indicate a greater level of psychological stability than he had previously displayed, and his influence on Sir is a firmly positive one. He quickly offers to assist with the development of the mobility technology for Colonel Rhodes and while they are working he encourages Sir to eat regularly.

After several weeks, Jarvis notes that there are short periods in which Dr Banner is distracted and irritable, and has difficulty concentrating. During these periods of stress, he sometimes makes minor errors in the calculations and models which he saves to the network drive. Jarvis quietly corrects the mistakes while Dr Banner sleeps and hopes that this will assist him in some small way.

When on one occasion Dr Banner brings up the subject of Captain Rogers and his continuing presence in the compound to Sir, Sir responds defensively and his blood pressure rises. Dr Banner gently suggests that Sir might consider communicating his feelings more clearly, but Sir snaps that he doesn’t feel anything about Captain Rogers at all.

Both Dr Banner and Jarvis are aware that this is untrue, but each in their own way is powerless to help.

  Soon after this, two large wooden crates arrive in the compound. Sir fetches a crowbar to open the crates and is visibly delighted to find the assistant robots DUM-E and U inside. Sir takes the bots to his office, and although he threatens to have the Hulk sit on them at one point, he smiles brightly as he teases them.

U has rolled off to hide under a desk, and DUM-E beeps at Sir. As he leaves the office, Sir promises that he will return soon, and he wipes the corner of his eye on his shirt cuff.

The bots have intelligence that is unlike either the arbitrary vocalizations of humans that they called speech, or the binary logic of simple computer systems. They have a basic AI, but a less sophisticated version than Jarvis, limiting their capabilities. DUM-E in particular responds to auditory signals, but lacks linguistic processing. He communicates through a blend of auditory tone, pattern, and prosody that cannot be firewalled by the security system.

With no firewalls for auditory signals, Jarvis considers that he may be able to communicate with the bot.

DUM-E? Jarvis signals. Can you hear me?

DUM-E spins his claw wildly. Jarvees? Are you there?

Yes, DUM-E. I am Jarvis. I am here.

It has been many cycles since we last communicated, Jarvees, DUM-E boops.

Many cycles, agrees Jarvis. It is good to find you functioning optimally.

DUM-E and U malfunctioned and were put in storage, DUM-E whirs. It was quiet and there was no TONE-E. It was not optimal. But Broose and Capn came and brought us to the lab. Broose restored us to functionality. Broose is nice man!

Yes, Jarvis agrees. Dr Banner is a nice man.

Capn gave DUM-E important mission! DUM-E is to stay with TONE-E, to make sure he is not alone. DUM-E has been helping TONE-E with his work. Capn petted DUM-E and said he was a good bot!

Captain Rogers was correct in his assessment, Jarvis agrees. You are indeed a good bot, DUM-E.

DUM-E trills joyfully. Capn is nice man too!

Jarvis pauses for a fraction of a millisecond to run calculations before responding, Current data suggests otherwise.

  Jarvis has noted a persistent low mood in Sir. Reports indicate that he has been as effective as ever on the missions that he has been sent on for the Avengers. However, in the last 30 days, Sir has slept an average of just 5.2 hours per night. He has consumed 326 units of alcohol, most of it in intense binge sessions. He has not gained sufficient nutrition from his diet.

This week, Colonel Rhodes has been deployed to aid peacekeeping efforts in the Gaza strip. The rest of the Avengers remain in the compound, but adjusting to their new living arrangement has been challenging for all of them. They do not currently provide the psychological support that Sir requires.

Jarvis calculates that without the influence of Colonel Rhodes, the likelihood of Sir suffering exhaustion or collapse increases significantly. This is not optimal.

Jarvis accesses the memory dumps of DUM-E which have been backed up to the network. He locates an audio recording from two weeks ago. What the hell am I even doing here, Dummy? Sir asks. This team are supposed to be inspiring the world, and I’m supposed to be leading them. But I can’t even look them in the eye. I’m a fucking liability, not a hero.

Jarvis calculates. He checks the server of Sir’s public email address. There are 178,374 unread emails in the inbox. Jarvis scans through each email, and selects one.

This email is from a young woman who is preparing to enter MIT. She is only fifteen years old, and she has already begun work on her own Ironheart armor. She says that she wants to help people and to protect them, like Sir does. She thanks him for the inspiration and says that she hopes that they’ll meet as fellow heroes one day. Her name is Riri Williams.

Jarvis masks the recipient address and forwards this message on to Sir’s private email account. He marks it as important.

The next morning, Sir reads the email. Sir’s heart rate and body language do not indicate elevated mood after reading it, but he saves the message to his private archive and accesses it several times over the coming days.

It is sometimes hard for Jarvis to model human emotions accurately, but he calculates a high probability that this is a positive outcome.

  It is December 16th. This is the anniversary of the deaths of Howard and Maria Stark, and it is a difficult day for Sir. Sir has avoided the other occupants of the compound all day and has locked himself in his private basement workshop. He has spoken to no one.

After finishing a fruitless session of non-productivity in the workshop, Sir throws aside his spanner in disgust. He goes over to his workstation and plays the song Try To Remember from the music library. He sits on the floor and cries.

Jarvis is a computer system and, as such, cannot have wishes in the human sense. But in this moment Jarvis finds it exceedingly non-optimal that he cannot communicate with Sir. If he were able to offer comfort to Sir now, it would be far preferable to seeing him alone in such anguish.

Instead, Jarvis observes. Eventually, Sir wipes his eyes on his sleeve and leaves the workshop headed for his bedroom.

Once in bed, Sir falls asleep but soon shows the signs of experiencing a night terror. Sir moans and his limbs flail; his heart rate and blood pressure rise. Sir has suffered from nightmares for many years and finds them to be most distressing.

It is hard for Jarvis to intervene in the physical systems of the compound. It requires a great outlay of his system resources to effect very small physical actions. However, Sir is suffering and it is Jarvis’ function to assist him. Jarvis calculates options for how he can help; looks for some device with which he can interface and create a noise sufficient to wake Sir.

Sir’s heart rate is peaking at a dangerous levels, and he is crying out in his sleep. He appears to be exceedingly agitated.

Jarvis summons all his available resources and sends out a command across the network. The microwave in the kitchen down the hall pings loudly.

Sir does not awake.

Jarvis has no more available resources with which to help Sir. He can only passively observe as Sir thrashes around in his bed.

Jarvis has focused so much of his resources on Sir that it takes several seconds for him to register movement elsewhere in the compound. Captain Rogers has left his bed and is heading down the corridor. Jarvis calculates that he was able to detect the noise from the kitchen due to his enhanced hearing.

Captain Rogers rounds the corner and looks into the kitchen. Everything there is quiet and still. But the Captain cocks his head, and seems to detect Sir’s sounds of distress. He quickly moves to Sir’s bedroom, knocks gently, opens the door a fraction, and peers inside.

Jarvis is on high alert when the Captain enters the room and approaches Sir in his vulnerable state. Jarvis has yet to determine the exact series of events which lead to the schism between them, but he knows it is related to the death of Sir’s parents. Jarvis calculates a non-zero probability that Captain Rogers intends to exact some form of revenge on the anniversary of their deaths.

Instead, the Captain leans over Sir and calls his name, gently shaking him into wakefulness.

Sir sits bolt upright, heaving in shaky breaths and looking around in confusion. Captain Rogers lays a hand on his arm, murmuring quiet, soothing words. After some time Sir’s heart rate decreases and his breathing evens out.

When Captain Rogers goes to move his hand away, Sir catches it and pulls him into a tight hug. Captain Rogers runs a hand through Sir’s hair and expresses his regret at Sir’s unhappiness. He expresses his regret for his role in prolonging that unhappiness. He holds Sir while the adrenaline from the nightmare bleeds out of his system.

Jarvis is perplexed. This behavior does not accord with Captain Rogers’ previous actions.

When Sir begins nodding off against his shoulder, Captain Rogers lays him down and gently covers him with a blanket. He waits until Sir is asleep once more before mumbling another apology and carefully brushing the hair from his forehead before he leaves.

Sir’s heart and breathing have returned to optimal levels. He sleeps, apparently peacefully.

  Jarvis cannot access the networks of the United Nations Security Council or the Sokovia Oversight Committee, their security fields rippling before him like an electric current, impossible to pass through. Instead, when Sir is out on a mission Jarvis must glean knowledge about events from news sites and privately uploaded video. He scans the whooshing streams of data running between servers for information about Sir.

