#infinity war and endgame can go jump off a cliff

[ctrsara]

Cracks in the Soul Ch 23

https://archiveofourown.org/works/40431864/chapters/105079092

Don’t let the OC turn you off - I promise she’s great, and Peter and MJ are still close, just not together... If you like fluffy AU Soulmate stuff at -all,- this story, and its direct predecessor: From the Same Star is for you, I promise!  (Or if you love Irondad platonic soulmate stuff too, or reading a grown Peter... so much fun in here.)

Tony, Pepper, and Peter work on getting arrangements and security in place for Peter and Hallie's "engagement" announcement, while Peter makes his own arrangements for their quick weekend away, and also struggles with some of the possible ramifications of their decision.

[gamora-borealis]

I think with vol 1 Gamora we see her have a slow transition from beginning to end of the film and she softens over time. She had a plan in place to leave Thanos and was ready to risk distancing herself from him. She goes from quick to anger and having almost no trust and fear of vulnerability to letting her guard down a little. We can see her nodding her head to Peter's music and offering him a gentle smile by the end. In vol 2 she's grown some more and is closer to the others and more open, but she still has rough spots and doesn't trust new people easily or read every emotional situation. Then of course by the end there's more growth and deeper relationships to the others. We get to see a solid arc of emotional and mental healing. We're allowed to understand the good and bad parts of her and to connect with her story. In Endgame 2014Gamora is just like vol 1 Gamora. We see how hard she can be but also that she cares and has a good heart. In vol 3 Gamora is very much like vol 1 Gamora only a bit rougher because she's a ravager now. But also she's basically vol 1 Gamora who didn't get to ease into changes. She was thrown into the future, found out she had been killed, was dealing with both 2018 and 2014 Nebula and had to then jump head first into a potentially universe ending battle against her abuser. If that had been me I would have had a nervous breakdown. There's so much that was going on and vol 3 never allows that to be explored. Her entire significant experiences in the future all happened between Endgame and vol 3 where people couldn't emotionally connect to it. The guardians aren't given space to sympathize with her and the audience is left with undefined backstory and no real plot for Gamora in the film.

Lots of people have been deliberating on 2014Gamora and I think the most simplistic answer is they never should have killed 2018Gamora. Especially with only one film left. The contrast between her death in Infinity War and how James Gunn has handled characters deaths with far more agency and dignity stands out a lot. But in vol 3 it's so much more in your face how Gamora was treated compared to the other characters. In Infinity War she dealt with Thanos mostly on her own, was emotionally abused and then just as she's telling her abuser what he's done to her isn't love the movie allows her experience to be silenced when Thanos throws her off the cliff and actually receives the soul stone. Afterwards we are never given a chance in any other movie or show with the guardians to see them all angry or sad about what happened. In vol 3 we see every member of the team openly distraught over Rocket's situation. When he faces his abusive past he's not alone. When he stands up to his abuser his feelings aren't shutdown and he gets to win.

I think vol 3 had a number of nice character moments for Gamora and I was particularly happy she got to stab the villain. There are many aspects to the writing and characterization that are great. But it's hard not to notice Gamora's treatment compared to all the other characters has been pretty awful since IW. I saw lots of people excusing what Thanos did to Gamora after Infinity War or saying she wasn't really abused because Thanos got the soul stone. I now see some of those same people talking about how Rocket's abuser was actually a bad person and what he did was unforgivable. That alone tells me Infinity War should never have happened. Nobody should have been left feeling Gamora deserved what happened or that it was justified. James Gunn has said he signed off on and was okay with how Infinity War went down and I try to respect that but I don't understand him signing off on the message Infinity War sent about Gamora's abuse compared to the message he put out about Rocket's abuser. I don't get allowing a prominent character who was on her way to easily having one of the strongest arcs in the mcu, ending the trilogy the least developed character with the least amount of relationships to a story that she helped shape.

Yes Yes Yes! Great write up anon.

I think there could have been more Gamora stuff in Vol. 3, but it clearly was meant to be a Rocket-centric movie and there was so much going on considering they had to fit in Adam as well, so more stuff with her would have taken away from all that from a writing perspective. Not that that's fair to her character at all, but story/time-wise and knowing that Rocket is Gunn's favorite and this was meant to be his movie (whereas the last one was a little more Gamora and Nebula heavy), it makes a lot of sense.

We also have to remember: the timing of the James Gunn drama may have affected this too. The first time we see the Guardians again being in Thor 4 where it's just supposed to be kinda goofy and short was not ideal. This movie is 3 years late, and there were some changes made to the script (not huge, but probably some side-plot Gamora and Adam related stuff because the movie was further up the timeline now).

One thing I liked in Vol. 3 is they kind of have a moment where they take a jab at the "magic cliff" and how it doesn't make sense. I also struggle with Gunn's decision to sign off on her death. He seems to care about these characters a lot, even if Gamora isn't maybe his favorite like Rocket. It makes me wonder how much say he actually had in all of it, and how much it was just reassuring the fans (I'm skeptical of statements like this having become a Supernatural fan since 2020 lmao). From a writing standpoint, I can see how "Gamora having a big emotional death and Peter fucking everything up" sounds appealing, especially since they were desperately trying to figure out how to incorporate the soul stone and give the movie emotional depth. The soul stone was originally supposed to be tied to Black Panther/Wakanda, but their director wanted the movie and T'Challa's powers to be rooted in Wakanda/Africa (the flowers) and not some weird space thing (which makes sense!). So they probably came up with the Vormir idea and approached Gunn with not a lot of options. If Gunn had been the sole writer of IW/Endgame, I'm sure that even if he still chose to kill Gamora, that the stuff after Gamora's death would have been handled a lot better (as we see with Rocket and his abuser in this film). It's clear that Gamora couldn't have been brought back though because that would have meant Natasha also would have needed to come back, and the Avengers people clearly wanted her to stay dead (and that's a whole other problem ugh). Gunn probably was given story points he had to work with in IW/Endgame and write dialogue for, which I feel like he did a decent job of (Gamora spoke her mind as much as the story allowed and tried to sacrifice herself).

A lot of people have pointed out that sexism probably has some to do with how Gamora has been treated too (like if she was a male lead would it have played out like this). And you know, I don't think James Gunn is purposely trying to be sexist, but the dude is flawed (and admits it) and his writing used to be more problematic than it is now. It's maybe still a blindspot for him.

I'm also potentially processing this all differently because I purposely spoiled myself on some Gamora details last weekend before going into the movie (yesterday) to prepare myself (because if not I can get wayyy too invested and it hurts a lot). So I've had some time to think about all of this at a meta-level before I saw the film. I think I'm generally happy with how it turned out considering what happened happened in IW and can't be changed now. I kind of liked that Gamora had all this growth in Vol. 2, idk what path she would have taken in Vol 3. Everyone had to go discover themselves at the end. Would Starmora have broken up then? Adding the new challenge of making it a different Gamora was kind of more compelling in some ways, although I absolutely hate that that meant she had to die to get there (maybe if it was the same Gamora with no memories that would have been interesting).

I'm also very used to filling in all the gaps of what isn't on screen because that's just how my fanfic brain works, and I feel like Gunn writes such strong characters that it's easy to imagine stuff offscreen (and maybe that's what he wants us to do). So like, just because some of the Gamora / Guardians mourning her stuff happened offscreen doesn't mean it didn't happen. Gunn would probably agree with that. It still sucks that we didn't get to see it though.

[redspiderling]

I’m seeing comments that Taskmaster was the “worst MCU villain” and that the twist fell flat. I thought it tied well into Natasha’s arc. I can understand TM fans not liking the change, but there are a lot of dumb takes too. Saying that the climax inadequately showed Nat washing her hands clean, or that she had already “gotten over” it before. Even though Nat is so haunted by regret that she later throws herself off a cliff? Why does this movie go straight over some people’s heads?

Hiya anon!

Well, there's a few reasons why people can have these reactions, and not interpret the film as it was meant to. Some reasons are more innocent than others.

For example, Marvel did push the whole "Taskmaster will appear" message while promoting this film. We know they did this to hook in a very specific crowd. I find their frustration understandable because Taskmaster is a minor character, compared to the Russian family.

I don't understand though what those people's expectations were. This movie isn't called Taskmaster. It's called Black Widow. Natasha is going to be the main character. Even if Taskmaster was closer to the comic book version his role wouldn't have more prominence, or development, in the film. Everyone was saying that this movie was going to be a tribute to Natasha Romanoff, so, what gives?

I found the twist very satisfying. I don't see how that was "Natasha washing her hands clean". Just because the girl survived, doesn't mean that Natasha didn't make the choice to sacrifice her life. If I shoot a person and they survive, I'll still be put to trial as an attempted murderer. Natasha's decision allowed Draykov to turn his own daughter into a mindless tool. All Natasha got, was a moment to look her past action in the eyes, acknowledge the brutality of them, and apologise to another victim. Because they were both victims of the same system.

In regards to how this movie sits in reference to Endgame: It undoes a lot of it. Natasha's emotional state in Endgame would realistically be different if she had gone through the soul-searching adventure of Black Widow beforehand.

Even if her entire Russian family had been dusted she'd just be even more determined to fix the world, she wouldn't despair, and she wouldn't have looked so abandoned. Because the Natasha of Endgame was broken not by the events of Infinity War, but by the resignation of the surviving Avengers- they were the ones who left her alone to shoulder that burden.

Finally, while I rarely acknowledge the scene in Vormir as anything other than moronic and completely unnecessary, I do need to make this point clear:

Natasha didn't sacrificed herself because she thought herself unworthy. Marvel sacrificed Natasha because they thought she deserved it.

Natasha loves her people deeply, and she is just that strong, and that brave, and that heroic, that she could just run towards death without a thought and without a hint of fear. And Cate showed us that in Black Widow, where she made her jump off one crazy spot after another, when she literally jumped into nothing to save Yelena. Of course, Cate is smart and she brought Natasha back to us after each and every crazy jump. Because a character doesn't have to fucking die to prove that they're heroes.

Finally, this movie goes straight over people's heads for a lot of reasons.

For one thing, people are used to the male gaze, and focused on the wrong things. Like whether the human trafficker gets enough of a development to make us feel something when he dies for example. And then when the movie disregards that character like the bastard that he is, and just blows him to smithereens, they're disappointed because they're like "hang on, you just killed him off before I had a chance to bond with the lad!". And to them, that's a flaw.

Another issue is that Marvel movies tend to be very clear about who you're fighting against. It makes it easier when a villain has a face, you know? Even CAWS had enough baddies to make us direct our anger to specific characters (like Rumlow, Pierce, Zola, Sitwell), while the actual enemy was an organisation/system in place.

So when Black Widow comes along, viewers who are used to the system above are confused. Because if Yelena isn't bad, and if the Widows aren't bad, and if Taskmaster isn't bad, who is?

Our patriarchal, sexist society. That's who. The mentality that creates men like Draykov, who think of women as commodities. And how can you possibly show them as villains, when they're literally all around us?

You don't. You focus on the women, and how we deal with that pain. This movie was about people who were damaged by a fucked up system. And the movie itself couldn't offer a solution to fix the system. It could only give us the satisfaction of watching a trafficker get blown up, and the relief of watching those women free themselves from that hell. It showed us that there is hope in surviving. It gave us back what Endgame took away.

Anyway, to chose off this rant, don't be upset anon. I mean, there are people out there who, to this day, think Endgame was one of the best movies of all time. Rotten Tomatoes has it rated at like, 95%. Some people are just interested in the surface of things, and the rest of us just have to accept it. Enjoy our moment of vindication, remind yourself that Natasha's living her best life, hopefully stay away from twitter, and all will be well.

[the-widow-sisters]

hi I love reading all your stories. I don't know if you still taking request but can you write a story where black widow come in correct order and yelena is included in infinity war and endgame. at vomir part clint, natasha and yelena went there. while they arguing/who jumping first it was yelena who jump and sacrifice herself. make it heart rending as you can. i just want to cry.

A/N: Thank you so much! I’m really glad you enjoy my fics! Also, I literally never write stuff with no comfort at all, but I did just now and I’m honestly in pain.... This hurt me so, so much to write 🥺 But I hope you enjoy 💖 I’m mostly pleased with how it turned out, and I tried to really lay the angst on thick.

Word Count: 1740

  “Maybe he’s making it up,” Clint pointed out, and Yelena shook her head from her place nearby Natasha. Natasha was sitting down, and her shoulder was leaned against Yelena. Yelena knew that all three of them knew that was wishful thinking. There was no doubt that the being was definitely telling the truth.

  “No, I don’t think so,” Natasha voiced, and Clint paced over to the side. Yelena’s lips formed a thin line as she looked around the place, trying to decipher some way or another to cheat this creature out of the stone.

  Yelena knew exactly what Natasha was thinking before Clint even picked up on the train of thought that Natasha was going down. Yelena knew she was resigning herself to die. However, one way or another, Yelena was not going to let that happen.

  “Why? Because he knows your daddy’s name?” Clint questioned, looking back at the both of them. Natasha remained impassive, a perplexed expression still on her face.

  “I didn’t,” Natasha quietly pointed out, and Clint looked at her strangely. Yelena squeezed her sister’s shoulder comfortingly before kneeling next to her.

  “Thanos left here with the stone… Without his daughter. It’s not a coincidence,” Yelena expressed, leaning against Natasha’s shoulder and pressing her forehead against her. Natasha brought her hand up and touched the back of Yelena’s head, lightly tugging on her ponytail in that manner that aggravated Yelena to no end. However, this time it felt comforting in some weird manner.

  “Whatever it takes,” Natasha whispered, still miles and miles away. Yelena’s gaze immediately snapped to Natasha as the redhead quietly confirmed what Yelena already knew she was thinking.

  “Whatever it takes,” Clint spoke, and Yelena shook her head as Natasha moved away from her to stand up and meet Clint. Yelena followed carefully, her eyes carefully locked on both of them.

  As they began to speak, Yelena turned her attentions to the cliff, silently taking in the many ways that she could launch herself off of the thing. She was not going to let her sister die, and she knew that she would not be able to live with herself if she let Clint jump. If this whole thing worked, his children would still be young, and they deserved to live a life better than Yelena had.

  So Yelena resolved quietly that she would be the one to jump, regardless of how desperately that Natasha attempted to save her.

  She then felt Natasha’s gentle hand on her shoulder, and Yelena did not hesitate to turn to face her. Natasha’s eyes were filled with regret, and Yelena glanced back at Clint, knowing that he was aiming on stabbing Natasha in the back to save her. She could see it written in his face.

  However, what he did not know was that Yelena knew.

  “My sweet girl. You are everything to me,” Natasha murmured, and Yelena moved nearer to her. Natasha cupped Yelena’s face in her hands, her thumbs stroking across Yelena’s cheekbones.

  “You are everything to me, Natashka. Please don’t do this,” Yelena expressed, and Natasha’s hold grew a bit firmer as her eyes turned to melted goo, her gaze caressing Yelena’s face with the utmost affection and love.

  “I love you, Yelena. You are my entire world. Please understand why I have to do this,” Natasha whispered to her, and Yelena stared at her for a long moment, taking in every bit of her older sister’s face so it would be the freshest memory she had.

  Yelena finally just nodded, allowing Natasha to think for at least a short moment that she was actually going to be able to get away with this. Yelena allowed Natasha to kiss her face gently, her lips pressing tearfully against Yelena’s cheeks, nose, forehead, and chin.