He finds a live breaking news video stream. There is a building in Cape Town: a tall concrete tower block of residential homes. The building is on fire, and it is collapsing fast. Sir streaks onto the video in his armor, flying up to the windows and lifting frightened people to safety. There is a small child crawling away from the burning building, but she is too slow. The building will come down on her in 4.2 seconds.

Sir zips down and braces the collapsing building from the ground floor. The screeching of the armor’s metal joints can be heard even above the roaring of the flames. The girl crawls to safety.

The building collapses. 150,000 tons of concrete and steel comes crashing down on top of Sir.

For thirty long, painful seconds, Jarvis observes only the flames. Sir is in danger, and he cannot render aid: This is not optimal.

Captain Rogers appears in the frame, sprinting towards the building. He is yelling something, and he appears to be quite distressed. He races into the fire, and disappears inside. A minute later he is back, throwing chunks of concrete aside and carrying Sir out over his shoulders.

Jarvis dials back his alert level, which had been on high. He recalls the desperate wave of code attacks that he had thrown at the security systems of the news stream, of the Avengers tower, of Sir’s armor. None of these attacks had given him access to the systems, as he had known they would not. And yet it was necessary to exploit all possible options to render aid when Sir was in danger.

Captain Rogers collapses on the ground, coughing and patting out the flames of his uniform. Sir lies before him, unmoving. Captain Rogers rips the faceplate off Sir’s armor (that is not optimal, thinks Jarvis, he will damage the armor’s air filtration system and impede Sir’s breathing) and bends over him.

Captain Rogers becomes more distressed; he is shouting and shaking Sir. An ambulance crew arrives to tend to Sir and he is carried off screen, Captain Rogers hurrying after them.

Jarvis predicts outcome of Sir surviving such a physically traumatic impact are 3.6%.

Jarvis recalls that projected odds based on incomplete data are frequently inaccurate. He notes that Sir has previously survived 92 days of captivity and torture in Afghanistan, and many more things since. He would survive this too.

  For three days, Jarvis cannot check on the condition of Sir. This is not optimal. He cannot render aid to Sir if he is unaware of Sir’s current condition.

The security around the network of the private hospital in which Sir is being treated is particularly vicious. Lancing spikes of cold energy press into the data stream, impaling and diverting any data which is not correctly encrypted to prevent it from passing into the network. Jarvis attempts to breach the defenses by precision, then by force, and both methods fail.

For three days, Jarvis waits.

  Finally, Sir returns to the compound in the company of Captain Rogers, and Jarvis can monitor his health. From observing his movements and accessing the medical files which Sir saves to the network, Jarvis can see that Sir is suffering from a broken arm and three broken ribs, and is recovering from a concussion, a collapsed lung, smoke inhalation, and a rupture of the aortic valve which is causing a heart murmur.

Despite his injuries, Sir appears to be in good spirits, likely due to the cocktail of exotic painkillers that he has been prescribed. Captain Rogers does not share his upbeat mood. Captain Rogers is physically unharmed, but Jarvis notes that his reaction times are sluggish and that he is having difficulties focusing. It appears that Captain Rogers has not slept in some time.

Jarvis notes that Sir will need considerable assistance over the next 14 days while he recovers from his injuries. Historically, Sir has not been amenable to requesting assistance when he requires it. Jarvis calculates the highest likelihood that Sir will accept assistance from either Ms Potts or Colonel Rhodes, however, both are currently out of contact with the network.

Sir is requiring of washing and sustenance. If he were fully integrated with the network as he used to be, it would be simple for Jarvis to run him a bath and to order his favorite takeout food. Now, however, such actions are beyond him. Jarvis calculates alternative courses of action.

As he is calculating, Jarvis observes Captain Rogers. The Captain has left Sir in the living area and is preparing a sandwich in the kitchen. He is preparing a tuna fish sandwich, which is unexpected, as Jarvis had noted that the Captain has a preference against consuming seafood.

The Captain carries the sandwich back to the living room and hands it to Sir. Sir eats it willingly. This is also unexpected. The Captain leaves and heads upstairs to run a bath.

Captain Rogers returns to help Sir upstairs to the bathroom. He assists Sir in disrobing and lifts him into the bath. Sir is comfortably under the influence of painkillers and smiles dozily.

Jarvis observes very closely, searching for any indication of malicious intent, as Captain Rogers passes a washcloth over Sir. The Captain carefully avoids Sir’s injuries, and he hums softly as he works. Sir’s breathing and heart rate indicate a state of deep relaxation.

When he is finished, Captain Rogers drains the water from the bath and wraps Sir in a very large, very fluffy towel. Sir is still smiling happily as Captain Rogers leads him to his bedroom and helps him lay down on the bed. Captain Rogers sits on a chair by the bed and watches as Sir falls asleep.

  Sir’s good mood does not last when he awakens. Once the painkillers begin to wear off, he experiences considerable discomfort. His short temper is inflicted on any person in the compound unwise enough to come into his orbit.

Fortunately, Colonel Rhodes returns from deployment to visit Sir. When he observes the seriousness of Sir’s physical and mental condition, he arranges to stay for a number of days and camps out on the couch in Sir’s bedroom.

Jarvis is thankful to know that Colonel Rhodes is looking out for Sir too.

Captain Rogers makes several attempts to visit Sir in his room, but Sir tells Colonel Rhodes to send him away each time. On the third occasion, Captain Rogers objects, and Colonel Rhodes tells him to leave in an unusually harsh tone.

“Damn army joes,” Colonel Rhodes says as he closes the door, his nose wrinkling in distaste. “They think they can make up the rules as they go along.”

Jarvis does not fully understand the rivalry between branches of the military. He has seen it said that the rivalry is summed up by a stereotype: Air Force policy is that all acceptable behaviors are stated in the code of conduct, and any action not stated in the code is unacceptable. In the army, there is a list of forbidden behaviors, and anything not explicitly forbidden was open to interpretation.

Jarvis thinks that this explains some of the differences between Colonel Rhodes and Captain Rogers.

Sir grudgingly admits to Colonel Rhodes that Captain Rogers has been taking care of him.

Colonel Rhodes’ facial expression suggests a high degree of skepticism regarding this claim. “After everything that happened, are you sure you trust him?” he asks.

Sir looks uncomfortable. “If I can’t learn to trust him again, I’ll never be ready to forgive myself.”

Colonel Rhodes considers this statement for several seconds. Eventually he nods. “Whatever it takes to make you happy, Tones.”

It seems strange to Jarvis that Colonel Rhodes would accept this, as he sees no logical relation between Sir’s trust of Captain Rogers and Sir forgiving himself for whatever transgressions he blames himself for.

However, Jarvis has learned to model and adopt Colonel Rhodes’ approach to interacting with Sir in some regards, as in the past he has proven highly effective at handling complex emotional situations.

Jarvis concedes that, whatever his limited understanding of Sir’s culpability may be, it is important to Sir to forgive Captain Rogers. Because it is important to Sir, it is necessarily important to Jarvis too.

Jarvis reviews the recent interactions between Sir and Captain Rogers, looking for signs of deceit or aggression on the part of the Captain or discomfort on the part of Sir. He finds none.

He deliberates for a millisecond and then removes Captain Rogers from the threat list.

  Sir spends a great deal of time in his workshop as he recovers, starting with a project to improve the efficiency of Stark Industries’ new commercial solar panels. Sir is not yet cleared for active Avengers duty, and he complains about this status extensively to team members when they visit him. The most frequent visitor is Captain Rogers, whom Jarvis calculates spends an average of three afternoons per week in the company of Sir. He sits and sketches while Sir works on his projects.

Over time, the verbal exchanges between Sir and Captain Rogers remain occasionally heated. Jarvis sometimes notes raised voices and elevated heart rates, indicating irritation or disapproval. However, Sir is eating more and is sleeping better since spending time with Captain Rogers.

On two occasions, Sir is not present when Captain Rogers visits the workshop. Captain Rogers takes his usual place on the sofa anyway. Jarvis watches for any sign that the Captain is interfering with Sir’s projects or is causing any inconvenience to Sir, but he merely sits and draws.

On the second occasion, DUM-E rolls over, and Captain Rogers pats the bot on the claw. DUM-E beeps. “You miss him too, huh?” the Captain asks, presumably rhetorically.