  However, as she turned to face Clint, Yelena caught her arm. Natasha looked at her questioningly, and Yelena gave her a small smile of apology, allowing her eyes to show all of the emotions that she felt toward Natasha.

  “I love you more than anything, sestra. And… I’m sorry,” Yelena spoke before letting loose with a particularly strong shock, electrocuting Natasha with her widow’s bite. Natasha immediately went down, and Clint started toward her to stop her from running. However, Yelena shocked him directly in the shoulder with the same huge voltage she had used on Natasha, and he fell to the ground. Yelena took off running with everything she had, her legs moving as quickly as they could. She could hear Natasha screaming behind her, and she knew she had moments to launch herself off the cliff.

  She made a mad jump for it, and she immediately felt Natasha’s arms around her middle. However, Yelena twisted out of her grasp, shooting a line into the cliffside before clipping her end to Natasha’s belt. She then pushed off of Natasha, but she quickly felt the redhead lock her grasp around Yelena’s wrist.

  They were soon suspended there in the air, and Yelena was looking up at her older sister, Natasha stuck there holding onto Yelena with the strongest grip she could muster.

 “Yelena, why?!” Natasha demanded, her voice cracking as she held onto Yelena’s wrist tightly. Yelena just hung limply there in her grasp.

  “It’s who I am,” Yelena joked, knowing that it was truly a horrid time to do this, but trying to lighten the whole thing with humor even though she knew she was about to fall to her death.

  “Just hold on!” Natasha cried out, her voice rough and almost hoarse as she strove to keep hold of Yelena. Yelena allowed a soft smile to show through, unending adoration swelling in her chest as she looked up at her sister. The one person that had always been willing to give her life for Yelena. The one person that had always jumped for her without hesitation. The one person that was so completely selfless that she would be willing to fall to her death for Yelena.

  But it was Yelena’s turn now.

  “Natashka, I love you. Win this and bring Melina, Alexei, Little Peter, Wanda… and everyone back,” Yelena told her, her tone as solemn as it had ever been as she looked up at her sister’s pained face.

  “No, please, Yelena, please,” Natasha begged, her voice cracking, and Yelena felt a small stab at her heart as the words passed from between Natasha’s lips. Natasha never begged anyone for anything, and it spoke testaments to how much Yelena meant to her that she would plead like this.

  Yelena shook her head slightly.

  “You’ve jumped for me so many times. Let me jump this time for you,” Yelena told her, and Yelena could feel her sister’s tears falling against Yelena’s cheeks as they spilled from those beautiful, caring light greens that were practically stabbing into Yelena’s soul with ever second that passed.

  They were begging and pleading for a chance at a life that the two could never have. A life that Yelena had always wanted but now knew that they were never meant for. Yelena looked just a bit past Natasha to see Clint grabbing at the both of them, trying to pull them up in a futile attempt to salvage things somehow.

  “It’s okay. I love you, Natashka. This was fun,” Yelena expressed, squeezing Natasha’s hand just a bit tighter before wrenching herself from Natasha’s grasp.

  “YELENA!!!” Natasha screamed, a blood-curdling, horrifying sound. Yelena just smiled softly as Natasha gradually grew further and further away from her, the entire world moving in slow motion. This was familiar. Free-falling, Natasha’s scream fresh in her ears, and the promise of death upon her.

  This time, however, there would be no miraculous saves.

  Yelena closed her eyes, knowing the ground would come quickly, and she could feel the ghostly sensations of Natasha’s hands on her face. She could feel Natasha gently whispering words of affection and love in her ear, and Natasha’s tender kisses pressed to her cheeks and nose.

  There were flashes of the two cuddling on the couch, Natasha’s chin resting on top of Yelena’s head. Natasha would always tickle her sides when Yelena made a smart comment about something or another. But then Natasha would just kiss her head and braid her hair. And once she finished braiding, she would stroke Yelena’s back and trace words across her skin. It made Yelena just want to lean against her forever and never leave her embrace.

  Then she saw her and Natasha laying in Natasha’s bed with Yelena jerking awake from a nightmare. Natasha would grab Yelena’s wrist in her hand firmly before Yelena could clamp on handcuffs, and she would hold her close the whole night, offering loving affections until Yelena could sleep again. It was one of the most vulnerable moments in Yelena’s lifetime, and it made her feel so safe and protected to know that Natasha loved her like this.

  She saw her and Natasha in mid-air, Natasha buckling her firmly into the parachuting gear. Natasha’s loving, fearful light greens locked onto her own as if Yelena were her entire universe and as if nothing else in the world mattered. That had made Yelena’s stomach practically turn over inside of her, and it had made her chest squeeze painfully with all of the love she had felt.

  She saw Natasha tending to her wounds after Budapest, and the older woman blowing tenderly on her wound in an attempt to soothe the burning pain of the cut. Yelena had been so surprised at the care, especially since Natasha did not seem to be concerned with Yelena in the least. It was her first inkling that Natasha worried about her at all outside of the stares that Natasha would give her whenever she thought Yelena was not looking.

  Then there was their time in Ohio, all the memories flooding her in short flashes. Blue hair, bony yet comforting arms, back bridges, photo booths, multiple holidays in one day.

  But one thing filled her through all of the memories.

  Love, affection, appreciation, and peace overcame her.

  And then it all went black, Natasha’s gut-wrenching screams, sobs, and wails resounding through her ears in a haunting echo that would be with her forevermore.

  But if this was the way she had to go, she figured that it was a pretty cool way to die indeed.

  Maybe she could rest knowing she had finally wiped out the red in her ledger.

[pinktwingirl]

Loki Series Rewrite (AKA Loki Series but with Squirrel Girl): Ep 1

Hey guys! Long story short, I wasn’t a fan of the Loki series, so I decided to make my own rewrite (including my favorite Marvel character, Squirrel Girl!) These are basically a collection of scenes that I would’ve either added or rewritten to improve the show. Btw, this is a continuation of my Endgame rewrite where Loki comes back to life after dying in Infinity War, so the Loki in this version is modern-day Loki, not 2012 Loki. Also, the whole Loki x Sylvie self-cest thing made me VEEERRRRY UNCOMFY, so I got rid of it. Their relationship is purely platonic in this. Anyways, enjoy! (This work is in screenplay format.)

INT. TVA - DAY

We pan through the TVA and see agents at work, checking timelines and watching training videos. We see various TVA posters warning about variants and "protecting the sacred timeline."

We then cut to RAVONNA RENSLAYER in her office. She is at her desk, sorting through files. Suddenly, an agent bursts in.

AGENT

Ma'am, we have a situation.

Ravonna follows the agent to a computer, where we see a timeline branching off from the main one.

AGENT

Is this the variant we've been searching for?

Ravonna glances at the computer and nods.

RAVONNA

About damn time...

EXT. CHICAGO BAR, 1986 - NIGHT

We see a woman with long, black hair and a green dress chatting with a man in a bar. The song "Devil Woman" by Cliff Richard is playing in the background.

MAN

Can I interest you in another drink, beautiful?

The woman lets out a flirty laugh and blushes.

WOMAN

Oh, you're too kind.

The man turns to the bartender.

MAN

Hey, can you get my girl here a...

(He turns to the woman.)

What can I get you, honey?

WOMAN

Surprise me.

The man turns back to the bartender.

MAN

You heard her.

The woman has a devilish smirk on her face as she watches them. The man turns back to her as the bartender starts mixing a drink.

MAN

You know, I feel selfish. I've been talking so much about myself, but I still don't know a thing about you.

WOMAN

Well... what do you want to know?

Suddenly, another man approaches them.

MAN #2

Hey, what do you think you're doing with my date?!

MAN

Your date? She's mine, asshole!

MAN #2

I caught her first!

(He turns to the woman.)

I'm sorry, honey, is this guy bothering you?

MAN

Bothering her?! You listen here, shithead-

He grabs the other man and they begin to wrestle with each other.

WOMAN

(Playfully)

Oh no, please don't fight over me...

As the men grow more violent, a bit of green magic shoots out of the woman's hand, causing the first man's wallet to fly into her grasp. She slips by the men, undetected as the bartender tries to break them up. Outside the bar, the woman walks off. With a smirk, she shifts into LOKI, now in his male form. He unveils the tesseract with magic and disappears.

INT. THE BENATAR - NIGHT

Loki reappears in the Guardians' ship, where Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy are waiting for him. Loki smirks.

LOKI

Another successful venture.

THOR

Did they fight?

LOKI

Like bilgesnipe.

Thor bursts into laughter, and Loki hands Rocket the wallet.

LOKI

I also got the wallet, as requested. Although, I don't think Midgardian currency will have much value on the far side of the galaxy.

ROCKET

Who cares about the money? I just wanted the wallet.

(He dumps out the dollar bills and admires the wallet.)

This is nice leather...

LOKI

Anyone else have any travel requests?

QUILL

Oh, I got a whole bunch.

NEBULA

Quit acting like children. An infinity stone is not a toy to be played with.

LOKI

Oh, please. The tesseract and I go far back. If anyone can control it, I can.

ROCKET

You know, I'm starting to think you've just gotten sick of being around us, and now you're just looking for an excuse to get away.

LOKI

I will neither confirm nor deny that.

THOR

By that, he means "yes."

ROCKET

That's pretty rude of you, grease weasel.

Loki scowls at him.

DRAX

Can you travel to Kylos? I would greatly enjoy having some trego fruit again.

LOKI

Certainly.

The tesseract starts to glow in his hands.

INT. TVA - DAY

The agent and Ravonna are still at the computer.

AGENT

He's using the stone again. He's going to time-jump.

RAVONNA

Block it. Intercept him.

The agent presses a button.

EXT. MONGOLIA - DAY

Loki crash lands in the Gobi Desert and wakes up, looking utterly confused as a group of villagers approach him.

VILLAGER

(in Mongolian)

Who are you? Why have you come to our home?

Loki raises an eyebrow and opens his mouth to respond. Suddenly, a portal opens and several TVA agents enter. They lean down to examine the tesseract, and Loki abruptly rushes over to them.

LOKI

Don't touch that!

The agents ready their prune sticks. Suddenly, HUNTER B-15 opens a portal and enters.

HUNTER B-15

It appears to be a standard sequence violation.

(She checks her tem-pad)

Branch is growing at a stable rate and slope. Variant identified.

LOKI

I beg your pardon?

HUNTER B-15

On behalf of the Time Variance Authority, I hereby arrest you for crimes against the sacred timeline. Hands up.

The agents activate their prune sticks.

HUNTER B-15

You're coming with us.

LOKI

I'm sorry, who's "us"?

Hunter B-15 activates her own prune stick.

HUNTER B-15

Last chance, variant.

Loki chuckles.

LOKI

Look, I don't know who the hell you seem to think you are... But if you don't mind, this is actually your last chance.

(Beat)

Now get out of my way.

Before he can attack, Hunter B-15 strikes him with her stick.

INT. TVA COURTROOM - DAY

Ravonna pounds her gavel.

RAVONNA

Next case, please!

Hunter B-15 forces Loki onto the stand.

RAVONNA

"Laufeyson"... Variant L1130, aka "Loki Laufeyson"...

LOKI

I prefer "Odinson," thank you.

After a pause, Ravonna shrugs.

RAVONNA

Very well...

(She crosses out "Laufeyson" on his case file and writes in "Odinson.")

Loki Odinson, you are charged with sequence violation 7-20-89. How do you plead?

Loki chuckles.

LOKI

Madam, a god doesn't plead. Look, this has been a very enjoyable pantomime, but I'd like to go home now.

RAVONNA

Are you guilty or not guilty, sir?

Loki smirks.

LOKI

Guilty of being the god of mischief, yes. Guilty of finding all of this incredibly tedious, yes. Guilty of a... "crime"... against the "sacred timeline"? Absolutely not, you have the wrong person.

RAVONNA

Oh, really? And who should we have?

LOKI

Well, in my defense, the only reason I ever came in possession of the tesseract is because the Avengers traveled back in time.

Mobius enters the courtroom.

RAVONNA

We're not here to talk about the Avengers. What they did was supposed to happen; you reviving yourself with the tesseract and running around time, causing chaos was not.

Loki laughs.

LOKI

I'm sorry - not supposed to happen according to whom?

RAVONNA

The timekeepers.

INT. TIME THEATER - DAY

Mobius is showing Loki clips of his life and trying to dig deeper into his psyche.

MOBIUS

You know, trying to kill all the frost giants, invading Earth, I don't see anything very mischievous about this...

He plays a clip of the bifrost nearly destroying Jotunheim. A family of frost giants runs in fear as the land is destroyed. A little girl screams as her father is vaporized by the blast. Loki is visibly uncomfortable.

MOBIUS

Look at that. Did you enjoy doing that?

LOKI

Enough of your games. You've made your point.

Ignoring him, Mobius plays the clip of him telling Kurse where to go.

MOBIUS

And then, you tried tricking the dark elves into finding Thor, but instead, you sent them right to Frigga.

Loki tenses when he sees Frigga fighting Malekith.

LOKI

I don't want to watch this.

He winces, trying to keep himself together, as he watches Malekith stab Frigga.

MOBIUS

Well, you're going to watch it. Because that's your life, that's the consequences of your actions, and that is the proper flow of time! Now, why don't you tell me, do you enjoy hurting people?

LOKI

I don't have to play your games-

MOBIUS

Do you enjoy killing?

LOKI

I'll kill you.

MOBIUS

What, like you did your mother?

Enraged, Loki tosses a chair at him. Mobius dodges it, and it flies through the hologram of Frigga's dead body. Loki lunges at Mobius, but he uses the time twister to send him back on the ground. Loki growls in pain.

MOBIUS

Sorry, the time twister just loops you, not the furniture. You weren't born to be king, Loki. You were born to cause pain and suffering and death. That's how it is, that's how it was, and that's how it always will be. All so that others can achieve their best versions of themselves.

LOKI

(Voice cracking)

That's not true. You're lying.

MOBIUS

It is true. Your life ended after Thanos snapped your neck, because you fulfilled your purpose of assembling the Avengers to destroy you. Your purpose was never to become a hero. You're a villain, and that will never change as long as the sacred timeline runs its course.

INT. TIME THEATER - DAY

After Loki escapes and returns to the time theater on his own, he finds a folder of papers on the table. He opens it and reads the first file. It reads "LOKI ODINSON - MAIN OBJECTIVES: MURDER, LIE, MANIPULATE. LIFE PURPOSE: CATALYST FOR THE AVENGERS. OBJECTIVE FULFILLED. LIFE TERMINATED. END OF FILE.

Horrified, Loki stares at the file as tears run down his face. After a moment, he starts laughing as Hunter B-15 enters.

HUNTER B-15

Something funny?

After a pause, Loki shakes his head.

LOKI

Glorious purpose...

INT. TIME THEATER - DAY

Loki is talking with Mobius after being apprehended again.

LOKI

I will admit, the TVA is... formidable. Even an infinity stone is useless here.

(Beat)

You're not going to let me return to my own timeline, are you?

(Beat)

MOBIUS

Normally, no, we wouldn't. But... if you help us... maybe the timekeepers might be willing to make an exception. A rogue variant's been killing our minutemen.

LOKI

And you need the god of mischief to help you stop him?

MOBIUS

That's right.

LOKI

Why me?

MOBIUS

The variant we're hunting is... you.

Have some actual Lady Loki yay! 

So yeah, the purpose of this episode was mainly to re-establish the show within the continuity of my version of Endgame. Squirrel Girl comes in next episode!

@drawntothedarkside Here’s your tag!