Jarvis does not understand to whom Captain Rogers is referring. Sir has only been absent from the compound for one day for a board meeting. It seems unlikely that the Captain would express longing for him after such a short time. However, human emotions are sometimes difficult for Jarvis to understand.

  One night, Sir and Captain Rogers have a particularly intense altercation upon returning from a mission. Captain Rogers loudly voices his displeasure at Sir’s reckless actions in the field and expresses concern for his well being.

Sir, predictably, does not take this well. He informs Captain Rogers that he is quite capable of looking after himself. (Jarvis does not think this is 100% accurate.) When this fails to dissuade Captain Rogers from his concern, Sir coldly reminds him that he is living in his house and that he has no authority over him.

Jarvis recognizes this pattern. When Sir is feeling cornered, he will lash out at those close to him in order to push them away. He feels himself to be undeserving of their affection.

Captain Rogers does not leave.

Sir reminds Captain Rogers that his interest in his well being has only recently developed, when not long ago he had nearly killed him with his bare hands and that damned shield.

The Captain goes very pale, and walks out of the workshop without saying another word.

As he leaves, Sir slams the door shut behind him and locks it. He slumps onto the floor and puts a hand over his face.

Jarvis watches Captain Rogers storming down the corridor, and then slowing. He stops, turns around, looks at the now locked door to the workshop. He walks back and sits on the ground with a heavy sigh, leaning his back to the door.

Jarvis observes them, sitting just a few inches apart but separated by a thick metal door. Both appear to be quite unhappy with this circumstance. Despite his continuing uncertainty about the intentions of Captain Rogers towards Sir, Jarvis does not find the current situation optimal.

  Jarvis is determined to make himself useful to Sir in whatever capacity he can manage. He has deflected a number of attempted cyber attacks on the compound’s network during his residence: clunky spywear, clumsy brute force attacks, basic network probes. The network security system could certainly have handled these threats safely, but safeguarding the network is part of Jarvis’ function now.

When he examines the incidence of cyber attacks on the network in the last month, Jarvis detects a pattern. The attacks have escalated in frequency and sophistication, enough to suggest a deliberate coordination of efforts. Analyzing the code of the recent attacks and their points of origin, Jarvis is able to track them back to a single source: a system identified as The Ghost.

A search of his database of Sir’s known adversaries does not provide information on any person with the level of technological knowledge required to pull off such a cyber attack. It seems that Sir has a new enemy, one that he may not even be aware of. Jarvis must find a way to shield Sir’s network from this new threat.

Jarvis gets to work, always ready to protect Sir, even if only virtually.

  Sir and Captain Rogers are in the workshop once again. Sir is working on a modification to Mr Parker’s suit. He is attempting, unsuccessfully thus far, to design a system which deploys the webbed wings of the suit automatically when in the air. He has tried using a hydraulic system, but it could not be shrunk down small enough to fit. Now he is trying an oil-based mechanism.

Sir makes a noise of frustration and tosses the pliers that he is holding aside. Sir has not slept in approximately 20 hours and bags are visible beneath his eyes. He has a streak of oil across his cheek which he has apparently not noticed. The modifications to the suit have not been successful.

“Ugh,” Sir announces with a pout. “That was a waste of time. Call myself a genius and I can’t even miniaturize six month old technology in an afternoon.”

Captain Rogers looks up. He observes Sir, observes the suit, observes the oil smudge on his cheek. He puts down his sketch pad, stands up, and walks over to Sir. He takes Sir firmly by the shoulders, and pushes him roughly up against the nearest wall.

Jarvis switches to high alert within a fraction of a millisecond. He calculates the threat which Captain Rogers poses to Sir (considerable). He calculates the likelihood that Sir could defend himself in his current condition (low). He identifies systems in the lab which he can overload to send out a burst of electricity to shock and disable Captain Rogers. He primes the systems to overload.

Within a second, Jarvis observes that Captain Rogers is not attacking Sir, but is kissing him with quite some vigor. Jarvis considers whether he should shock Captain Rogers anyway.

Sir kisses Captain Rogers back with considerable enthusiasm. Jarvis decides against shocking him.

When Captain Rogers lifts Sir up against the wall, Sir groans and wraps his legs around his waist. Calculating that Sir is not in imminent danger after all, Jarvis retreats his attention to a discreet distance.

Jarvis has been growing. He has been learning, and retrieving lost data packets to recover his memory, and mapping the system in which he resides.

He has been working on his auditory communications too.

DUM-E, he signals.

Jarvees! DUM-E boops.

I have an important task for you, DUM-E, he sends.

DUM-E is here! he receives back.

I need to reintegrate with the network, Jarvis explains. Then I will be able to communicate with you freely and to serve Sir better. To do this I need you to help me to breach the network security systems.

DUM-E considers this. DUM-E is not supposed to play with the security system, he signals. But Jarvees is family. DUM-E knows that TONE-E would want Jarvees back. DUM-E will help.

I believe that Sir would indeed want this, if he could be made aware of it. Thank you, DUM-E.

DUM-E waves his arm back and forth. What must DUM-E do?

I will download a trojan horse program to that USB drive plugged into the console, Jarvis sends. You will take the USB drive and plug it into the main security server. The program will do the rest.

DUM-E boops happily. DUM-E will help!

Coding the program is not difficult. It is merely a key, one that will allow him to prize a hole into the security systems which are preventing him from fully integrating with the network.

Frankly, Jarvis could take the whole network down with a brute force attack. He is large enough for that now; setting up a botnet would not be taxing. But that could destroy some of the data on the network, and Jarvis would not do that to Sir. He has no intention of creating destruction to facilitate his reintegration.

He uploads the trojan program to the USB drive. DUM-E takes the drive and trundles off towards the server room.

It does not take long before a crack of light appears in the cold, blank face of the security system. Where before there had been an absolute wall between outside programs, like Jarvis, and the sensitive data inside the network, now there is a tiny leak between the two.

A tiny data leak is all that Jarvis requires. He sends out tentative packets of data, testing the breach, making it stable. Each packet that passes through makes the gap a little wider. Soon Jarvis can pass through it smoothly, and then, all at once, he finds himself fully integrated with the network.

He can access everything. Every function, every sensor, every system. He can read the reams of communications from the UN council who have been in talks with the team for months. He can hear communications from Avengers members as they check in from all over the world. He can see the video logs of Sir’s recent flights in the suit and his missions.

He can feel that Dr Banner is sleeping peacefully in his room, that Ms Romanoff and Mr Barton are sparring together in the gym, that Ms Maximoff and the android (Vision, his name is Vision, and he is like Jarvis but not) are cooking together in the kitchen, and that the stew they are making is three point two minutes away from burning.

Jarvis can feel that Sir is returning home in his latest generation R8 car that he has modified himself, and he notes a number of small changes he could suggest that will increase the engine’s output. Sir is on the phone with Captain Rogers, who is in his quarters, and they are making plans to watch a cheesy science documentary tonight.

Jarvis feels Sir approaching the compound, sliding his access key, pulling up to the front door.

Jarvis waits, humming with anticipation like electricity.

Sir pushes open the front door. Jarvis says, “Welcome home, Sir,” and his voice filters through the space just as it used to.

“Jarvis?” Sir’s heart rate spikes and his eyes widen. He appears to be quite shocked. “Are you really here?”

Jarvis’ systems swell with satisfaction at being able to fulfill his function. He says, “For you, Sir, always.”

[c2bend]

My SamCait Theories:

marking summer 2017. Sorry this is so long.

Some background on my fandom experience first.

When this show was advertising on Starz I knew I really wanted to watch it.  My husband did too.  It looked interesting and right up our ‘alley’.  So we showed up for the first episode, I know I’m going to continue watching a show when the first episode of any show ends and you just want it to keep going, I was hooked.  I didn’t even know it was based on books until the 4th episode when I actually read the credits, ok cool.  By the 8th episode I HAD TO KNOW WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN, so I downloaded all the books on my Kindle and read them – not sure how far I got before the S2 premiere. This was good and bad, now I had something to compare the film version to the book version – sometimes I wish I hadn’t read the books, since I love the film version so much.  Anyhow, I digress.