[chris-evans-indian-fanfic]

Worthy

One-Shot

Description: What happens when Steve goes to collect the Soul Stone instead of Natasha and Clint?

Warning: Curse words, spoilers for Avengers Endgame

This is for the awesome, caring and super-talented @jtargaryen18 's writing challenge. She eased my mind about the plot. Thank you 😘 Click here to know the rules and participate!

Main Masterlist

I don’t consent to have any of my work published or featured on any third party app, website or translated. If you are seeing this fanfiction anywhere but tumblr, it has been reposted without my permission. In that case, please do share the link and let me know.

...

Who was he? Steve Rogers? Or Captain America? Are they both different people? Or are they two sides of the same coin?

Steve wondered as he gazed down the cliff at Vormir, home to the Soul Stone.

When he had first arrived alone on the barren planet, he had been shocked and angry to see Red Skull guarding the infinity stone. To think that he went under the ice all those years ago stood for nothing. To have lost his life, his partner, his best friend and for what? Hydra was still active, the world was still suffering from war and now Red Skull was still alive, floating in space.

But as he understood Red Skull's predicament, Steve realised that while he himself was a man out of time, Red Skull was stuck here in his miserable existence till the end of time, out of place, out of touch. That brought him some satisfaction.

He was glad they had decided to send Natasha and Clint with Tony, Bruce and Scott to 2012. There was just too much ground to cover with 3 infinity stones in the same city. It made sense to have more eyes on the ground.

There was no way Steve would sacrifice anybody from his team for the stone. They had lost too many lives already. And if they were successful, then they would need all hands on deck to manage the chaos that would follow once everybody was brought back. 

Steve sat on a rock and pulled out his compass. He sighed as he saw Peggy, "What do you think Peg?" he murmured, lightly running his thumb over the photograph. 

After a few minutes, he clicked a button on the rim and the compass flipped open, revealing the hidden compartment beneath. He pulled out a folded piece of paper from within. It was as old and worn-out as Peggy's photograph. He closed the compass and looked at the other image. A black and white Bucky laughed back at him while at his side, a thin, scrawny Steve was looking scornfully at the camera, his face bruised. Steve chuckled as he remembered the day this photograph was taken. He had gotten into another one of his infamous back-alley fights. Some drunken idiot had punched Bucky because he had been flaunting his Sergeant's uniform at the bar amongst the ladies. While Bucky could have easily mopped the floor with the guy, Steve had decided to step in and push the drunken idiot. Then, as it always happened, Steve was dragged into the back-alley to be turned into a punching bag, with Bucky finally saving his skinny ass.

This photograph was taken later that night, with Bucky laughing at the whole incident.

The cold Vormir wind brought Steve back to the present. Ever since he could remember, he wanted to do the right thing, save the innocent people and just help those who needed it the most. 

While the asthmatic 90-pound Steve Rogers couldn't do that, the 240-pound Captain America was able to do that and much more.

That's why he loved being Captain America. He could finally do what he had always wanted to do. It didn't matter whether the Government labelled him as a criminal or whether the press questioned his every move. He was able to help people, change lives for the better and protect the little guy. Isn't that what mattered?

He opened the compass again. Looking at both the photographs, he whispered, "Thank you."

He picked up his shield and faced the cliff.

"What are you doing?" asked Red Skull, as if guessing his next move, "How do you know this will work? You are Captain America," he declared. 

Steve looked at him, his mouth turned into a smirk, "How would I know? I am just a kid from Brooklyn," and with that, Captain America jumped into the abyss below.

…

Steve's entire body was shivering with cold as he lay in the water. With his teeth clattering, he barely managed to sit upright. He started breathing rapidly as he took in his surroundings. He was still on Vormir. As he tried to get up, he realised two things. One, he was completely naked except for his time travel bracelet and vibranium shield, and two, he was holding something in his right hand. He opened his palm to look at the yellow Soul Stone. Almost laughing in relief, Steve looked down at himself. He saw he had the same scrawny body as the Steve in the old photograph. Shivering further with cold, he pressed a few buttons on his bracelet.

…

One by one as the Avengers returned to the compound, they looked around excitedly at their peers, relieved to find them safe. Steve was the last one to return. His knees buckled as soon as he landed. Hiding his naked bony body behind the shield, he threw up on the floor, his body not able to handle the stress of the quantum time-travel.

"Oh my God who is that?!" Scott exclaimed as Tony, Natasha and Clint stepped tentatively towards Steve. As his body convulsed with pain, he held up the stone towards them. The second Nat took the stone, Steve collapsed.

…

Steve woke up two days later on a hospital bed. 

"We are trying our best to keep your bodily functions from collapsing onto themselves. You should be thankful that we have medicines to treat most of your ailments. What were you thinking?" Tony spat with frustration.

Steve saw large swollen bags under Tony's red eyes. Steve was willing to bet that Tony hadn't slept ever since his return. He smiled, "It had to be done Tony," said Steve, his voice flat, having lost its 'Captain America depthness'.

"What happened on Vormir?" asked Natasha gently. Steve tried to sit, "The stone demanded a sacrifice. A soul for the soul stone. So I sacrificed him."

"Yeah and left us without a leader. What are we supposed to do now? You are meant to rally the troops. You are meant to lead. How do you think you will do that if you need an asthma inhaler every time you try to take a walk around the compound?" Tony voiced his concerns. "Tony, calm down. Shhh now," Thor said from his chair. 

"You look like you need a sandwich," Rocket commented, seated besides Thor.

"Your vitals look good Cap... ahem I-I mean Steve," Bruce flustered while checking Steve's reports.

"Captain America was never about one person. It is about what the title stands for; Bravery to face any challenge, Courage to stand up against the greatest powers for the right reason and Having a clear sense of duty, of what's right and wrong. Captain America can be anyone," Steve said, pointedly staring at Natasha. 

He turned to look at the shield placed by his bedside table. Carefully, he picked it up with a bit of struggle and held it out for her.

"I can't think of a better person to lead us," Steve said decidedly. Wide-eyed, Natasha looked at him with bewilderment. "No Steve. I am a spy. I am not a soldier. I cannot be trusted with…"

"You are not a spy. Not anymore. You have been leading the Avengers not just on earth, but across the galaxy, especially when most of us had given up. You are right though. You are not a soldier. You are a leader, Captain."

Natasha looked at Steve, her eyes brimming with tears, her voice almost breaking "I have too much red on my ledger Steve."

"You wiped that ledger when you joined the Avengers Nat. You deserve this," Clint supported her.

As Natasha took the shield and tried it on, Tony asked her, "We will have to render your suit. Do you want black with Red, White and Blue?" Natasha nodded. As Tony left, Natasha mouthed the words, "Thank you," towards Steve as he brushed it off.

"Have we brought everybody back yet?" Steve asked. 

"No. We are just finishing the gauntlet. It should be ready by tomorrow," Banner said.

Clint looked at Natasha proudly. "We have a female Captain America now."

"No," Steve said. He grinned at Natasha, "We have a Captain America now."

…

2014 Nebula kept her attention at Antman near the Quantum Time Machine. In the last two days there had been a lot of activity in the compound thanks to Steve's return. It would have served as a good distraction, but unfortunately, there were people working around the time machine. She was itching to bring her father and his army to this future. However, for that, she would need to have patience. A lot of patience. They were planning to undo the snap tomorrow, that's when she planned to strike. She cannot afford to fail her father. She must not.

…

"All the best guys," said Steve as he sat in the car, ready to leave the compound. There was going to be a tremendous blast of gamma radiation from the snap. Steve understood that he might not survive the blast and instead, had offered to bring falafels from the nearby restaurant for lunch.

He reached the modest Middle Eastern eatery. Only two tables were occupied when he placed his large order to go. The server looked at him in suspicion. He doubted whether Steve would be able to carry all the packages by himself. Still, he shrugged, large orders such as these were a boon in the post-snap world. 

After 5 minutes, the restaurant shook with a wave of energy blast. Steve fell down from his chair with the impact. As he got up, brushing himself off, he saw black dust materialising in front of him. He looked on as the dust came together to form a person, a man. Steve noticed this happening all around the restaurant. Within a span of a few minutes, the entire restaurant was filled to capacity, with more people appearing on the sidewalk. 

He heard terrified screams of people around him. Then guns were fired into the air. Steve turned, trying to determine the source of the violence, when he felt the ground shake.

"EARTHQUAKE!" someone screamed and they all tried to take cover, mostly bumping into one another. There was a loud deafening sound of a missile exploding, then another 4-5 such sounds in rapid succession as the ground shook relentlessly with the impact of the missiles. 

Shit, Steve thought. Who would be attacking them now?

A few moments later, when everything went quiet, Steve stepped out of the restaurant and looked in the direction of the Avengers Compound. He could see dark smoke rising into the sky, with a huge spaceship eclipsing the sun. Thanos.

Without a second thought, Steve entered the car. "F.R.I.D.A.Y," he commanded, "Take me to the compound right now." "There has been an attack Mr Rogers, I am not sure if…" the AI tried to reason with him, but Steve interrupted, "Now!" "Yes Mr Rogers," she said in resignation.

…

He reached as close to the compound as the car could take him. The debris of the buildings and the gaping holes in the ground preventing the car from going any further. Steve stepped down, and started making his way to the centre of the ground.

As he used his asthma inhaler, he realised Tony was right. If he couldn't even walk this much without needing his inhaler, how can he help them? 

When Steve reached the centre, his heart broke at the scene before him. Tony was lying on the ground having sustained multiple injuries. Natasha was trying to get up, her arms and legs badly cut. Thor was fighting with Thanos, but it seemed that was a losing battle as well. Steve couldn't just give up. He never had.

Looking around him at the ground, he saw a big piece of concrete. Lifting it, he tried to throw out with all his strength, but the concrete didn't even fall within 10 yards of Thanos. His eyes then went to Thor's Mjolnir on the ground. He still had to try right? 

He rushed towards the hammer and pulled on its handle, Mjolnir feeling surprisingly light in his hands. He aimed and swung for the ugly purple head. With Mjolnir hitting the mark, the hammer dutifully came back to Steve. 

"I KNEW IT!" exclaimed Thor, his reaction earning him a kick from Thanos.

Thanos's surprise was short-lived. He charged towards the little guy. Steve threw the hammer again but Thanos easily deflected it with his double-edged sword.

Before he could reach Steve, Natasha attacked Thanos, diverting his attention. "F.R.I.D.A.Y," she screamed, "get Steve a sandwich."

This isn't the time for a joke, Steve thought as he summoned the hammer and threw it at Thanos again.

Thanos threw Natasha to the ground and headed for Steve. A back-handed smack sent Steve flying in the air. He wouldn't have survived the fall, if it hadn't been for the S.A.N.D.W.H.I.C.H.H- an iron-man suit in the darkest shade of blue. The suit wrapped itself around Steve as it broke his fall. "Welcome Mr Rogers," greeted F.R.I.D.A.Y, "Do you like your new suit? It stands for

S - Steve

A - Always

N - Needs

D - Dangerous

W - Weapons

I - In-order-to

C - Cover

H - His

H - Homies"

Steve was still panting from the impact of the smack as he lay on the ground in the suit. "Not one of Tony's best acronyms," he managed to say between breaths. "Yeah," agreed the AI, "but he only put this together last night."

Steve struggled to get up again. He heard Thanos mumble something, but he couldn't care less. He stumbled in the new suit, barely being able to walk towards the giant alien, but still, willing to fight till his last breath. Just then, the microphone in his suit crackled a bit, "C-Cap, you ther--re?" He heard Sam's voice…

…

Steve couldn't believe it. The entire universe had come to fight with Thanos. He looked at humans and aliens alike, pissed off and ready to face the biggest threat to the universe. He managed to make it to the front of the line besides Thor, summoning the Mjolnir.

Natasha smiled at the army behind her, then turned to look at Thanos with a deadly stare.

She raised her shield as she called out to the warriors, her voice bellowing on the battlefield, "AVENGERS, ASSEMBLE!" 

[praphit]

Extraction: The Day Sexy Violence Wasn’t Enough

I was hearing a lot of chatter about Thor's new joint - "Extraction".

I originally wasn't interested, because... well...

I look at the rest of The Avengers, right after "Endgame" -

Capt hung out with real thespians in "Knives Out",

 and now on his way to make a real dramatic mark.

(idk what Jacob did... something he ain’t have no business doing, by the look of his eyes, but Capt has got him)

Black Widow - made us feel with "Marriage Story" 

Iron-Man did a movie for the kids... I think... or this is just a typical weekend for RDJ.

However, Thor said "Give me a bunch of guns and send me away to shoot brown people."

You're better than that, Thor! Plus, I don't really want Chris Hemsworth serious. But, like I said - CHATTER. So, I'm onboard!

Plus, perhaps the best thing for us, in the midst of this pandemic, is to stay inside with sexy ass Chris Hemsworth, and watch a dumb action movie. I don't need nothing deep. I don't want to think right now. Just give us sexiness and killing.

Thor wanted to get as far away from Disney/Marvel as he could. From start to finish, he's looking for somebody to kill.

I guess he also kinda looks like he’s looking for the bathroom. I mean, he’s going to kill people on the way there, but he’s looking... and he doesn’t know if he’s going to make it.

It did take a lil work before they could shoot the movie though, so I’ll rewind a sec. The last time that we saw him, he looked like this.

He had to hit the gym, switch to some light beer (Workout Note: You can't cut beer completed; that's something that crazy people do. You also can't completely cut out pizza. I know they say you've gotta cut breads out, but... that's fake news). Some weights, some squats, half a pizza (instead of a whole), and some light beer. And if you're still not getting the results you want - get lots of money, go to the doctor and the stylist, and you too can look like this - 

I believe that we were all created by God, but some were made on a budget, and others look like Chris Hemsworth.

Now, we're ready!

The plot of this movie is simple. A kid gets kidnapped, and Chris Hemsworth needs to save the day.

That's it.

Chris plays Tyler Rake , who's family was tragically taken from him. You can't get much more generic action hero than that.

We find Tyler jumping off cliffs into the depths of the waters for fun/cuz he's a lil suicidal, and sitting down at the bottom to meditate (even at the bottom of the water, his hair looks amazing). 

From the get-go, you know that Tyler Rake is a bit off.

This mold of generic action hero (we'll say "action star", I think after a certain body count, one can't be considered a "hero" anymore) will be keeping liquor stores in business 

(another workout note: unless you've been engineered by the gods as Chris has, don't try working out on a whiskey diet - it won't end well for you)

, having teammates look at him as if he needs help (which he does), and bad guys aren't going to stand a chance. He has lost his family, and decided he's going to be crazy for the rest of his life.

This movie is in the hands of the Russo brothers (directed "Infinity War/Endgame"). They both brought some depth to the Marvel Universe. Fleshed-out Thanos. Made us get in our feelings.

They said "F that! We're just going to shoot people!"

And that's all that this movie is. I'd tell you more, but there's not much more to tell. Ever meet someone who, for better or worse, they are their career? - that's this movie. It's Tyler Rake killing people... lots of people, to save one kid... whom he just met.

Sometimes, they tried to go a lil deeper. There's a moment when the kid (the kid has a name, but no one in the movie bothered to learn it, so why should I?) starts asking Tyler about his family. Chris is crying his ass off, and the boy keeps asking him questions. Can't you see this man is hurting?! Ya jerk! In this moment, I should have felt something for Chris, but I didn't. I think I got up to get something to eat (maybe I'M the jerk). But, that kinda stuff isn't this movie's strong suit. Let's keep it moving!