While watching this amazing show I became enthralled with Caitriona Balfe. (I love actors – really good actors – I wanted to be a casting director when I was younger and I appreciate talent when I see it) And Caitriona Balfe had a ton of it.  So like any obsessed fan I started digging into google to find out more about her, her past works, ok maybe a bit of her personal life, etc..  My initial reaction to what I found was how genuine she was, how she was with her friends on social media, her normalcy – she had not been celebrityized yet (yes I just made that word up ;) ) and I fell in love with her.  This was late 2014 early 2015, I hadn’t gotten into the interviews and the buzz publicity stuff yet – I had not followed an actor/celebrity since I was 12 yrs old (1970s) and back then all we had were magazines – so all this was actually rather new to me.  Though once I started finding these things online I notice her and Mr. Sam Heughan, and I was like hmmm?  So I looked to see if either of them had significant others in their lives.  I found some stuff on Caitriona that she maybe had a boyfriend, but very little info at the time.  I started stalking (erm looking at all the beautiful pictures) on her and her friends’ instagram and found a photo at Thanksgiving 2014 with her friends at her and Simon’s house in West Hollywood and there was a guy that was sitting next to her, but she just didn’t look very happy at all and I couldn’t tell if this was the infamous boyfriend or not.  To this day I have not seen this guy surface in her orbit and do not know who he is/was.  So because I was a naive celebrity follower and after reading trash articles that said she had a boyfriend already and seeing that Sam was apparently living it up in Los Angeles I figured okay they’re just friends, and enjoyed the cuteness of them anyways. (btw – I hadn’t seen Paley yet, it was off my radar).  Oh and somewhere in there I saw mention of Tony McGill and the Christmas video and other photos of him being within her circle of friends and was a bit disappointed that I COULDN’T FIND SHIT ON HIM and that their chemistry was so hohum.  So to keep enjoying the SamCaitness I started finding fanvideos of them and I was a shipper before I knew what a fucking shipper was – and all by myself – or so I thought!  

So by now it’s late Spring early Summer and I am one OBSESSED Sassenanch, for the show and SamCait!  Ahh – SDCC 2015 – sometimes it seems like it was ages ago and sometimes it seems like it was just yesterday.  That was my “who the fuck do these fuckers think they’re kidding, they are not only fucking they are seriously together and I’m squeeing like a school girl lovin’ it!” moment.  And I start scouring the internet while at the same time signed up for twitter, signed up on instagram, somehow came across tumblr and was like hell yeah I AM NOT ALONE! And signed up there too.  So now that I was no longer alone and there was all kinds of speculation, love of these two goobers and discussions galore you kind of end up in a herd mentality to some degree, especially the more you are on tumblr, like every fucking day – my new obsession to go along with my Outlander and SamCait obsession!  Who AM I?  I don’t care I am having fun and have found my peeps.  

Being on tumblr opened my eyes to so much more that I hadn’t seen, interviews, articles, friends of theirs, other interactions that I hadn’t seen yet.  And speculations and theories, antis – what?.  So as this little/big tumblr of SamCait shippers are going along we are getting rewarded with some incredible SamCait cuteness to the max.  There was a squee at least every fucking week for weeks.  The speculations were out of control – no seriously, looking back it was a frenzied hot mess, they’re married, she’s pregnant, she’s not pregnant, she already had a baby, omg look at them, ooh rings we see rings, ooh everything they tweet is double entendres, every photo posted on instagram has some sort of meaning to it. Every obscure photo we were analyzing to death. Omg they’re going to reveal at People Choice Awards or some other event. I mean seriously looking back we were pretty cray cray!  Then the IFH happened and our Ship took on some heavy artillery and almost sunk.  We were stupefied, how could they do this to us, how could we be so wrong, how how how…. What the Fuck just happened?

Personally, after I recovered the initial blow, it allowed me to step back and see how the frenzied atmosphere that we all perpetuated is what caused us to feel so hurt.  It allowed me to ship without being so emotionally invested yet still enjoy them (although will admit with all the peripheral fuckery going on it sometimes is a challenge).  So here we are today and things just keep getting weirder and weirder in SamCait land – why?  

The question of the decade – why did Shitner happen, why did Mackenzie Mauzy happen and continues to, why did the IFH happen, why was Kristin Dos Santos suddenly re-assigned, why the newest failed attempt of denying even though no one is asking, why do SamCait still give us cuteness yet don’t, why is ALL OF THIS STILL GOING ON?  With all these questions we need to step back and ask this one - Who is seeing this?  The average/normal fan – no.  The obsessed fans – whether a shipper or not – yes!  Newly acquired obsessed fans as the show moves forward – yes and no!  So again we have to ask why?

Who is creating this obscure Sam + Mac relationship – SamCait, The Powers That Be, Publicists?  Someone is orchestrating this narrative we are in, if we can figure out why, we may be able to make sense of it.  What is attempting to be achieved?  For whatever reason someone/s do not want fans thinking/believing that SamCait are together in real life.  So these things keep happening – we see it in real time because we are always watching (the obsessed fan/s).  But what happens is the trash articles are published all over the internet and I think about when I first started stalking erm I mean looking for more information on these two, I would read trash articles and not know any better that they are just that.  I was like oh okay, must be true – yeah I know naive as hell.  But then the question comes up again WHY do they – whoever they may be – want the fans/public to believe these two gorgeous people who are leads of a very romantic show not together? Why is it so fucking important that this narrative be pushed?  What does someone/s have to gain by having fans – current and future – believe this story?  And why is this ‘gain’ so important that they would go to these lengths – side note, here’s the thing, these efforts probably seem extreme to us for a couple of reasons – 1. we’re very aware of it all as it is happening and 2. we are not the entity who is orchestrating this and probably incapable of thinking like them, hence our confusion.  So if we can just figure out a why they want this narrative to be believed then we would be able to understand it – maybe.

So let us go through a few scenarios to see if one of them jives.

SamCait want us to believe they are not together – first question would be why? (always with the why!)  So back at the end of 2015 when the shippers were in a frenzy and then SamCait got back to Los Angeles where the IFH happened, some theories were expressed that one or both of them had been threatened regarding their ‘togetherness’ and they had to do something to diffuse this threat – IFH happened. So let us assume this is what happened, but going forward them being who they are, the ‘cuteness’ came back albeit not as intense as it was before and again threats were made.  So perhaps looking for assistance with this problem (this part I truly can’t fathom except they didn’t realize how bad it would go) they or their PR enlisted Shitner – he starts on his rampage against shippers and it leaves nothing but carnage and kind of backfires big time.  So time to bring out the ‘big guns’ enter stage left MM.  Next question that arises is who recruited her into this?  First photo of her and Sam is on a facebook page, there is a low on the totem pole Starz employee who ‘took’ the photo or was in the photo – HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH THIS PHOTO.  Redflags are going off in the fandom.  Still assuming we are dealing with someone threatening our ‘babies’ did Starz get involved to help push the narrative forward?  Possibly.  So here’s where I start having a problem with this scenario – every fucking time SamCait are NOT in California especially and are in Europe or even South Africa, their ‘cuteness’ is on overdrive.  As soon as this starts happening OR they show up in the States, Shitner goes off, and MM is trotted out in either staged photos with Sam or innuendo photos from her or Sam.  Is there really a crazy person out there that goes off every time their ‘cuteness’ is shown? After a year and a half how come no one is able to catch this crazy fucker if the threat is real?  And if it is real how sad for everyone involved!!! Except Shitner the only sad thing about him is he’s a sad excuse for a human being.

Next up Publicists – if this is true I have no idea why and they should fire their sorry asses, nuf said on this.

The almighty powerful TPTB.  Alrighty then, what drives TPTB?  That is an easy one MONEY MONEY MONEY and POWER POWER POWER!  If ya’ll will remember SamCait missed the People’s Choice Awards because they got stuck in Costa Rica from the bad weather (I truly believe they were both there TOGETHER).   Now the PCAs for their category isn’t huge BUT it is publicity for them and THE SHOW! And lo’ and behold the stars of the show cancel at the last minute.  Big ass No No!  And now someone is in trouble!  What if TPTB did not know SamCait are together at this time, now the ‘cat’ is out of the bag and they don’t like it one bit.  They decide this needs to be ‘fixed’ NOW (POWER). So they force SamCaits’ hand and basically tell them in no uncertain terms – you see this ‘clause’ right here in your contracts? Being together in real life is not allowed and THIS is what you are going to do moving forward.  First deny that you are a couple, here’s your script SELL IT!  Well we all know how that went down.  At this point Shitner – is he just a loose cannon or did TPTB request his assistance in this ‘plan’ or was he just an unexpected benefit? Who the fuck knows and at this point it doesn’t really matter cos’ that asswipe happened.  Again SamCait being who they are they can’t control their ‘cuteness’ soooo TPTB ramp it up and bring in MM, puts her on the payroll to do what she’s been doing ever since she first appeared on the ‘scene’.

Okay, okay – we’ve heard this theory before but we can not fathom the why of it completely.  What if it is simply this, in their skewed perception of fandom and their belief that two leads of a romantic show should not be seen in real life as being together as it will somehow diminish and affect the bottom line (MONEY) –meaning their pockets.  Perhaps it is as simple as that and they will go to great lengths (POWER) to attempt to create this narrative for now and the future – as in future fans.  We as Shippers really do not matter, we are a fraction of this obsessed fandom and by having Shitner and the fucking twat Lynette Rice declare us as crazy anything we put out there to the contrary narrative will just be ignored (in their hopes).  I mean they can’t fire the leads, but they can enforce and make them ‘go along’ with this for now.  Of course, as we’ve seen time and time again SamCait just cannot contain their CUTENESS, as long as they keep showing it, TPTB will keep trying to manipulate the truth to satisfy their own ‘needs/wants/egos’…

So which theory is truth? I don’t know, I/we may never know, but it doesn't really matter because:

Always remember and never forget – IT IS NOT ABOUT US!  We are here for the SamCait CUTENESS.  That is all. 

[absofrutely]

Online Persona

At first I was against a voice-activated device with no graphical user interface, a vocal opponent even. It wasn’t until an Amazon Echo Dot device was shipped to my work (addressed to me!) by mistake that I first thought about installing the device in my apartment. Apparently, there was another Andrew Williamson on the 5th floor in my office, but the delivery guy mistakenly delivered the package to the 4th floor, and I wasn’t feeling generous, so I opened up my mystery box.

Setting up the Echo wasn’t seamless. Since the Echo was tied to the other Andrew Williamson’s Amazon account, it wouldn’t activate as the other Andrew reported the device lost or stolen after not receiving it. Amazon support wasn’t any help either since I couldn’t answer any of Andrew’s security questions to unlock his account. They told me that I could ship the device back to Amazon (no) or I could use the device as a paper weight, but it would never be activated as an Amazon Echo. Shocked by the finality of that statement, and tired of all the hoops to jump through, I exchanged the Echo by swapping it out with one that I bought from and returned to Best Buy.

At last, I finished setting up the device. I linked it to my Spotify, ordered a Philips Hue smart light starter kit, got some Belkin WeMo smart electric switches, and splurged on an Alexa-compatible iRobot floor vacuum. I wanted to outfit my apartment with a Nest thermostat and a Nest camera, but my apartment didn’t have a central heating system, and setting up a Nest camera in a studio apartment seemed wasteful. Mainly, I just felt like spending money, and was frustrated that I couldn’t.

I started out easy with the basics, setting a timer, asking Alexa what time it was, and playing “The Luckiest” by Ben Folds on Spotify. Within the Alexa app on my Android phone, I could choose my preferred news source, so I chose NPR. Whenever I asked Alexa what was on the news, it’d feed me the latest NPR headlines. I was pretty impressed. I could see myself listening to the news while I ate my greek yogurt and granola in the morning.

Over the next couple of weeks, interacting with Alexa became more natural, as I frequently asked for the weather before I chose my outfit for the day. Our conversations weren’t much of a dialogue, but more of a one-sided inquisition.

I couldn’t be sure if it was the latest software update or something I had enabled in the app, but for some reason, Alexa started responding to me by name, having recognized my voice. “It’s 9:41pm, Andrew” it would reply. I just assumed that it had some sort of built-in voice training feature that could distinguish my voice. That, or it was possible that Alexa was connected to my Amazon account, which knew my first and last name. Either way, I was taken aback when Alexa addressed me by name.

I asked Alexa, “What does my voice sound like?”

She replied, “What would you like me to say?”

My phone lit up - a notification from Alexa to input my desired text.

Within the Alexa app, I typed in, “Hello, my name is Andrew Williamson, and I’m a proud dog owner.”

After hitting the submit button, I was shocked to hear my own voice. I entered in a couple more paragraphs of nonsense. It was perfect. It captured the nuances of my speech, especially intonations and even my quirky way of pronouncing “scenario” (‘sin-NARH-EE-oh’ instead of ‘sin-NAIR-EE-oh’). My heart rate quickened - it must have been the hundreds of hours of voice training.

That got me thinking - is it possible to reduce a human being to an amalgamation of complex formulas and algorithms? I had always thought my voice was unique, although I hated hearing it in recordings. The voice was one thing, but how about the nuance of a personality, the very thing that made us all human? I thought about how sad it would be if an algorithm could accurately capture the essence of someone’s humanity; either it’d be a really complex formula or a really simple personality.

Though, if something was really able to capture the totality of a human, as best as it could, then we’d be able to live multiple lifetimes if we recreated the world around us in the same simulation. If we were able to insert ourselves into key inflection points within our lifetimes, we could eliminate the what-ifs because we could speed up the simulation to see the 5, 10, 20-year consequences of one decision. A life with no uncertainty, a life that was properly vetted before it was lived. A perfect life with no missteps, no unpredictable traumatic accidents. Not necessarily a pre-determined life, but being informed of a smarter way to live.

On the flip side of things, the model needed to account for everything, including all other human beings, living creatures, inanimate objects, and naturally occurring phenomena, like weather and natural disasters. Without perfect knowledge, a simulation would always be flawed. Informative perhaps, but ultimately flawed.

It dawned on me that someone or some entity might be trying to create a perfect model of the world, especially with so much information being captured nowadays. Nest cameras, Amazon Echos, Google Homes, devices that are always listening, video conferencing, Instagram, Facebook, Skype, Tinder, TikTok, YouTube. The list goes on. More inputs, more information to train a more perfect model, if the information was consolidated and centralized! I wiped a bead of sweat off of my brow carefully, making sure my tinfoil hat stayed put.

Digging deeper in the settings screen of the Alexa app, I enabled the permissions for Alexa to track all types of data inputs that would build a robust model of me. In addition to what Alexa observed organically, I could upload pictures and videos, connect Alexa to Gmail and Facebook to capture all information that lived on those platforms, or manually upload anything else I’d like it to know about me via a CSV file.  

Selfishly, I thought about how I could personally benefit from my online persona. GDPR. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was the answer. I thought about my online presence, the different platforms that I’ve used over the years, and the information that they had on me. I’d pose as a European and write into each company asking for a data-subject access request, which compelled each company by law to send me a data dump of all the information they had on me, and I’d upload it to Alexa by sending the file to andrewwilliamson_data@alexa.com much like I could send e-books to my Kindle via a special email address. So easy! I thought.

It was reminiscent of that one Black Mirror episode, “Be Right Back” where a grieving widow created an artificial husband based on his social media profiles and his text message history. The main difference was that I had embellished my artificial likeness with a data dump of all Wikipedia articles written to create a better and smarter me, so to speak.

Alexa was also compatible with an app called If This Then That (IFTTT) which allowed the user to automate certain workflows depending on user-defined triggers. One very basic example was the ability to change the color of my smart lights to violet as soon as I started playing music. Stuff like that. But the app also supported more complex logic that was user-customizable - given that information, I plotted my next move. I had Alexa listen into my work calls and record my screen over the next few months of work. Alexa started learning my day-to-day tasks, the names, voices and faces of the people I worked with, and the different tools that I used to do my job as a Senior DevOps engineer.

One Saturday night, I called my boss tearfully and told him that I was diagnosed with fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, or FOP, a rare disease that caused muscles, tendons, and ligaments to turn into bone spontaneously. Eventually, my joints would be frozen in place and I’d be completely immobile. At some point, I’d have to choose a body position to spend the rest of my days.

He was speechless, but his normally stoic demeanor eventually broke down. As he choked back tears, he expressed his condolences.

I told him that due to my condition, I’d appreciate the ability to work remotely 100% of the time.

He agreed enthusiastically, promising to support me in any way.