Back to bullets, knife fights, rockets, people getting hit by vehicles, and blood spray!

As for that kid - parents teach your children how to run. This kid's form was terrible! Every time that he ran, he frustrated me. Chris would shout "Stay low! Stay behind me!" Nope. He couldn't seem to get that right. Plus, he's so lanky. You gonna get Chris killed, sonn!

I guess this is a decent pandemic movie. A good movie to make-out to... if you don't mind screams of dismemberment in the background. Whatever floats your boat. Like I said, the action and gun play in this movie is right on; if that doesn't get your juices flowing, Chris Hemsworth will:) His prettiness def saves the movie a lil bit. 

Whenever he got into a fight, I felt the need to shout "Not the face!" 

When he was close to fire "Chris, your hair!"

Grade: As good as the action is, something is missing in this movie. David Harbour is in this, and he's great, but not in it enough.

There's a guy that matches Chris's skills, who's really good at action, but he doesn't say all that much.

There's a woman in here who matches Chris's prettiness,

but she's just there to tell Tyler that he's gone too far, and to shoot a rocket (which is bad ass though).

I don't think that this movie is "dumb" enough. It's def not smart, but... it doesn't go enough in any direction, and it takes itself just a lil bit too seriously. It's kinda missing a soul.

I can't say enough about some of these slick action scenes, but at the same time, it felt like I was watching a really good "Call of Duty" game starring Chris Hemsworth. 

I could have just played COD and hung a pic of Chris above my Tv.

I give it an unfortunate C-

There are prob some military fanatics that will enjoy it more than I did. 

"Dude, did you see that blah blah blah 17 with the blah blah... clip... latch?"

"Yeah, bro, that blah blah blah was awesome... blah blah blah."

But, I need a lil bit more, personally.

Though I guess it's still a good make-out movie. Although, I would have had to stop periodically.

*kisses* "Baby, stop a sec. See, that was a perfect opportunity to build some character... to make me care about what's going on. The praphit needs connection."

*kisses* "Wait, wait... Chris has a close-up."

*attempted kisses* "Not when he has a close-up, ok??! We talked about this!"

I had higher hopes, but... still decent.

Ok, so SPOILER ALERT

2 things:

1) There's a villain in here (I didn't mention him, cuz they didn't do much with him). The pretty woman that I mentioned sneaks into the bathroom where the villain is. The villain is finishing up peeing at the urinal, and next to him is the pretty woman, who shoots him in the head.

I wonder though... was she there peeing at the urinal? - like... does she have something going on down there?

2) Tyler Rake dies... or does he?

The kid survives, and is at the bottom of a pool, meditating like his "hero". When he comes up for air, he sees a blurred image that looks a lot like Tyler Rake.

Possibilites:

a) Maybe he gets adopted by someone who looks like Chris Hemsworth (as if)...or who got surgery to look like him.

b) It's one of the other Hemsworths who adopted him.

Kid: "Were you the one who was with Miley Cyrus? Yeah, that's pass for me. I can't have a guardian with such poor judgment."

c) The kid is crazy

d) Ghost Rake! Yes!

e) Tyler is alive! And he was resurrected by witches.

Regardless, I'd be up for a sequel. I'm rooting for "Ghost Rake" and something going on down there with the pretty woman.

[iguessyouregonnamissthepantyraid]

i will absolutely never write it because i have way too much i’m already working on, but i’ve had this idea on the backburner ever since infinity war for a fic where exactly the opposite set of people were dusted

and oh this got long so i’m adding a cut

like, all the OG avengers are gone, rocket’s gone, nebula’s gone, rhodey’s gone, but sam and buckey and wanda are alive, most of the guardians are alive... maybe i’d also have gamora and loki alive because i love them to keep up with the total role reversal au thing i’ve got going on here, and i might keep dr. strange dusted because. plot reasons. and because i don’t feel like writing him alksjdkjhfk

but the potential! you’ve got (most of) the guardians on titan with this absolutely terrified teenager who just watched his mentor collapse into dust (hello found family trope, i’ve missed you) and set off toward earth to bring peter home and hopefully find groot and rocket, and then on earth you’ve got this little tree that NO ONE UNDERSTANDS oh wait i said loki’s alive okay so one (1) person can understand him but he’s....... probably not the best choice for the one and only person on the planet who can communicate with him lmao but that’s what we’re going with! and t’challa’s still alive so he’s got to actually face the consequences of allowing the avengers into wakanda with an infinity stone, and.... i don’t know man there’s A Lot Going On Here

my main issue that has me saying “i’ll never write it” is that i... quite literally have no idea how i’d end it, like, how they’d end up reversing the snap. maybe follow actual endgame canon? minus the five year jump because i hated that. but sure, maybe they actually try the time travel thing? maybe shuri figures out time travel and... oh! scott’s dusted but the van dyne’s are still alive! cool, sure, they do the time travel thing and that’s an excuse not to do the five year gap since they’re not stuck in the quantum realm. okay.

so they go to new york in 2012 to get the time stone and the mind stone and the tesseract, obviously loki has to go to that one and OH WAIT SHIT. i guess they gotta send loki to asgard for the reality stone, huh? there’s definitely a moment where they’re all like “why is it that every time shit’s going south because of an infinity stone it’s always you” anyway yeah okay, so it’s....... wanda and loki going to asgard. and quill, mantis, drax, and groot go together to 2014 to get the power stone, and it is.... not difficult to imagine how they could still fuck up enough that thanos ends up coming to their timeline without fucking around with nebula’s programming or whatever. and-- OH OH OH okay, they gotta split up and get the soul stone, so it’s the guardians PLUS hope van dyne, hope and groot and drax go get the power stone (hope could easily get it from 2014 star lord with her hands tied behind her back so this is a simple job), peter and mantis go to vormir and we get a nice symbolic bit of peter throwing his zune over the cliff (because FUCK the soul stone and its stupid rules if it counted thanos’ “love” for gamora it’ll count this and i will die on that hill)

so maybe 2014 thanos doesn’t come to the present, because hope’s a little too competent to let that happen when there’s no convenient “two nebulas in one timeline” thing, so maybe it’s 2012 thanos that comes to the present? maybe they fuck it up in 2012?

okay, so that’s.... sam and bucky and peter, right? that’s who i haven’t scattered around the timelines yet? (lmao what a combo tho) and OH okay so before they go loki’s like “i really think i should go to new york” and they’re all like “nah dude you just don’t wanna go to asgard at a time when you were in prison” and like, true, but loki’s also like “i’m genuinely worried that 2012 me is going to make things...... difficult” and they’re like “lol nah we can handle it” and it turns out they absolutely Cannot Handle It. i don’t know how 2012 loki fucks this up, but like, he would. he would.

then we get an ending scene much like actual endgame, except it’s the opposite set of people, so. oh jesus who the hell is powerful enough to weild the gauntlet at this point? i love loki to pieces but they absolutely cannot trust him with that, so...... shit maybe shuri figures out a way to make a lot of people share the burden at once. that’d be dope. everyone brought together in the absence of the avengers, bringing them back to life. yeah. dope. okay and you know, 2012 thanos comes crashing in with the chitauri and they get the big battle and now it’s sam that hears “on your left” and the portals all opening up and

fuck i might actually write this. shit. fucking goddammit

[best-science-dad-tony]

Are you all still active? And do you accept oc rp accounts or only canon based ones?

((Oh boy.

So here’s the thing...I’m probably not going to give these blogs quite the attention I did in the beginning, and I should explain why because you all deserve that.

At first, I didn’t think these things would go anywhere. I figured they’d be fun to play around with, banter, get some jokes in and see a few likes, maybe a reblog or two. But then they started gaining traction, and before I knew it, people were invested in my silly little accounts.

I wrote down a quick sketch of a plot and some ground rules for myself, rules that I intended to follow. I essentially wrote a post-Endgame story before Endgame after I saw Infinity War incorporating the elements I wanted to see in the next movie. At the time I was one person. No one was helping me. I knew I wanted to tell a story you all could participate in and enjoy, and to do that I thought it was best if I laid out a groundwork for myself on ways to do that. Things like resolving to answer every Ask, even if it was just to warn the person to stop what they were doing. To adopt every kid (at first that wasn’t on Anon but then I gave in). To give you guys Milestone rewards as thank yous, because even when I just hit fifty subscribers on Tony’s blog, I was ecstatic and appreciated you all so much, and felt like you deserved something so I could show you my gratitude. Unfortunately, before they went up...someone forced me to use one I wasn’t expecting. Literally right after I had made the rule for myself.

I told myself that if anyone found an Infinity Stone, it would be the one Tony had.

The Soul Stone.

I needed the Soul Stone for the plot to work, but I needed Tony to have a safety precaution around it too since Thanos was (is?) still alive. I told myself that if someone found out Tony had the Stone and wasn’t supposed to, he would have a way to protect it. So I had to use the solution I gave him: FRIDAY sending the Stone to an unknown planet with one of the Iron Man suits and promptly wiping her databanks of its location so Thanos or anyone else would be unable to find it. 

So someone found an Infinity Stone...and it was just...gone. Before I’d figured out how Tony would get it back.

My fellow Admins all know this. I can’t begin to tell you how many discussions I’ve had with them trying to write myself out of this hole. Usually, I’m pretty good at getting characters out of seemingly impossible situations...but I haven’t come up with anything that feels believable, that I feel like justifies the plot I have in mind or really respects the characters and who they are.

Normally I would have just gotten rid of the plot point of the Soul Stone being lost completely...but this isn’t an unfinished chapter in my Google Docs. It already happened. I can’t change it.

I don’t know if you guys have read Mercy by Stephen King or watched the movie, but it makes an excellent point that I strongly agree with:

Annie Wilkes : When I was growing up in Bakersfield, my favourite thing in the whole world was to go to the movies on Saturday afternoons for the Chapter Plays.

Paul Sheldon : [nodding]  Cliffhangers.

Annie Wilkes : [shouting]  I know that, Mr. Man! They also called them serials. I'm not stupid ya know... Anyway, my favourite was Rocketman, and once it was a no breaks chapter. The bad guy stuck him in a car on a mountain road and knocked him out and welded the door shut and tore out the brakes and started him to his death, and he woke up and tried to steer and tried to get out but the car went off a cliff before he could escape! And it crashed and burned and I was so upset and excited, and the next week, you better believe I was first in line. And they always start with the end of the last week. And there was Rocketman, trying to get out, and here comes the cliff, and just before the car went off the cliff, he jumped free! And all the kids cheered! But I didn't cheer. I stood right up and started shouting. This isn't what happened last week! Have you all got amnesia? They just cheated us! This isn't fair! HE DID'NT GET OUT OF THE COCK - A - DOODIE CAR!

Paul Sheldon : [long pause]  They always cheated like that in cl... chapter plays.

I don’t want to cheat you all. As arrogant as it might sound, I think I’m a better writer than that. And you all certainly deserve better than that.

When I went to see Endgame (in full Tony Stark cosplay, might I add), I hoped to find inspiration to continue. And let’s just say that ending killed a part of me and I’m still dealing with nightmares and panic attacks over it. My mom asked me if I wanted an Avengers cake for my 22nd birthday and I burst into tears. I just...I can’t handle it right now.

But I recently got my inspiration back for this plot. I remembered how much I loved my ideas, the little timeline I had laid out for myself. I remembered how much fun it was for Tony and Stephen to interact with their kids, for Thor and Loki to talk to Midgardians. I remembered how much fun it was to use obscure ships. And I want to do it. For those reasons, I want to come back to it. I want to see that plot through to the end of the line, whatever that may be.

So I’ve added some elements, and I’ve decided to go in with firmer rules than I had at the beginning, where I would let anyone tell Tony and Stephen “yeah, so...I’ve been stabbed, ‘sup with you guys lol”.

The catch is...it won’t be on these blogs.

It would mean going through everything on them and pretending it didn’t happen, which hardly seems fair, especially when so many people still like and reblog some of my more popular posts. It doesn’t seem fair to just throw all of that away.

Like I said, I don’t want to cheat you, and doing that feels like cheating to me.

So instead I’m starting over. I’m in the process of setting up new blogs, a new Discord server, and I’m working with my Admins to put these new blogs into place.

The other big twist is...I won’t be advertising them here.

I don’t want you all to think I don’t value and appreciate all your kindness and support.

But I don’t want you all to join those new blogs just because I made a joke on Bucky’s account (in this set of blogs) that you liked. I want you to join because you’re invested, because you enjoy the interactions, because you like my writing for what it is and not just because it’s me typing it. It’s the same reason I have a separate AO3 account I never share.

I feel proud when people come to these blogs and see Tony confronting Steve and find out I was writing both of them, not bouncing off a fellow Admin.

I hope I don’t sound ungrateful. I’m swear not. But I want the new blogs to earn their following just like these did. You all saw something in these blogs, whether it was a joke, some advice; something that meant something to you. Maybe you saw family. Maybe you saw a friend. I don’t know. But I sincerely hope that whatever it was, I earned that follow from you. That I earned those likes and reblogs of my own volition.

All I ask of you is if you want to see where these new blogs will go, if you want to follow them, if you find them, please, don’t spoil what will happen for any newcomers who join the ranks. Certain plotpoints will carry over. I want any new fans to be as invested and surprised as you were.

Maybe one day I’ll tell you where the plot moved if you can’t find it and you want to know the big picture. Maybe you’ll just unfollow me or ignore the fact that I’m working on something else.

But I’m not going to just up and abandon these blogs. For a long time, they meant something to me, and at least to some of you. They’ll stay up, and I’ll answer your asks and engage with you. I can’t speak for the other Admins. But with me, you’ll always have someone to message, even if I take forever. But no more nitty-gritty plot. We’ll say Thanos got tired of holding Quill prisoner and fucked off somewhere. These blogs are now just for lighthearted family fun.

This is a long-winded rant to say that yes, I am still active in some ways, and I’m not in others.

As for OC accounts, they have always been welcome, but they don’t get put on the Masterlist or get OC-centric plots. Just be sure to follow certain rules- like Tony having no biological children.

I’m sorry for the rant.

TL;DR: I’m making new blogs to write this plot as I originally intended, but these will stay up and you can message them (at least mine). Also, OCs are cool and always welcome. ~Admin Chara))

[oldbluethings]

1/ “I also have this completely irrational urge to never contradict canon (I know, right? Look at what I’ve written, for fuck’s sake!) which is stupid but I can’t get over it.” NO! IT’S NOT STUPID. It’s awesome genius, actually. Fanfic is a fun hobbie and all that, but I can’t stand fics that jump off the cliff of canon. What’s the point of reading about a character I love if he’s… not going to be the character I love? Know what I mean?

2/ Small breaks from canon, like making a character a cat lover even tho the topic of cats has never come up canon, are ok. But rampant OOC-ness is annoying. Just write original fiction and in the writer’s note add “this character was inspired by this character/actor, enjoy!” don’t sell me your spec script under the guise of fanfiction. Sorry, I got ranty haha. Truth is, one of the reasons why I love your work is because I can tell all the effort you put into following canon ❤️ Also, the kinks.

***

Well, I'm so glad you find my Stephen in character, Anon, because that is something I worry about constantly while writing him.

I know I'm writing him a little too vulnerable for a lot of people’s taste, which I get, because he's a hard character to deal with in a lot of ways. I've ranted before about the issue of ‘magic solves everything’ and how I have to get crazy plotwise to get around that sometimes. 

But I also feel Stephen’s very tricky in general. I see him as such a contradictory mix of arrogant and insecure, of competence and self-doubt. That was my take on him from the solo movie, anyway. And it's still my take after Infinity War and Endgame. He's just really, really good (and practiced) at covering up that fragile ego with cool arrogance. So, when I'm writing from his POV, he’ll seem more vulnerable because the reader is going to be listening in on all of those internal thoughts and doubts. 

It's actually super fun to write Stephen from someone else’s POV because then he can be an arrogant, mysterious asshole wizard 😀

Plus, I like writing him as a bottom, which I guess some people might disagree with. I actually don't have any rigid character preferences—I see him as a switch, mostly, he just hasn't had a chance to explore that—but I'm gonna write what I want, dammit!

Whoa. Guess I ranted again. Thanks for the note, Anon 🤗 

[awesome-timtams]

Avengers: Endgame Spoiler Review/Thoughts and shit

(if you want me to add more tags to this, just comment or something and I’ll get on it ASAP)

Alright, so I saw Avengers: Endgame this morning. I guess this is going to be a review of sorts? Mostly just me typing out all my thoughts. So yeah, review, theories (ish?) and other things amongst all that.

 I did this last year for Infinity War and it was a huge mess. I decided to actually properly capitalise my words this time so it’s a bit more readable lmao. I’ve sort of had all day (12 hours) to really think about this so hopefully it’s a bit more coherent than my last year’s mindless rambling? I’m already rambling. Welp ;-;

 MAJOR SPOILERS UNDERNEATH CUT!! DO NOT PRESS READ MORE IF YOU DON’T WANT TO READ MORE.

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Everybody who doesn’t want spoilers gone? This is your last chance.

  Ok, first things first, the movie is fucking amazing. There were so many instances where I cried, or laughed, or just really wanted to fucking scream because holy hell this movie was really intense. Honestly, I thought the humour managed to flow into the dramatic scenes really well. There was never a moment where I felt like a joke fell flat or came in at an inappropriate time.

 The feels. THE FEELS. The emotions. I can't. I was already sobbing by the time the first 20 minutes were over. A character appears on screen? Tears. Every single time there was a team shot? Tears. Somebody even opens their mouth to say something? Tears. But yeah, this movie made me an emotional wreck and I can't even.

 The movie starting off with Clint, and his family turning into dust? Expected, but still incredibly cruel, and still hurt a lot. Like, damn, I knew Endgame was going to be intense, but being reduced to tears in the first five minutes was incredibly unfair and just goddamned hurtful. Clint's dedication to his family was really sweet and I just garghhhhhhhhhh I loved it.

 So yeah. Character deaths. Natasha dying just about ruined my century, so thanks Marvel. I first started panicking when they said they were gonna get the stones, and Clint and Natasha were heading to Vormir. And then it kinda hit me that one of them was gonna have to sacrifice the other for the stone. And then the whole scene with Clint and Natasha trying to beat each other into throwing themselves off the cliff. Dumbasses. Why couldn't they both just live and nobody has to sacrifice anybody? And now I feel depressed again ;-; . On the other hand, I'm sort of happy that Natasha at least died feeling like she'd made amends for her past (she didn't have to she was already amazing :'(( ). Her character arc finished with her sacrifice and wow that's so depressing ;-;;; At least we get to see her in the Black Widow movie one last time? ;-;

 And Tony. I honestly didn't really think Marvel was going to go through with Tony's death tbh. I think it was probably one of the most depressing scenes I've had to witness with my own two eyes ever, and I definitely wasn't ready for it to happen. I fucking broke when Peter started crying and calling him 'Tony' because like, have we ever seen him refer to Tony as anything other than Mr Stark? I fucking lost it man. And Tony had Pepper, and he was married to her, and they had a little house by the lake, and a daughter (his daughter is so precious omg). And now he's dead and she'll grow up without her father I just fucking arGHHHHHHH. Honestly I just feel really attacked and hurt and this movie has ruined me. At least he got closure with his father. That was kinda a really sweet scene, and I cried at that too. I cried at fucking everything in this movie ;-;

 But yes, depressing scenes aside, can we just. Take a moment to talk about the final battle? Because that scene was absolutely splendid. I loved how every character got a couple seconds to themselves to just have a little hero moment, and how they did the whole girl power thing with the whole squad and they were so badass and I sort of teared up at that part too because they were all so amazing and I just love them so much and the only thing that would've made that scene better would be if Natasha had been with them but she can't because she's fucking dead oh my god.

 But when the portals opened up and all the characters stepped out of them. It looked fucking magical. I swear to God I had So Many Chills. It was just so fucking amazing to watch them all step out as one and yanno…”Avengers, Assemble!”. God bless them all. The audience lost their shit at this bit. Screaming and clapping and it was just absolutely breathtaking to see this scene. Like, there's just this energy, yanno? And the group shots. T’Challa leading his kingdom into the fight. Tony and Pepper’s really cute scene in their armour together. And, can we just take a break to talk about our fucking lord and saviour Steve Rogers? I love that boy so much holy shit. When Thor was about to die, and Mjolnir had flown in and hit Thanos, before flying off to the person who had thrown it. And it’s Steve Fucking Rogers, standing there holding Mjolnir? And he starts walking down the battlefield with his half broken shield in one hand and Mjolnir in the other? That was such a powerful image have I mentioned I fucking love Steve Rogers? But yeah, I love how they carried that on from AoU. But then that sort of begs the question: was Steve really able to lift Mjolnir in AoU but didn’t because he didn’t want to draw more attention to himself, or was he just not able to because he hadn’t reached peak worthiness yet?

 Also, the whole New York scene was just amazing, fucking hilarious and just amazing. Who knew that all we needed to make a sequence great was to have a 100% necessary focus on Steve's ass? Jokes aside, it was really nostalgic seeing the whole 2012 New York battle again. I especially loved how they let us see parts that actually weren't in the movie, like the whole 'Avengers running into Pierce' thing. And how HYDRA got their hands on the sceptre. Seeing Steve do the whole 'Hail Hydra' thing to blend in kinda gave me chills lol. And Steve's fight with 2012!Steve was also really amazingly done and I fucking loved that sequence. The whole "I can do this all da-" "yeah yeAH I kNow I knOOW" was fucking hilarious tbh. (And also: "That is America's ass…")

Also, can I say that Steve was just really done with everything in this movie lmao. He was a solid fucking mood honestly. (”Are you shitting me??” “...he’s a baby.” “-.-”) And then his scene with Bucky at the end oh my goddd. “Don’t do anything stupid.” “How can I? You’re taking all the stupid with you.” And honestly I sort of died right there...It’s also this moment I’m realising Bucky probably knew about Steve’s plans, because otherwise they wouldn’t have said goodbye like that if Steve was only going to be gone for a bit. And Bucky wasn’t panicked at all when Steve missed the jump back. So what, does that mean they planned for Steve to have his dramatic ass entrance back into the present by appearing besides the lake? Kind of a funny image lol. Anyway, I’ll stop talking about Steve lmao.

 Thor was fucking amazing in this movie tbh. His first scene in the future is hilarious, with the whole drunkard attitude and the beer gut and Korg playing fucking Fortnite Jesus Christ. His scene with Frigga in the movie also made me cry so much. It kinda made me realise he never really managed to get a proper goodbye with his mother before she died, yanno? And now he's finally getting it, and he can go on to the future with the knowledge that his mother is proud of him and believes he's a hero and afilajiopklgskl. Also, the pure joy when he finds out he's still worthy of Mjolnir? Such a sweet happy wholesome character despite all the losses he's gone through ;-; . Although, since he has decided to join the Guardians, does that mean he's going to be in Guardians of the Galaxy 3? And we know how there's been talk of a Thor 4 recently, right? It's probably just code for GOTG3 lol.

 And finally, Bruce Banner. It was really funny to see him emerge as a mix of himself and Hulk together, I'm not gonna lie. A lot of people in the audience started laughing when we saw the Hulk emerge in a sweater and jeans or whatever the hell he was wearing. But yeah, Bruce was great. When he volunteered himself to wield the Infinity Gauntlet v2.0? Legendary. But yeah, I honestly don't have much to say about Bruce honestly. Other than the fact that he dabbed at the beginning of the movie. Legendary. And when Scott spilled his tacos so Bruce offered him more with the purest smile on his face? I melted. Legendary.

 Anyway, miscellaneous thoughts time. I'm lowkey sort of kinda disappointed Nebula didn't get to kill Thanos? Like, I feel like, if anybody really deserved to kill that asshole, it was Nebula. She's suffered an entire life of torture and abuse from this dickhead, and has been manipulated by him so many times to do his dirty work. And how she still couldn't stop seeing him as a father figure in the end, despite all the terrible shit he's done to her? Actually, that's probably why she didn't get to kill him lol. And also, Sam Wilson is the new fucking Captain America bitches. I really fucking hoped that, if under any circumstances Steve had to give up his shield, it would go to Sam Wilson, because he fucking deserves it. Of course, I wouldn't have minded it going to Bucky, but my poor baby's already been through enough ;-; . Let him rest ;-; (but then, there's the whole Falcon and Winter Soldier show coming up fuck I'm so excited for it lmao).

 And also, Valkyrie. Is now. The new Queen of Asgard. I can't even. My baby girl deserves fucking everything :') She deserves the title of Queen so much and I'm so glad that's a new development. Hopefully we get to see more of her in the future and how she fares with the title of leader in Asgard :'D

 But yeah, I think that's about it for what I have on characters. So, moving on to theories and sort of plot holes I suppose?

 So, have we had any news on what the Loki show is going to focus on? I haven't really been paying enough attention to news on the shows tbh. But if nothing's been confirmed yet, I sort of have a theory. So we know how, when they're trying to get the Space Stone in New York, they fail and Loki gets away with the stone? I'm wondering if the TV show might potentially focus on what he does after he escapes New York with the stone. It's a possibility, I suppose.

 And now, finally, one of my biggest…annoyances (? I'm not sure this is the word I want to use but the only other word that's coming to mind is iffs which isn't even a real word so moving on) (edit: issues! I found the right word :D . The word I want to use is issues lol) with the movie is the last scene. 

Steggy is a fucking blessed ship, and I love them, don't get me wrong. The plane scene in TFA and the hospital scene in TWS never fail to reduce me to a big sobbing fucking baby. And I'm so fucking happy that they finally got the dance that's been promised to them for so many decades. But the whole thing just doesn't really make sense to me.

 So basically, in the earlier parts of the movie, Bruce has already stated that time travel does not work like how we've all been trained to understand from other parts of pop culture. It's not quite travelling to the past, as nothing they do there will affect their future. What I interpreted from that (and I could be wrong, but this is my understanding) is that when they travel to the past, they end up creating a separate branch of events and shit that diverges from the timeline of events that will lead to their present. It doesn't erase their present, but just sort of forms a permanent branch, you feel? So, Steve travelling back to the past in order to live his life with Peggy only to end up in their present again brought in a huge amount of plot holes.

 For Steve to have lived a life with Peggy and marry her, that would mean events would change drastically. I doubt they got married in secret, so people must've known 'Steve' was alive and OK. Would that mean the search for the past Steve that's still frozen in the Arctic stop, since they're all assuming he's alive? If that happens, that means the Tesseract would've never been found, and that would've led to a whole bunch of other events that would definitely not allow for grandpa Steve to join up again with the MCU's present timeline, as it would've brought him into a different branch instead.

 But, hypothetically, let's say Steve lives with Peggy in secret. They get married in secret, nobody knows he's still alive, they continue with the search, yadda yadda. Now, since Steve is from the future, he would know that SHIELD is being infiltrated by HYDRA, and that Bucky would still be alive and is currently being the Winter Soldier and doing assassin-y shit. And I really, really, highly doubt that Steve would just live a life with Peggy and not interrupt with any of this shit. It's just so against his nature to ignore all of this? So, let's say he does root out HYDRA. That would affect the future. TWS, and everything afterwards would've never happened. So it definitely wouldn't be possible for Steve to return to the MCU's current, present timeline if he lived out his life, as he would've been, once again, on a different, permanently separated branch.

 Let's say, hypothetically, he lived with Peggy in secret. Nobody knew he was alive. He knew HYDRA was growing inside SHIELD and didn't do anything. He knew his best friend was being tortured and brainwashed for decades and didn't do anything. Even then, him just living with Peggy and marrying her would've changed all the events and wouldn't have allowed him to just let his branch converge with the present MCU timeline without messing around with some serious science and shit (which is all highly unlikely tbh).

 So basically, what I'm trying to say is, the whole last scene is fucked and can't have happened without saying 'fuck-it-all' to the rules established in the movie. But yeah, that was just the one and only glaring issue to me I couldn't stop thinking about. But either way, I loved the way the movie ended with the Steggy scene. It was really beautiful and sweet and just everything we could've wanted for their dance :')) . It was also a really bittersweet sort of tone to end the film on? Absolutely gorgeous. 

(edit: wow OK so I made a whole separate post just for this scene because a couple days after I posted this, I realised my thoughts and feelings towards this scene had changed and I had a lot more to say about it. So. Yeah. Here it is.)

 But anyway. Shit. That's it. I've spent this whole past year thinking about this movie and waiting for it, and now that I've watched it and it's over, I don't know what I'm going to do with myself. This whole day, I've been feeling incredibly empty honestly. I'm still not quite over Natasha and Tony, and I don't think I'll ever be (which, by the way. Marvel, I'll be sending you the bill for all the emotional trauma you've caused.) But this movie was a bloody masterpiece, and I fucking loved it. The trip down memory lane with the time travel was honestly so incredibly implemented. I was really worried when I realised time travel was going to be involved with this movie, because it introduces a device that can retcon everything and just basically takes away the emotional impact of every event that happens because you can just time travel. But the fact that they introduced the mechanic where you can't affect the past by travelling there does close that issue up. Well done. Very clever.

 But, yeah. Fuck. It's over. 11 years, and it went out with a bang. I honestly have no idea how Marvel is gonna top this for the next era. It seems almost impossible, honestly. I just really hope they do, because I would hate to have a franchise as amazing as the MCU end up fizzling out because their most impressive movie came years before the end and they end up never being able to top it. But these are probably just irrational worries.

 Anyway, final score. 14000605/1. Would definitely watch again. Just not immediately. I still haven't fully digested the movie, and I still feel really empty and full of emotions at the same time even though it's been more than 12 hours since I've seen the movie. So yeah. Imma wait a bit, and then I'll probs rewatch it.

 Anyway, rant over. Hope you enjoyed, I guess? I nearly burst into tears so many times trying to write this fucking thing. If you've seen the movie, feel free to DM me. I'm always up to chat with people lol. And if you haven't seen the movie, what the fuck are you doing reading this? Go watch the damned movie. Christ.

 I might end up making edits to this if I think up of more things to talk about. Or maybe I'll make a separate post. I'll probs make a separate post. But anyway. Farewell, y'all. Time to go hide under my blankets and cry until Far From Home comes out.

 (Also, this thing is 3069 words. Wow. Jesus Christ. If I put this amount of effort into my assignments, I’d be bringing in straight As. Oops.)

[teyriantimelord10]

“You have an ability humans have only dreamed of,” Peggy said firmly. “Use it. For both our sakes, don’t give up on her. For the past 25 years, my biggest regret has been that I’m living my life while you’ve been deprived yours. Go bring her back.”

(This is my fix-it-fic for Endgame in which Steve is ready to move heaven and earth to undo what happened to Nat on Vormir, and Peggy gets to live happily ever after with her husband. Read it on AO3 or under “keep reading” below. This is how it happened and nothing will change my mind...movie writers’ retconning bullshit interviews included.) 