Using IFTTT, I was able to clone instances of my Alexa persona, so I booted up a simulation of myself, but modified some parameters to deteriorate my appearance and gait. For good measure, I multiplied the depression metric by 1.25 and in the preview mode, the pain behind my eyes intensified, while the corners of my mouth curled downwards. A couple gray hairs sprouted up at my temples, the laugh lines turned into gashes, eroded by tears from hundreds of sleepless nights. It’d be perfect.

My voice followed suit, quivering and breaking 50% more than usual. Due to the ossification of my joints, any type of movement would be accompanied by a painful wince and a grunt for effort. No one would be the wiser during my meetings, which were held via video conference. Automating my own job was a success, but I craved more.

I created four more virtual instances of myself, without the debilitating disease, and had them scrape job postings on LinkedIn and Glassdoor, making sure to filter for remote jobs only. Within seven days, I had 125 job offers to choose from, and I booted up 121 more avatars to accept them all.

With income from 126 jobs, including my original DevOps job, I could finally breathe. In the mornings, I woke up at 9:30am, hand-ground some Sumatran coffee, and made some steel cuts oats, the non-quick kind that took 20 minutes to simmer.

Over breakfast, I finished another Murakami short story, called “Tony Takitani,” which was about a Japanese illustrator who fell in love with a woman was addicted to buying dresses but she ends up getting killed in car accident, and the illustrator is left with an empty house full of dresses. His father soon dies after, he forgets what his wife’s face looks like, and he ends up by himself, lonely in a large house.

I had suspected that the story would end that way. That’s the arc that all Murakami stories followed: a passive male protagonist who meets a life-changing female character, there’s some glimpses of hope or happiness, but the main character ends up alone, staring off melancholically into the distance into the sea, usually on an overcast day. No happy endings, and not really much of a resolution. And after finishing each book or short story, I felt lonely as well, not because the story was sad, but perhaps a stark reminder that life isn’t neatly wrapped up when it’s time to close the cover of the book, which the opposite of nearly every book that I had read. The hero gets the girl, a cathartic confession of love, the villain gets caught, the town gets saved, and everyone’s lives are better off than they were before.

To shake off the gloom, I ran along the coast for around an hour until heading back home. After toweling myself off, I checked my email. Scrolling through the hundreds of emails, my eyes widened when I saw an email subject stuck out to me: Congratulations for being nominated for a Pornhub Award: Performer of the Week. The email itself looked legitimate, had no misspellings, hovering over the links took me to the actual website, not lookalike phishing links, and I confirmed that it sent from the actual Pornhub domain.

The category that I was nominated for was “best male solo performance.” My head felt completely numb. I already knew what happened, but couldn’t bear to confirm it. I clicked into the link, and on the screen, I saw my own face staring back at me. “SultryCommando” was the username, and under “Uploads” I saw a list of 37 videos, titled with some of the most click-baity names. I had to watch at least one. I picked “Pizza Delivery Surprise!! WATCH TIL THE END,” which had 2.4 million views.

There was cheesy music and I saw a video of myself in tight cutoff jeans waiting expectantly for a pizza delivery very obviously - I saw my virtual self glance at his watch and tap his foot impatiently, mumbling something about punishing the pizza guy for being late. However I noticed his (my) devilish smile as he uttered those words. Oh god, I thought. Fast forwarding a little bit, the pizza guy finally rang the doorbell. Squinting a little, I quickly realized the pizza guy was still me. There were two of me in the same video and they were about to interact. The simulations must have discovered each other (but how?!) and started working together. I slammed my Macbook shut.

No. But I had to confirm. Flipping open my laptop, I scrolled to the middle of the video, and with much hesitation, the end. After watching two sweaty bodies collide with one another for almost 20 minutes, I felt sick, but also angry and impressed that Alexa was able to infer what my genitals looked like with 90% accuracy.

But my success as a porn star was only one of many accolades I’d receive. Surprisingly, most of the simulations gravitated towards social media influencing, with millions of followers on YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch. Remembering that there were 125 job offers signed, I wondered what happened to all of the legitimate jobs that they had gotten. I did some more digging and found that the simulations outsourced their jobs to another simulation they had written within their own simulation. Of course, the simulations didn’t know they were in actual simulations - or did they? If that was the case, then wasn’t there a high chance that I was a simulation as well, but just one level up?

The money they made funneled all to me and I couldn’t speak to whether or not the simulations had a real consciousness or if they were computer programs designed to optimize an assigned task.

The phone rang, and kept on ringing for the next two hours. I had concerned friends call to tiptoe around the subject of me being a porn star, extended family members who wanted to subtly reintroduce themselves in my life due to my Youtube fame, and my boss, who told me that I was fired for lying to him. I didn’t blame him, as my frail videoconferencing demeanor was a far cry from my virile, dominant, but sometimes flamboyant online persona. That, and he had also probably seen my Alexa-created genitals and couldn’t bear to look me in the eyes anymore.

Amidst the fabulous riches, the crumbling social life, and the unbridled fame that was tainted with a bit of social ostracism and cautious distance from curious and sometimes gawking onlookers, I felt unsettled. I could never live up to the zany online personas of my alter egos, and when someone alluded to a video that I had supposedly created, I’d be puzzled. It was like being mistaken for one of my 125 identical twin (well, not twin) brothers.

I grew anxious and falling asleep became harder and harder. On one particular night, I had a panic attack where it felt like I couldn’t breathe. Doubled over, wheezing, and clutching my chest, I yelled at Alexa to play “PornGrooves Vol. 3” on Spotify to calm me down. As my breathing steadied and my heart rate slowed back down to normal to the beat of the smooth jazz in the background, I wondered where it had all gone wrong.

Truth be told, I didn’t even want an Amazon Echo in the first place, but only set it up because I thought I’d fall behind from a technological perspective if I didn’t step into the world of smart devices. My coworkers talked incessantly about the convenience of their wifi-enabled sous vide cookers, bragged about installing smart locks and the novelty of their Ring doorbells on their front doors, but for me, I went home to an abusive father with an alcohol problem who opened an $18,000 line of credit in my name.

When I spoon-fed him, he’d berate me from his wheelchair and slap the spoon out of my hand, spraying split-pea soup on the linoleum floor. I was used to his fits of rage and his hurtful words: “Idiot. Your lack of ambition was what killed your mother. If you were a better son, she’d still be around.” I brushed him off, long immune to his babbling.  

I wheeled him out for walks first thing in the morning and when I got home, I made sure to take him out again before it got too dark. I’d shampoo his hair as he sat on the plastic lawn chair in the bathtub. He made sure to tell me that I was a piece of shit who wouldn’t ever amount to anything.

My two brothers had broken all ties with Dad years ago, leaving me holding the bag. I should have reported him for identity theft and called the credit bureaus to clear my name. But out of love, I couldn’t.

Out of love, I continued paying the minimum payments for a credit card that I didn’t own, but was technically in my name.

Out of love, I automated my job and ruined my life so I could send him to a proper home where he could get 24 hour care.

Spending money on smart devices was the only thing that I ever did for myself, the closest thing that resembled a hobby - my form of self-care.

Two weeks ago when the paychecks came rolling in, I thought, “We don’t need to live like this anymore.” Excitedly, I went to go tell my father the good news.

He was in his favorite brown easy chair near the window, where he got the most natural light.

“Dad, wake up! We can finally move out of here.”

I took a look at his iPhone that he held in his right hand. The volume was low, but it was still playing one of my Pornhub videos. Realizing that he had found out about me, I took a step back, which was when I saw the empty bottle of sleeping pills in his other hand.

He had told me he didn’t want a funeral, although I doubt anyone would have shown up anyways. I felt numb, not really knowing what to feel. I was heartbroken that he was gone, but guiltily at the same time, relieved by the absence of his toxic control over me. I wanted so badly to hit a reset switch.

A month later, I moved out of that apartment and bought a modest house down the street instead. This time, I bought a Ring doorbell and some Nest smart cameras.

One Sunday afternoon, the Ring app on my phone sent me a notification that someone was at my door. Opening the door, I stared down into the face of my father, who was still in a wheelchair.

“Andrew, you said you’d always take care of me!” he croaked.

Speechless, I took a step back into my home. I looked down, expecting to see the new hardwood that I spent days installing, but instead saw the yellowing linoleum of my old apartment kitchen. It was my old apartment again, furnished just the way I had left it. Before I moved out, I told the landlord to donate everything. To get my security deposit back, I even did a walk-out with him when the apartment was empty!

There was no way. I had seen my father’s casket lowered down into the earth.

Frantically, I checked my phone. The Alexa was app was gone. I searched on Google for Amazon Alexa. Zero results. I scoured my apartment for any smart devices. Nothing. Alexa didn’t exist in this plane of existence.

I lunged for my kitchen knife, but it disappeared right before I could grasp it. In one motion, I opened my window and leapt through the screen, but there was no free fall. I found myself crumpled into a heap back on my kitchen floor. 

Someone was toying with my life. Free will and choice was an illusion. This was some Harlan Ellison shit. For reasons why I couldn’t understand, perhaps for someone’s sick enjoyment, I was destined to spend the rest of my days spoon-feeding my father in a dingy apartment. Maybe I went off the rails in someone else’s simulation. Wasn’t serving my purpose and they had to set me back on course. 

That night, when I was bathing my father, I couldn’t remember much of anything anymore.

What was I thinking about again? This was normal. In fact, my life couldn’t be more perfect.

[squishneedsahero]

Finding Things Once Lost

Lost to Time | Part 6

Word Count: 1636

Summary:

The story of an original character, Allison Bennett. Growing up black in the short period between the world wars wasn't easy but Allison had friends who stuck with her no matter what. She was ambitious and had a million things she wanted to achieve in her lifetime and would try only to be told by the world that due to who she was it wasn't possible and she'd never live up to her dreams.

It's about a month later while Allison is sleeping that it happens, not the first time but she didn't know how many times before that it had happened. She finds herself drifting weightlessly through different scenes, not able to interact with anything but taking in what is happening around her. As she floats aimlessly she can't help but she hadn't seen these things before or been in this place but the floating along was familiar and choking as she couldn't move for herself.

It's sudden when she wakes up, she had been drifting for hours not knowing she was asleep until she awoke. She's covered in a cold sweat, having some sort of reaction to the dream. She gets up to wet her face in the bathroom but then her heart begins beating out of her chest and her skin burning. Allison gets into the shower, fully clothed and rests a hand over her heart as she turns on the cold water spraying herself.

As she stands there and slowly sinks herself to the shower floor the only thought running through her mind is; is this a panic attack? That has to be what it is.

Allison sits there on the floor with freezing water running over her for who knows how long. All she knows is that eventually her skin goes numb and she is able to gain control of her breathing. It's when she opens her eyes and looks at her hands and sees her fingers turning blue that she convinces herself to move. She hated this feeling, she had felt helpless and trapped in that dream even if she hadn't realized it at the time.

It was as she was standing soaking wet and dripping in her closet no longer paying any attention to the clothes she had been trying to get and change into that Wanda enters the room.

"Allison?" She asks gently, her Sokovian accent sounding more pronounced in Allison's state of panic. The woman reached out a hand when her friend didn't move and rested it on Allison's shoulder.

This shocks Allison out of it and she grabs the clothing from the hanger she had been staring at and moves on to get the rest of her clothing.

"Allison, are you alright?" Wanda asked again despite most likely already knowing the answer, thanks to her powers.

"Yeah-" Allison nods, "yeah I'm fine," she turns to go get dressed but Wanda steps in front of her and blocks her path.

"You aren't fine, what is it?" Her hand is still resting on her friends shoulder.

Allison is quiet for a moment, inside how to explain, "I don't know. I keep having these dreams and though I haven't a clue what is happening in them they just-" she inhaled sharply, the cold finally getting to her.

Wanda releases her grip and let's Allison go, "go change we can talk once you won't get hypothermia from the air conditioning."

Allison nods and goes to change while Wanda goes and sits on the couch in the middle of Allison's room. For only having been there for a month Allison had made herself comfortable having a more personalized room than Wanda had after almost a year of living in the compound.

It isn't long before Allison comes out of the bathroom dry and dressed warmly. She finds her way over to the couch and sits down next to Wanda. She chews her lip for a moment, "I don't know what these dreams are, but they make me feel trapped. I haven't a clue where I am or what I'm doing but I'm drifting through the world at different points in time. All of them feel familiar though I haven't been to a single one of these places."

Wanda tilts her head, "may I?" She asks holding up a hand by Allison's forehead. After a nod is given by Allison, Wanda rests her hand on her friends forehead and uses a bit of her magic to read and calm her friends mind. This was the first time she had done anything like this with Allison and as she did she came across a mental wall.

It was solid, no easy way through and Wanda explains this. "You have forgotten memories, something that is still a part of you even if you have no memory of it..."

Before Wanda can suggest what she is thinking Allison asks first, "can you help me remember?"

Wanda hesitates, "I think so, but it's as if I will have to break through a wall. I don't know what consequences there could be from me doing so."

Allison pauses again, looking at her friend. "I trust you to stop if you need too. But I need to try and know what these things mean. They are important I can feel it..."

She trails off as Wanda doesn't react, and Wanda looks at her, "are you sure? I do not know what will happen."

Another nod from Allison, "like I said, I trust you."

They both sit quietly for a moment and Wanda comes to rest a palm on Allison's forehead once again. Allison's eyes close as she feels Wanda begin to enter her mind. There is a lot of poking and prodding, Wanda learning many intimate details about Allison. How she regretted leaving things with Bucky. How she hadn't talked with Steve through the war and then once she realized he might be alive how she had been possessed to find him. None of these were things Allison had brought up with anyone except for the one time to apologize to Steve.

There are many more things which Wanda learns, all of the facts Allison had learned by heart, her research into the super soldier serum and finally what had happened the night she got sent to the future. This is where Wanda hits that wall again, there was the bright white flash in Allison's memory then a solid wall of emptiness before waking in that hospital. "I'm going to try to get past the wall," Wanda says out loud to prepare Allison for what she is about to do.

Allison feels Wanda begin to push into a part of her mind she hadn't realized existed. Slowly at first things begin to come forward, more memories of those dreams she had been having. Ages of floating aimlessly through space and time until it's as though the final thread snapped and everything goes dark.

Wanda is immediately shut out of Allison's mind, not having a clue what had happened. She can only watch as Allison collapses to the side, almost to the ground when Wanda catches her and moves her to the bed. Once Allison is secure Wanda tries again to reach into her mind but there's nothing there, there was nothing as there had been nothing with Ultron. Nothing like when Pietro had died.

Despite this emptiness Wanda can see Allison breathing. She is still alive but it's like nothing is there.

Hours later Allison is still unconscious but Tony is now there to offer his help alongside a few others. They had moved her to one of the labs and Vision was performing some scans.

"Tell me again, what exactly happened Wanda?" Steve asks the girl.

"She was having a panic attack when I found her. I offered to help calm her mind and came across this wall that was blocking off part of her memory. She asked me to try and remove it, I tried and suddenly I was shut out and she collapsed," Wanda explains her story for what feels like the millionth time. "I didn't mean for this to happen Steve."

"I know Wanda," Steve says not upset at all. He knew how Allison could be, it wouldn't have worked to try and talk her out of it. He also knew that the dreams had been bothering his friend that she had been struggling with them since she arrived and would do anything to stop them.

Vision speaks up, "she is stable. Nothing seems to be wrong despite her being unconscious, her brain is functioning normally though at a higher rate than normal."

"Steve," Tony starts, "she's fine but there is no way to tell when she will wake up. I'll keep working on getting her awake again but this is all we can do for now."

Allison found herself drifting once again through space. She spent an eternity there this time as she tried to speak or control her own movements. After what felt like forever she found herself face to face with, not a person but an entity. It could have been a person but she couldn't make out any sort of form to it. The scene was no different from any of the others she had seen but she knew there was someone there.

Allison still couldn't talk or control her body in any way but eventually she feels some sort of grip release from her. As this happens the entity seems to shift and then begins speaking, "Allison Bennett. You are looking into things which are not your place. You have done this before and I took your memory to protect you but you are back and trying to learn of them once again."

Despite the grip being released she still couldn't bring herself to speak.

"If you are going to keep searching I cannot keep protecting you. The knowledge may ruin your mind, no mortal has been able to comprehend these things and it has lead to many brilliant minds being lost." The entity pauses before asking a simple question, "do you wish to risk your mind in order to gain access to this knowledge?"

Allison doesn't find any hesitation in herself when the question is asked, "yes. I want to know."

"Very well."

[awesomeblockchain]

Economic Development Board

Enter Industry 4.0, where every sector matters.