It felt surreal, standing on her doorstep with a bouquet of flowers like a lovestruck teenager asking his sweetheart to prom. He knew who was going to open the door, and he was right. The man wasn’t particularly handsome in a traditional sense, with a short stature and a round figure, but above a slightly lopsided smile were kind eyes. The kind of eyes Steve recognized as a warrior who has been through hell and come out the other side determined not to let the weight of the world break him down. Maybe not a perfect soldier… but a good man.

“Christ almighty,” the man whispered through heavy breath. “It’s you. It’s really you. But, but, that’s not possible.”

“Can I come in?” Steve asked, trying to keep up his smile through the awkwardness.

“Of-of course,” the other man stuttered.

He stood aside and ushered Steve through the door, though when he looked down he noticed his hands were shaking. He wanted to reassure him that everything was alright and nothing was going to change, but that would be too much for him. Too much for them both. The inside of the house was almost exactly the way he pictured it would be. Peggy kept a clean home the way she kept a clean office and a clean team. The floors were immaculate, the window sills were free of dust, and the smell of a burning candle softly wafted through the living room.

“Darling, who’s at the door?”

Steve nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard a voice calling from up the stairs. Her voice. There was the slightest hint of a rasp to it, probably from a long day of yelling orders, but still as melodious and beautiful as he remembered. He nervously shifted his weight from one foot to another and squeezed the flower stems in his hands until he felt a soft crunch.  All these years of planning for this moment and he still wasn’t ready.  

“It’s… It’s Captain America,” her husband replied without taking his eyes off Steve.

The ring of shattering glass was suddenly echoing through the house, followed swiftly by the fast clicking of high heels on wood flooring. In barely the time it took him to blink twice, she was standing in front of him with her face as pale as if she had seen a ghost. Well, he suppose she did. The slightly girlish touch of her youth as he had known her during the war was gone, but the powerful woman he loved remained, and that was what mattered most. He had seen her in her beginning and at her end; now they were meeting in the middle. Finally where they should have been a long time ago.

“Hi, Peg,” he said as strongly as he could through the wavering in his voice. “Sorry I’m late.”

He had played the hypotheticals in his mind a thousand different ways. Would she scream at him? Would she be glad? Would she break down sobbing? Would she throw him out? The few seconds it took her to process felt like years, but finally a wide smile came over her lips and tears began to stream down her face.

“You’re alive,” she managed to choke out through the sobbing and the laughter. “Steve, you’re alive!”

He wanted to run forward and pull her into his arms and hold her for hours on end, but he was acutely aware of how her feet were planted in place, and that her husband was staring at them slack-jawed.

“I can’t stay for long, but I owe you a dance.”

He thought of Peggy as he trudged across the empty sands. He’d been walking for miles and hours now. On Earth, night would have come and gone by this time, but the landscape was still cloaked in the same pale darkness with a slight gloss of purple from the eclipsed sun. His boots were soaked through in some liquid that looked like water, but smelled like sulfur and made his skin itch and tingle. The air felt humid and warm, and yet chilled his throat the same way a winter night would on a night mission back home. There was not a doubt in his mind that this was the kind of place capable of driving a man mad. But that wasn’t an option. He thought of Peggy, thought of everything he had missed on ice and everything he had gained after waking up. He thought of his mission.

Finally, the two spires he had been searching for appeared on the horizon, just as menacing as Clint and Nebula had warned him. He took as deep a breath as the atmosphere would allow and looked at the timepieces on his wrist. Bruce, Janet, and Hank had designed two watches designed specifically for his mission: one that aligned to where ever (whenever) he was, and one that timed his days away as a whole, as a way of knowing how much of his life had been devoted to this task to keep him from losing all sense of time and direction. 482 days and counting away from Earth… away from home. All the other Infinity Stones had been returned. This was his final task, and there was no way of knowing how it would end. He couldn’t take it anymore, and took off into a sprint. He ran until it felt like his knees were going to give out and his lungs were going to fail, but he at last reached the foot of the mountain. Steve touched the pouch on his pocket and felt the ebbing warmth from within, and all the dread and hatred that came with it. Still, a knot of hope rose in his throat at well. A familiar conversation came to mind.

“This is gonna work, Steve.”

“I know it will. Because I don’t know what I’m going to do if it doesn’t.”

This was going to work.

As he ascended the winding path up to the gateway, the warm dampness swiftly disappeared as he rose, being instead replaced with thin air and what could have been mistaken for falling snow. It smelled and felt more like ash. A faint vibration began bristling against his ears, so he removed the shield from its magnetic holster and strapped it onto his arm. He wasn’t sure what would meet him at the top, but he was very glad that he came prepared when he saw the cloaked figure hovering above the ground. However, he never in 10,000 could have prepared for what he saw then the phantom lifted his hood.

“Are you enjoying your future without flags, Captain?” Schmidt’s voice echoed hauntingly around the entire cliff face.

Steve threw his shield only to have it pass right through Red Skull and ricochet off the rocks behind him. Rage boiled in his stomach and under his skin. He thought of Peggy. What cruel trick was it that after all these years, he’d come face to face with the spectre of the man who stole his life. Stole his future. Stole his best friend. Stole his chance to be with the woman he loved so dearly. And to not be able to bash in that horrible scarlet face.

“I’m not here for you, Schmidt,” Steve growled. “There’s a deal you owe me.”

An eerie chuckle seemed to come from behind him, but Steve knew better than to turn and look.

“I don’t have the stone anymore.”

Steve took the opportunity to smirk as he pulled the Soul Stone from his belt.

“I do.”

The entire atmosphere of the mountain changed in a heartbeat. A gust swept around them and then elevated like a vacuum, nearly sucking all the air out of his lungs. The previously still sky tore open and he looked up to see what looked like a vortex forming above their heads; a tunnel of swirling clouds that reached up into the infinite darkness.

“A soul for a soul. That’s what you told Clint,” Steve shouted over the whirring of the column. “I give you this soul, and you give me one back. That’s how it works.”

“Give it to me!” the ghost screeched, diving down toward him, but Steve quickly rolled to the side of the cliff and extended his hand over the edge that dropped into a chasm so deep he could barely see the bottom.

He nearly vomited imagining all the things that happened here. All who had died in vain… and more importantly the ones who had not.

“A soul for a soul, Schmidt,” Steve repeated. “Give her back and I’ll let it go.”

He could see the seething rage burning in the Red Skull’s eyes.

“I do not have the power to make that bargain nor the arcane knowledge to see if this foolishness with succeed,” he said venomously. “I am merely the gatekeeper, not the source.”

Steve swallowed hard. So no matter what, there was no way of knowing. No way of fighting his way through to get what he wanted. He just had to have faith, and have hope that the stone could sense that he’d put his very soul into bringing her home… Bringing their Natasha home.

He almost didn’t notice the burning against his palm and fingers until he looked away from Red Skull and over to his own hand. The Soul Stone was glowing and heating with such intensity that it had eaten its way through his leather glove and into his skin. He held on as long as he could, endured as much of the pain as his body could handle. It was sinking down, down past his skin and into the flesh, the scalding of it beginning to melt into his bones. A shot of pain ran up his arm and throughout his entire body, clawing at his nerves and muscles until he had no choice but to let go. Steve’s eyes watched as the stone descended further and further into the canyon, falling almost indefinitely like a flair. But the moment it finally struck the bottom, a wave of light surged over the peak, and then fell into complete darkness. In the last second, he thought about Peggy.

“I don’t know what to do, Peg,” he admitted, pulling her a little closer and they swayed back and forth together. “I lost Bucky, then I lost you, and now I’ve lost her too and… I loved her.”

She lifted her head from his shoulder to look up at him with those rich, wise eyes.

“You have an ability humans have only dreamed of,” she said firmly. “Use it. For both our sakes, don’t give up on her. For the past 25 years, my biggest regret has been that I’m living my life while you’ve been deprived yours. Go bring her back.”

Steve kept his eyes shut while he evaluated his body. His entire right arm ached and his mouth felt like it was stuffed with sand, but other than that everything was… fine. The agonizing pain was gone like the lost memory of a forgotten nightmare. He heard a groan that seemed to express exactly he felt, but it wasn’t his.

It wasn’t his.

In an instant, Steve’s eyes snapped opened and he shot upright to a sitting position. He was sitting in a shallow oasis amidst the endless sand, but surprisingly didn’t feel any damper than before. Nighttime still hung over the landscape, but this time he didn’t marvel at the strange horror and beauty of the planet. He heard another groan and frantically looked around until he found the source of the sound. Lying a few yards away from him was a figure curled in on itself, knees tucked to chest and body visibly trembling in the dimness. Steve held his breath and prayed as he stumbled his way over. As he got closer, his entire heart almost exploded in joy as he caught the sight he had been hoping for most… red hair.

“Natasha!” he cried out, finally reaching her side and scooping her into his arms.

Her eyes were still closed and fluttering, like a child trapped in a bad dream. Even through the thick layers of her tactical suit, caked in dirt and blood, she started shaking even harder at his touch. Steve’s joy quickly melted into fear.

“Come on, Nat, wake up,” he whispered, slowly rocking them both back and forth. “We need you… I need you.”

Natasha’s face began to contort in what looked like pain, brows furrowed and lips twisting. The panic in Steve’s chest grew stronger as she let out a longer, louder moan. The bitter taste of dread made him wonder if he had made a mistake. Was this it? Had be bargained for her soul only to bring her back into a broken body?

“Come on,” he repeated, feeling tears well in his eyes. “Please, Nat. Please, wake up.”

He didn’t know what he would do with himself if he came this far only to lose her again. Too many times in his life, Steve had lost someone once just to lose them again. Bucky. Peggy. He couldn’t do it again, not with Natasha too. He’d do anything, give anything.

But after a few moments, she stilled. Her trembling stopped, her face relaxed, and her mouth opened slightly with the escape of a small hiss.

“Sss…. Sss… Steve?”

It took every ounce of willpower in his body to keep from embracing her as tightly as he could.

“I’m here, I’ve got you,” he answered softly.

As her eyes slowly opened, he noticed a faint orange glow tinting the green of her irises that gently faded away when she began to blink into lucidity. The haze of disruption on her face gave way to realization, and the entire air around her seemed to light up when a small, exhausted, smile pulled at her lips. Steve could not remember the last time in his life he had felt so relieved.

“Hey,” she said hoarsely. “Did we bring them back?”

Steve choked on a laugh that no power of heaven or earth could have stopped.

“You brought them back. And now we have you back too.”

Natasha gingerly wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her face into his shoulder. He had a million questions for her, but they could wait. Instead, he did his best to quiet his mind, and he thought of Peggy. He thought of everything she said to him with her wisdom and encouragement and guidance, of how she didn’t let him give up. He took a few moments to luxuriate in the warmth of having Natasha back in his arms again... Having his life, his love, his world back in his arms again. He’d have to find a way to thank her for that.

“I missed you,” Natasha murmured against his chest.

Steve gently kissed her forehead.

“I missed you too,” he replied, and scooped under her arms and legs so he could carry her as he stood. “Let’s go home.”

[the-insomniac-cat]

ENDGAME BIG SPOILERS

Complete synopsis of the entire film below the cut.

If you want spoilers but not the whole shebang, scroll down to my other Spoiler post.

Why post this? Because some people want to know, either before they go, or instead of going, or to decide whether to or not.

Look, if you don’t want to know, then use the tag filter. In case you didn’t set it up, then I’ve put in the ‘keep reading’ cut. So you should be covered. So please, no more anon hate! (Haters are so brave when they go anon!)

PLEASE NOTE THIS IS NOT MY SYNOPSIS. I HAVE NOT SEEN THE FILM (and won’t) THIS IS FROM A REDDIT USER. BECAUSE LOTS OF SPOILERS OVER THERE ARE BEING TAKEN DOWN, I DECIDED TO CUT AND PASTE IT RATHER THAN JUST GIVE A LINK.

People who HAVE seen the film have been adding comments to this post on Reddit, saying it is ‘correct’, or ‘basically correct’.

CREDIT:  Reddit Posted byu/Wico90

12% credit to Brontcrab24 and others

First Scene is actually Hawkeye losing his family to the snap. He doesn’t actually see it happen as he is facing the other direction. We then get the Tony/Nebula sequence (paper football, etc). Tony records his message to Pepper. When he falls asleep, Nebula takes him to the front of the ship and sits him in the pilots seat. He wakes up and sees something glowing outside the window. Captain Marvel helps them return to Earth. Pepper, Rocket, Steve and Rhodey all come out to greet him. Tony is very shaken, particularly about losing Peter.

Movie starts with the Avengers trying to find Thanos. Steve wasn’t to know where Thanos is and asks Tony, but Tony says he doesn’t know, They argue. Nebula knows of Thanos’ garden he said he would once go to when he completed his goal. They found him because of the energy he released using the gauntlet. Thanos is alone, and tells them he used the gauntlet to destroy the gems. He is weak and Thor, angry, decapitates him.

Title Card and five years later.

Natasha is now basically in charge of what's left of the Avengers is talking to them via holograms. Basically the world is in ruins and they're trying to salvage it. Carol is there via hologram with a new haircut and uniform and tells them that she's covering thousands of planets and won't be able to come back to Earth for a "long time".

Steve and Nat talk about how the Avengers are family. Inside a storage shed is Luis’s van. A rat is crawling over the Quantum controls and activated the switch which brings Scott out. He’s now locked inside the cage but starts waving at the security cameras. A guard lets him out and he is walking the streets confused as to why everything is so overgrown and run down. He finds a memorial which lists the names of the ‘missing’ on large stones. He starts reading them panicking that Cassie might be listed on them. But she isn’t. He sees her at home, as an older version of herself. Scott drives to the Avengers facility and Nat and Steve let him in and he tells them about the Quantum realm and how they might be able to build a time machine to go back to the past before everything happened. They visit Tony, but he doesn’t want to help. He’s happy with the way that his life is, with Pepper and his daughter Morgan. They leave and to visit Bruce who is now Professor Hulk.

The plan becomes to start looking for the gems in the past. Initially Banner builds quantum time machine and sends Scott back to test but it is faulty, Tony refuses to help at this point, however, he returns Caps shield and they make up. He tweaks Banners Quantum Machine, The catch is that they need quantum particles for it to work.

Natasha goes to Japan to get Clint. He is mourning his family and is not certain of the plan. Rocket and Hulk go to get Thor who is drinking and playing video games with Korg and Meik. (Funny joke involving an online video game troll)

Finally the team then all suit up and discuss their plans to get the stones. They make it clear that they can not mess up because there is only enough Quantum particles for one trip for each of them.

Tony, Scott, Steve and Bruce go to the Battle of New York. Hulk meets the Ancient One at Dr Stranger's future home. Ancient One refuses to give the Time Stone to Bruce but relents when Bruce tells her that Dr Strange will give the stone to Thanos.

Cap, Iron Man and Scott tries to retrieve the Tessaract after Loki surrenders. SHIELD/Hydra agents Crossbones and that bald guy with glasses in Winter Soldier retrieve the brief case containing the Tessaract. Past Hulk funnily has to walk down lots of flights of stairs as he can't go on lift due to maximum capacity. Cap meets with Crossbones with the briefcase in elevator along with other Hydra agents. He convinces them to give him the briefcase containing the staff when he utters two words: Hail Hydra. Cap gets the briefcase. Tony in disguise as a SWAT soldier tells Scott to disable his past self's chest reactor to give him a minor seizure while his past self meets up with Alexander Pierce who demands the Mind Stone and Loki. Present Tony retrieves the briefcase but past Hulk accidentally knocks out Tony and Loki uses the confusion to teleport out with the Tessaract. Present Cap accidentally meets with his 2012 self, and 2012 self thinks he's Loki in disguise. They fought and 2012 has present self in chokehold when he tells his past self that Bucky is alive. He then taps his past self with staff to knock him out.

In Asgard, fat Thor and Rocket plans to retrieve the Aether out of Jane Foster's body. Thor's mother meets his 'son' and know he's from the future. Rocket retrieves the aether out of Jane by prodding her off screen and gets chased by guards. Before Thor leaves, he retrieves Mjolnir!

On Morag, War Machine and Nebula stays on Morag while Clint and Nat goes to Voromir via a ship that Rocket miniatures for Clint. Unknown to Nebula, her past self's nervous system and databanks are connected to each other and Thanos finds out where the stones are and how he meets his fate.

Cap and Tony transport back to 1970 at the SHIELD training site seen in Winter Soldier and goes underground to retrieve that era's Tessaract. Tony retrieves the Tesseract while meeting his dad. He calls himself Howard Potts. Cap makes a prank call to young Hank Pym and sneaks into his office to steal 4 vials of Pym Particles. Cap also sees Peggy. Cap and Tony teleport back to present.

WM and Nebula knocks out Quill during his dance in intro of GOTG. They got the stone and WM and Nebula was meant to teleport together but WM only succeeded. Present Nebula and past Nebula meets and fights and past Nebula takes her place to go back to present.

On Voromir, Clint and May meets the Red Skull as seen in Infinity War and is told how to retrieve the stone. Clint and Nat fought each other. Clint jumped off cliff but Nat catches him and held on by grappling rope. She falls off and dies like Gamora. Clint now has the Stone.

All members went back to present and everyone is devastated by Nat's death. Tony and Bruce constructs the Infinity Gauntlet and Thor wants to wield it but Hulk goes instead as he's the strongest one and the stones emit gamma radiation according to him. He wields it and snaps his fingers restoring all life lost. Clint's wife calls him on mobile. Hulk suffers extreme pain in his right arm due to IG. Past Nebula activates the Quantum teleporter and summons Thanos' warship and blasts the Avengers HQ to ruins with missiles.

Hulk lifting up rubble similar to Secret Wars cover where he lifts up a whole mountain except this is less in film lol.

Clint finds the gauntlet and is being chased by Outriders creatures in last film. He kills them and is met by past Nebula. Gamora and present Nebula meets up and Nebula kills her past self.

Cap, Tony and Thor teams up against Thanos. Thor is losing against Thanos even though he has Stormbreaker and Mjolnir. Thanos is about to kill Thor with SB when:

Cap lifts up Mjolnir and beats Thanos with hammer and shield.

Thanos uses his double blade weapon to break Cap's shield in half.

Thanos summons his whole army including the Black Order and some new creatures. Cap is all by himself against a whole army.

He hears Sam's voice and he turns around and see EVERYONE who has vanished PLUS huge armies of Wakandans, sorcerers and Asgardians (no signs of Warrior Three). Wong, Valkyrie, Wasp and Pepper Potts as Rescue turns up as well. Ant Man becomes Giant Man.

Clint plays American Football with IG and passes it to Black Panther then Spidey. Quill meets past Gamora and gets hit in the balls, not believing he is the one she loves lol. Scarlet Witch overpowers Thanos but Thanos orders missiles to hit everyone including his forces. Captain Marvel shows up to destroy Thanos' flagship and gets the IG and dashes towards the goal. There is a bit where Hope and Scott goes to the van with the Quantum teleporter in the middle of battlefield. Was lost in the moment so forgot why they doing that, sorry.

All female Marvel characters fight Thanos. Spidey's armoured suit goes autokill mode with the extra arms.

Thanos tries to take the gauntlet off Marvel by headbutting her but didn't phase her.

Thanos retrieves the gauntlet away from Stark and he snaps his fingers. Nothing happened. The stones went to Stark and before he snaps his fingers, he says 'I'm Iron Man'.

White flash of light.

All of Thanos' forces turn to dust including Thanos himself.

Tony dies from using the gauntlet. Everyone mourns.

The battle is won but at a cost.

Holographic Tony gives a message to everyone present including his daughter.

A wreath with Tony's chest reactor is laid to rest at the lake near Tony's hut.

Everyone is present including GOTG, Peter, Maria, Ross, Nick and Hank and Janet.

Thor, still fat designates Valkyrie as Queen of New Asgard in Tonnsberg. Thor is now travelling with GOTG to find Gamora and maybe more Asgardians. Quill and Thor are about to fight for leadership lol.

Scott, Cassie and Hope are together again. Wakanda is back with his King.

Cap goes on a mission to put back the stones and Mjolnir to their proper places. Hulk says to Sam and Buck that he should be back in 5 secs. He didn't. Sam sees a old man at a bench and it's Old Man Steve (who looks like Clint Eastwood now but less wrinkles and bit younger than he is lol). Steve has wedding ring and passes his shield to Sam. Sam is honoured.

Ending shows young Cap dancing with Peggy at their house. That's it.

Credits music is set to 1930s music then shows all cast members. The main cast is shown with their signatures on it.

There is NO post credit scenes which is a first for a MCU.

Stan Lee cameo is set in 1970s where he is shown in his 70s younger self driving a car with a woman, driving past a army base where Cap and Tony retrieves the Tesseract there.

[redspiderling]

Just realised that the “dusted” characters from Infinity War were the ones the “creators” deemed nonessential/unimportant for Endgame, and Spider-Man (for the emotional tug). 

Basically, they dusted them to get rid of them and their characterisation for the final (and consequently more important) part.

I’m pretty sure I’m not exaggerating here. Can you imagine the Russos spending any time from their beloved epilogue to characters like Dr Strange or Black Panther, or Drax? Hey, I’m not saying it’s bigotry (ngh, well, not necessarily). But I’m definitely saying that they’d rather spend time with the characters they’ve already written for/they already know (and the O6 for the “goodbyes, enjoy your fortunes” of course). And for the most part I agree with them. Their writing skills are not the best, and Thor and Nebula stand as examples of “what happens to good characterisation when it falls into the wrong hands”.

Also, the “clearly murdered ones” were also secondary characters (and therefore, “lesser”), except for the fan favourite Loki (need that emotional tug). 

I’d like to point out here that the GotG films are Gunn’s baby. The Russos and the MnMs never worked on that project, and therefore didn’t know/care about character dynamics. Why does that matter? Well, for one thing Thanos “loving” Gamora is debatable, as is Starlord losing his shit the way he did.

I bet they thought we’d forget how Gamora died and Natasha’s sacrifice would still be singular. Then again, they thought that we’d watch Natasha jump off a cliff and go “oh wow, I didn’t see that coming. Oh well, moving on”.

[inawickedlittletown]

Walking The Wire (167/167)

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

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

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

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

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

@findmeinthestarss

Masterpost

Chapter One Hundred Sixty Six

-

Epilogue

One Week Later 

Peter didn’t know how he managed to convince his dad to let him go with him and Steve when they went to return the stones, but he did. It was officially the last mission that Iron Man would go on but it had kind of turned into a family trip instead. The only stone that they weren’t returning personally was the Power Stone because Captain Marvel was dealing with that one instead. 

“You did tell me you wanted to try the whole time travel thing,” Steve said when they prepared to leave. 

“I did,” Peter said and he had absolutely no complaints on going, he just hated how careful his dad was being about the whole thing. 

Their first stop was Vormir. Peter could tell that his dad wasn’t exactly okay being there, but Steve made the whole trip go quick. They weren’t there long enough for Peter to look around but there wasn’t much to even see. Knowing that that cliff was the one that Steve had jumped off of for them to get the stone made it difficult all around. 

Next they went to Asgard and Peter hadn’t expected it to be so beautiful and different. Alien. 

“This is a real place,” Peter said. 

“Not in our present it isn’t,” his dad reminded him. 

They dressed like Asgardians -- clothing courtesy of Thor -- and managed to get a good look around. The guy that took care of the bifrost and the entrance to Asgard was the only one that knew they were there and he didn’t seem to have a problem with it. He even helped them with putting the stone back. Peter had no idea how Dr. Banner had managed to get all the stones back into their original states, but he’d done it and the Reality Stone was back in the form of a liquid. After it was back where it belonged they just sort of wandered around for a bit. 

The Time Stone was a weird one to return because they had to go back and see Doctor Strange. They also couldn’t really linger because it was 2017 and Peter had already been Spider-Man by then and because Steve couldn’t be out and about on account of the house arrest. It was one thing to not care about creating another timeline and another entirely to make that timeline worse for the versions of themselves that would live it. 

The Scepter was an easy one to return. It was 2015 and Peter got to have a  small glimpse at what life had been like in the tower in 2015. The tower as a whole had looked entirely different and Steve explained that the penthouse floor had been destroyed by Ultron and that after everything his dad opted for a remodel. They were on look out while his dad put away the stone. 

“This wasn’t exactly a happy time around here, was it?” Peter asked. “This was -- he stopped responding to me.”

“Yeah,” Steve said. “It was a hard time. Your dad and Pepper weren’t really seeing eye to eye and he was losing hope of ever getting to meet you.”

“I know,” Peter said. “We kind of talked about it. May really didn’t want him to meet me -- she thought it’d be dangerous. I think she’s realized how much of a mistake that was on her part. Anyway, we know each other now.” 

Lastly they went to 2011. It was another quick trip. The tower was different again and Peter got to see the beginning of the Avengers. He also saw his letter -- the one he’d sent that he knew his dad had only managed to read right after he almost died. 

“It was a relief when I thought I was going to die, that you didn’t know what I was to you,” his dad said. “But reading that letter made me hope and made me want to live.”

“I love you, dad,” Peter said in response. 

They went on a few detours. Quick moments in time -- they went to the 1920s for a day and then the 1930s where they went to Brooklyn to see a small serum-less Steve. It was jarring seeing him that way -- but even then he was still a lot like the Steve they knew and because his dad couldn’t help himself, he left that Steve some money anonymously. They visited a few more years, never staying long and trying to not make too many ripples. For his dad they went to a Queen concert in 1986 and Peter was surprised at how many songs he actually knew. Peter requested that they stop and go see the original theatrical release of Star Wars: A New Hope in 1977. Steve just seemed to be enjoying seeing all the things he missed while frozen in ice. 

“This will probably be the best trip we’ve ever been on,” Peter said. 

“Although, we’re being very irresponsible and probably creating a whole bunch of new timelines,” his dad said. 

“But you’re sure this won’t become a real problem later?” Steve asked. 

“It won’t.” 

Peter was just happy to spend time with his dads and since Shuri had okayed their trip, he was sure it would be fine. 

--

Three Months Later

Tony appreciated how easy it was to let go of Iron Man now that the threat of Thanos was gone. He was aware that plenty of other villains existed and that some of them might even be worse than Thanos, but for the moment he was happy with how easy it seemed. Things were settling, the world was a little better. He was married. Peter was the best son he could have asked for. Things were good. 

The Avengers had a new roster and while he had given up the superhero life entirely, Steve was still helping with training the new members of the team.  It kept him busy and involved when they weren’t working on their new house and Tony liked to join him sometimes. It was nice to see the next generation of heroes and he could see the appeal of getting to shape them and train them and showing them the ropes. But working on the house was also rewarding work. Steve had an artist’s eye and between him and Tony they had designed their perfect home. 

In the meanwhile, they waited for the call. 

Months passed. Then a few more. 

The agency contacted him every once in a while, just keeping up with them, but never with the news they wanted. 

“It will happen, when it happens,” Steve said. “Sooner or later.”

“When it’s meant to,” Tony said in agreement. Waiting just kind of sucked. 

---

2019

“Do you know what Peter did while we were in Germany?” 

Peter groaned. Steve who had been in the middle of making them dinner turned to look at him. “Back during that whole airport thing?” 

Tony nodded. “I think I must have told you.” 

“I don’t think I’ve heard this story,” Bucky said. 

He was seated on one of the stools at the table right next to Peter and Peter could tell that he was ready for a story that he could use against Peter in the future. 

“Well, I booked him a hotel and Happy was supposed to be watching him. Then again, I didn’t think that Peter would sneak out of the hotel room, but that is what he did--”

Peter raised a finger in the air. “In my defense,” he said, “I was really hyped up after the fight. I didn’t think it was big deal.” 

“When I finally tracked him down he was at a rave. My fourteen year old at a rave in Germany--”

Bucky cracked up at once, laughing with his head thrown back. Peter punched him on the arm but that just made him laugh harder. Steve was laughing too. 

“Anyway,” Peter said. “All I said was that my decathlon team is going on a trip to Europe this summer.”

“And you’re welcome to go as long as you don’t end up in a rave again,” his dad said and he was smirking at him. 

Peter rolled his eyes. “I won’t even bring the suit. I think a break from Spider-Man might even suit me.” 

“And, hey, maybe you can take that girl you like somewhere and finally tell her,” Bucky said. 

“I’ve been trying,” Peter said. 

And he had been trying. MJ was just a tad intimidating and whenever he tried to bring it up things just got awkward and weird and he couldn’t get the words out. Hanging out with MJ wasn’t hard -- he did it all the time whether alone or with Ned, it was just that talking about his feelings just wasn’t easy. Reading Michelle and figuring out how she felt was even harder and the last thing that Peter wanted was to ruin their friendship. 

Ned seemed to be convinced that MJ did like him some days, but other days he thought she didn’t like him. Ned was absolutely no help and when it came to the trip, he was trying to get Peter to try and catch the attention of European girls on their trip which was entirely unappealing to Peter.  

“Not hard enough,” Bucky said. 

“It’s hard,” Peter said. 

Bucky pat his shoulder with his real hand. 

“You should go,” Steve said. “Hang out with your friends and see a few new places. Flirt a little.” 

“Steve!” 

“And definitely don’t take her to any raves,” Steve added. 

Peter rolled his eyes. “She’s more into ancient libraries than raves. And I think I will tell her. I’ll come up with a plan. It’ll be great.”

His dad chuckled. “Plans never really work out perfectly, kid.” 

“But maybe this way I can actually tell her and if we’re in Europe maybe I’ll find a good place to take her to when I tell her.”  

--

2020

The call came early in the morning. Early by Steve’s standards because Tony had been wide awake going on a few cups of coffee and deep in an engine and the sun wasn’t even really up yet although it was a matter of time before Steve was up for his morning run. But it was still he, that picked up the call when Friday told him it was important. 

“Hello?” Tony asked. 

“Hi, is this Tony Stark?” a female voice asked. 

“Yup. This is Tony,” Tony said and he waited because no one could get his direct line -- not unless Pepper or he personally gave it out. 

“I’m calling from the adoption agency. We have a match for you -- she’s four years old and we think you and Captain Rogers would be a good placement for her.”

His heart felt like it wanted to beat out of his chest. This was the call that he’d been waiting two years for -- since he and Steve had gotten married and since they had both decided that adoption was definitely for them. 

“I — yes, yes. We are definitely interested. Can I — What’s her name?” 

“Morgana,” the woman said. 

Morgana. A four year old. 

She kept talking, telling him a little about the case -- the steps that came next and a bunch of other things that Tony didn’t even really hear because the call had come. He and Steve were going to adopt. Since applying there had been a whole bunch of things for them to do. There had been home visits and evaluations. He and Steve had had to attend a few parenting courses, but it was all going to be worth it. And it was finally happening. It was amazing. When he got off the phone, it didn’t take him long to run out of the workshop. K-9 got up from his charging station and barked at him before he followed. 