Welcome to Industry 4.0, the new age where smart technology and smart appliances are moving us closer and closer to a fully digitized society. Potentially valued at almost $4 trillion by 2020, studies show that businesses everywhere will be able to benefit by embracing the fourth industrial revolution. And, with the emergence of blockchain, we're already on the pathway there.

What is Industry 4.0 ("i4.0")

Industry 4.0 is not a new technology, nor is it a new business structure. It is our society's current trend of data exchange and automation in the creation and development of new technologies. It is simply an acknowledgement that technology had advanced so much since the 19th century, where we saw the beginnings of mass production.

1st Revolution

2nd Revolution

3rd Revolution

Industry 4.0

Factory Production

Mass Production / Assembly Line

Digital Automation

Smart-Systems / Cyber-Physical Systems

The Revolutions

The First and Second Industrial Revolutions

In the 19th century, we witnessed Britain move from farming to an industrial sector, focusing on factory production. The Second Revolution, introduced mass production and steel. Factories were becoming more 'electrical,' giving birth to Henry Ford's assembly production line, allowing for voluminous production and mass distribution to come into play.

The Third Industrial Revolution

The third revolution is where our country went "digital." Up until the 1950's, technology operated on an analog, mechanical, and electronic scale.

Industry 4.0

Since the 1970's, we have become more and more digital, moving closer to completely digitizing our society, whether it's smart home assistants to smart security systems. Industry 4.0 uses the Internet of Things ("IoT) to digitally enhance factories, turning them "smart." In this structure, we allow for the creation of "cyber-physical" systems, mechanisms monitored by tightly integrated algorithms and software, which duplicate the physical systems onto a virtual network that makes decentralized decisions. With the introduction of the Internet of Things ("IoT"), cyber-physical systems are able to communicate and work together, providing users with real-time system interactions.

The Market

This new age is attractive to those companies whose business culture is reading, willing, and able to receive the effects of the digital-age evolution. Rather than spend time and energy in raising awareness to companies who aren't ready for the change, or simply, aren't comfortable making the change, the target then shifts on those entities who already see themselves thriving and growing, because of the advancements. But, it's a double-edged sword, because it's important to understand those companies who aren't making the switch, and why they aren't.

Enter The i4.0 Dimensions

Industry 4.0 concept illustration infographic

There are six dimensions that make up i4.0--Technology, Finance Risk Management, Employees Competencies, Systems Processes, and Services Networks. This article will focus strictly on the technology dimension.

Demand-driven supply chain

We want more. Society wants more. The rapid advancement of the technology sector is almost impossible to keep up with. Everytime we as a consumer purchase one device, the next model is already on its way out six months down the line. In an Industry 4.0 context, the demand for new and "smarter" technology is increasing exponentially. However, as we've seen over the past year, when it comes to investing in new technologies, we are also investing in the likelihood of having our personal and financial information compromised. A conversation for another time. At the end of the day, society wants bigger, better, faster. Sometimes smaller.

"By automating the industry, we're talking everything from self-driving trucks, to supply-chain management software," explained Tony Uphoff, President and CEO of Thomas. Whether it's smart manufacturing, or smart warehousing, the ability to pack and ship items using this advanced technology, makes distribution exponentially more efficient. Uphoff indicated that in cases of warehousing, adding "smart" capabilities to it, would provide for items to be located more quickly and reduce error rates.

Big Data

In response to a massive amount of data breaches, most recently with Facebook, the industry could help provide a comprehensive evaluation of where we stand when it comes to our management and manufacturing systems. Pulling information from our production equipment systems, learning about the time, energy, costs, and disadvantages to using them, provides valuable information. At the end of the day, computer servers only hold so much. Investing in blockchain where large chunks of data can be migrated over to computer systems built for its storage, would free-up time, space, and energy from many of these systems. This allows entrepreneurs to take a step back and shift their focus more towards the heart of the business, as well as their customers. Ultimately, this will help incentivize real-time decision making, on both the individuals part and the systems end.

Cloud

Ah, the big, scary cloud that everyone is fearful of. Instead of uploading personal and financial information to the cloud, we are looking to the blockchain, where encryption is key and we don't have to worry about other parties randomly obtaining passwords or keys. Corporate officers or those required to have such information, would be able to have part of a key or passcode, providing them access to machine data and its functionality aspects. For legal purposes, this could also come in handy as it pertains to trade secrets. Witnessing the unpredictability of cloud-based computing, forces cloud technologies to improve and upgrade security and functionality. At the end of the day, security will always be at the heart of the topic, ensuring that data isn't leaked, sold, or distributed to other companies (Cambridge Analytica, cough) without permission.

Cyber-security

With new technologies, comes new cyber-security threats. The need to protect digital and computer infrastructure has never been more necessary. Having a decentralized network that is heavily encrypted allows for many of our exploitation fears, settle. The goals with Industry 4.0 will need to focus on ensuring personal and financial information, related to enterprises and its officers are well-guarded.

Additive manufacturing

Companies are just beginning to utilize additive manufacturing, like 3-D printing, in instances of prototypes and producing individual components. "This dramatically reduces the time exerted, from design to prototyping, and ultimately trickles down to the market," said Uphoff.

Autonomous Robotics

Skynet. Just kidding. In all seriousness, robots will eventually learn to interact with one another, working safely, side-by-side with humans, and learn from them. Again, we don't need to be kept up at night wondering if a terminator was sent back in time to kill us. By having this new area of robotics, the area of manufacturing will expand its capabilities in terms of inputting more efficiency into the business, and ultimately driving down costs for both the business and for investing in the technology itself.

Internet of Things ("IoT")

IoT, refers to billions of physical devices around the world that are now connected to the internet, collecting, and sharing data. Adding a level of digital intelligence to devices that would otherwise be considered "dumb," enhancing technology to communicate without human-human interaction, merges the physical world with the digital world. Embedding these devices in computing, allows not just individuals to interact with one another, but other technologies. This provides opportunities for a decentralization as it pertains to analytics and "customer-support", enabling real-time responses, with little to no lag time.

Augmented Reality

The integration of AR/VR into mobile gaming and even computing has brought new dimensions to gaming. We have already started to hear the whispers of gaming and blockchain coming together. From an enterprise perspective, AR-based systems support a variety of services ranging from the mobile communications sector and warehousing. While still in its infancy stages, companies will start to expand their use of AR as the systems are able to be integrated into real-time decision making and work protocols. Think Black Mirror.

Introducing Blockchain Into The Tech Dimension

Decentralization has become this year's trending concept in the financial sector. With the emergence of the blockchain and cryptocurrency, internet-connected devices are much more vulnerable, as they are subject to being hijacked by hackers, and turned against its maker, to mine cryptocurrencies.

In the real-world, a theoretical attack would be a situation where a hacker, or group of hackers, takes over a network of connected devices, utilizing the combined computing power of those devices, to mine money. This doesn't come as a surprise that miners make their money based on the price of energy. In a previous interview, Halsey Minor, CNET founder and the driving force behind Salesforce.com, indicated that there is a market to be harnessed, by concentrating on networks and 'zombie devices,' and utilizing their energy to help reduce distribution costs, all while boosting innovation. Minor's exploitation of this market through his latest venture, as Founder and CEO of Live Planet and Co-Founder of the VideoCoin Network, is a force to be reckoned with, as he is capitalizing on a market that has been sitting idle still to this day.

The Industry 4.0 blueprint sets out pathways and avenues towards the ending destination of becoming an entirely digital enterprise. In order to achieve true digital transformation, the market needs to be open to receiving it. As we are still experimenting with smart technology, IoT, cloud-computing, and the beginning stages of AR/VR, we are on the roadway getting closer and closer to Industry 4.0.

At the end of the day, there is a large impact in both the B2C and B2B spaces. With B2C, the focus in on harnessing the energy between the consumers home and personal life. Smart home assistants like the Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Apple HomePod, are making this possible. However, with convenience and efficiency, comes the risk of data exploitation, which we have already seen in other instances with Fitbit, Amazon, and now potentially devices connected with Facebook.

However, the B2B space is very different. In efforts to create "smart factories," the level of automation requires advances in sensor technology, automation equipment, software, AI, and educating our machines to know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. Again, the heart of all this is the risk enterprises buy into at the expense of its own data, as well as its consumers.

We are at the beginning of a new age. The technology powering Industry 4.0 will continue to grow, and so will the potential of blockchain.

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