“Steve! Steve! Peter!” 

Peter opened his bedroom door first. His hair was standing up in all directions and he looked decidedly bleary eyed. Steve opened their bedroom door a few seconds after, shield at hand. “What is it, what’s wrong?” 

Peter blinked at them. “There wasn’t an alarm,” he said. 

Tony shook his head. “No, no. No alarm. It’s -- I can’t believe it. Steve, we’re going to be dads.”

Steve blinked at him. “We’re already dads. Have you met Peter? Our son?”

Peter laughed as Steve walked to stand by him. He leaned a sleepy head on Steve’s shoulder. “It’s too early for jokes, dad.”

Steve rubbed his arm and Peter leaned a bit heavier on him. 

“The adoption agency called,” Tony said, bringing both Steve and Peter’s eyes back to him. 

Steve’s eyes widened, surprised. 

 Peter grinned. “Oh,” he said, “I’m going to be a big brother.”

“Yeah, kid. You are.” 

Peter yawned. “I’m like really excited, but I’m also really tired,” he muttered. 

Steve rubbed his shoulder gently. “I think back to bed with all of us,” Steve said, reaching for Tony’s hand. “Come on, we’ll have a huge breakfast to celebrate and you can tell me all the details.” 

“Her name is Morgana,” Tony said. “She’s four.”

“Morgana,” Steve repeated. “I like it.”

“Me too. Hey, did I ever tell you I was kind of obsessed with King Arthur and the knights of the round table?” 

“No,” Steve said, bemused. 

“So Morgana,” Tony said, “Like Arthur’s half-sister. It’s fitting. Meant to be, kind of.”

“Morgana,” Steve whispered. Tony kissed his shoulder. 

---

Peter took a look around the barn. It was red outside like most barns were. He’d actually looked up the reason for why barns were red and it was something to do with chemicals that farmers used to use to keep their wood from rotting. Now it was just paint. From the outside it looked entirely ordinary and no one would know that it housed a technologically advanced lab and workshop of one Tony Stark. And because his dad was his dad there was even a trap door that went down into a tunnel that led directly to the house -- the mansion -- that he’d designed and built. It had the personality of both of his dads and Peter absolutely loved it. 

“It’s cool, isn’t it?” Tony asked.

“Yeah,” Peter said. “No one will ever suspect that a farmer doesn’t live here.” 

Tony ruffled his hair. 

It was just a little bittersweet to know that this was all actually happening. His dad and Steve were moving from the tower into this farm. It wasn’t too far out of the city and it was admittedly really nice and quiet out there, but things were going to change soon. Not that Peter would have been around at the tower anyway since he was graduating in a few months and then after this summer it’d be off to college. Columbia. It had been that or NYU -- he’d gotten accepted to both. His dad had questioned his choice to not go to MIT.

“You’d love it there, kid, and it’s a great school and--”

“And it’s not in New York,” Peter had pointed out. 

Being in New York meant he could be Spider-Man. He could visit his dads and May. He could hang out with Ned when they had a spot of free time. His relationship with MJ didn’t have to turn long distance seeing as she was going to NYU. Not to mention that he wouldn’t miss out on spending time with his little sister. 

Peter hadn’t met Morgana yet, but his dad and Steve had and Peter had just had to look at them to know that they already loved her. And in just a few days she’d be coming home with them. 

He followed his dad out of the barn and towards the house. It really was a nice house -- the kind that were on 1000 piece puzzles but that no one ever saw in real life. It was huge but not overwhelmingly so. Steve was standing on the wrap around porch and he grinned at them as they headed over. 

“Hey, Joan from the agency just called. They okayed everything. We get to pick her up tomorrow.” 

“Really? But she said in three or four days and now—”

“I know,” Steve said. 

“Already,” Peter said.  

“I -- there’s still so much to do. We don’t even -- we haven’t even furnished this place yet and--”

Steve stepped forward and placed his hands on Tony’s shoulders. “Because we’re not moving yet,” Steve reminded him. “We’ll be at the tower for a few more months. Her room is ready. Everything is ready. You bought her a million things she won’t even need.” 

Tony nodded and Peter could tell that he was relaxing, especially when he turned to look at Steve. “She’s going to need everything we got for her.” 

Peter met Steve’s eyes and they smiled at each other because they both knew that Tony had gone a little overboard. But they should have known to expect that. 

“I can’t wait to meet her,” Peter said and he really couldn’t. 

“You’ll love her, Pete,” his dad said. 

Peter still remembered the conversation he’d had with the social worker that had come to check out the house. He’d been nervous because he didn’t want to ruin things for his dad and Steve, but the questions had been straight forward and mostly to do with how he felt about the adoption. He felt great about it — he was excited for the new addition to the family. Peter just didn’t know who would be spoiling Morgana the most. 

“Hey, do you think we can get a real dog out here? K-9’s going to need a friend,” Peter said. They had plenty of room for one. 

“I think your dad wants to get chickens, Pete. It might very well become a menagerie.” 

“Just because I think it would be interesting to have a few cows,” Tony said. 

“Because Shuri sent you pictures of cows once she heard about the farm,” Steve said. 

“Well did you know that there were so many cute cows?” Tony asked. “I think Morgana would appreciate having cows.” 

Peter rolled his eyes. “We don’t need cows,” he said. “Morgana certainly doesn’t need cows.” 

“Okay. No cows. Maybe. But what about alpacas? At least one? We can name him Gerald.”

Steve looked like he was trying to hold in his laughter. 

“But, dad, what if it’s a girl?” Peter asked. 

“We can call her Geraldina.”

Peter saw Steve shaking his head, but Peter shrugged his shoulders. “They are kind of cute.”

He would await the day when he arrived at the farm and found an alpaca and some chickens and cows. Maybe it wasn’t a bad idea for his dad to pick up a new hobby, though.  

“What about we welcome our -- we welcome Morgana into our lives first and then think about getting a zoo?” Steve asked. 

“I am tabling this conversation for later, but I do want to point out that we have the space and the time for it.”

“Sure, honey,” Steve said. 

Peter followed Steve inside. It still wasn’t fully furnished but it was kind of cool to actually see it finished after so long. It was different than the tower -- cozier and more homey with touches of tech because what Tony Stark house wouldn’t have that, but it also had a separation from that. It was perfect. 

“Hey,” his dad said after a while of walking from empty room to empty room. “You’re really okay with this right?”

“What? You guys moving?”

Tony nodded. 

“I am. It’s -- it’s what you guys want and I’ll like coming out here to visit all the time. And I’m excited about Morgana too. It’s -- it’s exciting. You guys deserve this after everything. Our lives are never going to be normal because I have spider powers and Steve is a supersoldier and you’re a genius but this is our family and Morgana is going to grow up with Thor showing up uninvited all the time and you building robots in the barn and maybe some alpacas and cows running around. And we all know I attract danger and trouble no matter where I go so--”

He was thinking back to the European trip. Peter had reluctantly taken his Spider-Man suit with him, but hadn’t intended to use it. His plans had entirely revolved around telling MJ he liked her. Somehow, he had managed to do that, but other things happened too. By the end of it, the world at large knew his identity and not just that -- they knew his father was Tony Stark. Things had settled down and ended fine by the end of it, but it had been rough going for a while and Peter didn’t think he would have handled it as well without his dad and Steve at his side. 

Still, at the rate that he was going, Peter expected that if he did end up dorming for school that his roommate might end up being some supervillain. Hell, maybe it would be one of his professors.

“Yeah. Not your finest quality, kid,” his dad said. “Maybe why I don’t like the idea of being too far from you.”

“In a suit, you can get to New York City in about fifteen minutes. Don’t worry. I’m an Avenger.”

His dad sighed. “Yeah, I know. Just, I guess to be honest, I’m a little worried about tomorrow.”

Peter sighed. “You’ve already met her and she likes you and Steve. It’s going to be fine. And Aunt May said you can call her any time for help or babysitting. Not to mention that she’s going to have the best big brother ever so…”

Tony laughed and he pulled Peter into his side. Peter went willingly. Things were going to change over the next few months but none of that was going to matter, not as long as the important things didn’t change. The important things being his family -- new additions and all.

-

Bonus Chapter

[leighlikesthing]

Hey that Engame movie came out!

Let’s talk about Endgame.

I have to be honest with you, reader.

I absolutely loved it.

I’ve seen it twice now. And while I am sad that this chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is over; this big, dumb, beautiful chapter that kicked things off, I can’t complain about the send-off.

Well, I can complain a little.

The main idea of the Avengers doing a time heist, and going back to their own past is wonderful, and it made for some incredible moments. But I have to tell you that there are certain things that we didn’t get, that I will always want, and certain things we did get that I’m not so sure we needed, and things that I can live without.

But let’s start with the things that are beautiful about this movie:

Professor Hulk: I lost my whole damn mind when I saw Professor Hulk. I’m thinking about him now and I’m crying. It’s such a wonderful story beat, in all of this despair, to have Bruce pull himself together enough to figure his shit out and come to terms with both sides of himself.

Morgan Stark: And the fact that Tony and Pepper got to really be together. They’ve been one of my favorite ships since the first Iron Man movie. Yay!

The end of Tony’s story arc: Am I totally heartbroken that he died? Yes. Did it feel earned? Yes. Go back and watch Iron Man one and then watch Endgame. His character development is so wonderful. And while it hurts that this beloved character gave his life? It feels right.

Steven Grant Rogers: His ass, his sass and his ending: Mr. “I’d make you dinner but you seem depressed enough already.” Mr. “That is America’s ass.” Listen to me. LISTEN TO ME: Steve tried really hard throughout all of these movies to move on and live a life in the future. He did the best he could, because that’s what Steve does. But he’s never been happy. I’d argue that since waking up from the ice, he’s been in a slow slide through a nervous breakdown. His staunchness in the first Avengers movie, trying to be a good soldier was a suit of armor he tried on that didn’t fit. He works for SHIELD, and that feels wrong, and then it turns out it IS wrong. Bucky is back, but evil, and when you couple that with Peggy’s death in Civil War, it manifests as a nervous breakdown where he digs his heels in so hard that he destroys the Avengers and goes on the run. This man has been through so much. And through it all, he’s never been happy, or comfortable or okay. So he winds up in 1970, and stumbles into Peggy’s office, and...and there’s a picture. Of him. The way he used to be. The way he was when they met. 25 years after he crash landed in the ice, and this women that he adored, the first women who ever looked at him and saw his value and worth, still has his photo on her desk. Which means she’s thinking about him every day.

Listen to me: If his photo had not been on her desk, he would not have gone back. He went back because he saw that she missed him. She’d been married and had kids and still, she missed him.

Steve wanted to be happy. Steve, since coming out of the ice, has never been happy.

He has earned his ending.

The things we didn’t get:

Jumping ahead five years after the snap was an inspired idea. The entire theater gasped when those words appeared on screen. But we didn’t see much of what the world had become; in this state of moving on but not moving on. How did governments function? How did the world function? Was the President snapped? I wanted to know more.

Steve climbing the mountain on Vormir, and coming face to face with the Red Skull. Seriously. That was an after-credit scene or something. A Marvel short? A one-shot comic? Somebody write it!

More with some of the side characters. Harley showed up at the funeral, but had no lines. Peggy had muffled lines but no lines at the end. Where was Darcy? Where is current timeline Jane?

Now, I know that this was already an enormous undertaking of a movie. It’s one thing for a comics company to plan, and execute and market a crossover, it’s quite another for a movie universe to do so. So much money. So many schedules. So we were obviously not going to get every tiny little thing we wanted out of this movie.

Onto the things I’m not so sure about:

I applaud the writers’ attempts to tackle depression in Thor’s story. I think their hearts were in the right place, but the execution was a little...I think it needed its own mini-movie or something. In a huge story like Endgame there just wasn’t enough time to unpack Thor’s feelings in a delicate way. But I will say Thor and Bruce’s conversation near the start of the movie was really a beautiful touch. And I don’t really think they were playing Thor’s depression and state of mind for laughs. It’s just so unsettling to see someone fall so far that we, as people, laugh, because we’re uncomfortable.

Nat’s death was...unfortunately. Narratively, I get it. Death in these movies needs to have an emotional impact. For some reason the cliff on Vormir is somehow filled with women in fridges. Which just fucking sucks. It sucks. I think that Gamora’s death in Infinity War was a waste, but part of losing a battle is losing people, and she was an easy (a possibly lazy) target. Natasha’s death felt different for me. The Avengers were her family, and her whole life. She would do anything to reverse what had happened, including giving her life. It makes sense that she would tell Clint to go fuck himself and take the swan dive. Does Clint deserve to live? After he went around and murdered a whole bunch of people of color around the world? Nope. Would we have cared as much had he died? No. Is he known for winning fights with Natasha? Nope. So it’s hard to see another way around that that makes sense.

Fuck’s sake is time travel and alternate timeline work confusing. Damn. Not even the writers and directors can agree on this shit.

There is one thing that I can live without, in the aftermath of Endgame.

And it’s the toxic fan reactions, specifically to Steve’s endings, and in regards to Bucky.

If you’re a shipper, I’m sorry that it’s not canon. It’s a bummer for you. But like...them’s the breaks. Sometimes your ship isn’t canon. I have been in so many fandoms where my ships are not canon.  

But let me say this:

“Til the end of the line” does not mean being joined at the hip forever and ever even if it’s bad for the both of them.

When Bucky said that line to Steve, they were eighteen, and Steve’s mother had just died. When Bucky said that line to Steve, he meant “You are not alone. I am here for you if you need me. Don’t count me out.”

And to try and jog Bucky’s memory in Winter Soldier, Steve repeats that line to Bucky, and he means the same thing. “You are not alone. I am here for you if you need me. Don’t count me out.”

The Russo’s have stated that Steve and Bucky talked before Steve left to return the stones. And you can tell in their goodbye scene. I’ve seen people complain about this not being included in the movie, but if you’re paying attention to body language, facial expression and intonation, you can tell that they talked. That missing scene would be a great fanfic, but the movie doesn’t need it.

Steve and Bucky are not those two punk kids from Brooklyn anymore. They’re both incredibly different people. People who have been functioning without each other since the end of Civil War. Steve’s been on the run. Bucky’s been in Wakanda. Are they still close? Yeah. Are they totally different people who don’t have the same expectations from each other that they once had? Yeah.

Steve’s decision to go and be happy in the past is not an abandonment. It is two grown men acknowledging that they live two separate lives. Bucky is happy in Wakanda. Steve hasn’t been happy since before he nose-dived that Hydra plane.

Bucky is gonna be fine. He has Wakanda, and Sam and an entire world to explore and experience. He’s healing nicely from his time as the Winter Soldier, and maybe the US Government will even pardon him since his actions were the result of being captured as a prisoner of war. Bucky’s gonna do great.

Steve Rogers has been a heartbroken mess since he ran out of that SHIELD base in Times Square and realized he wasn’t in fucking Kansas anymore. Everything he has done has been in response to what is probably an incredibly deep pit of depression, exacerbated by everything he’s been through. There is nothing in the present that will make Steve forget about all that he has lost.

So he went back.

Because he could do it, and because he knew he was missed.

Your mileage may vary in regards to what he did in this new timeline he created.

But watching fandom throw a ragey tantrum over a ship that wasn’t canon to begin with being sunk?

Not my favorite.

But this movie kinda is. I’m gonna go see it again. :)