somniloquence

The annual birthday fic posting.

I’d rewrite the book of love, and make it funny (9406 words) by gwyneth rhys
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Characters: James "Bucky" Barnes, Steve Rogers, Thor (Marvel), Loki (Marvel), Tony Stark, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Clint Barton, Bruce Banner, Sam Wilson (Marvel), Pepper Potts
Additional Tags: True Love's Kiss, Frogs, Fairy Tale Elements, Idiots in Love
Summary:

Bucky would have thought, since that was essentially Steve’s position and he’d been very vocal about not bringing the tesseract back to earth so it could be studied, Steve would let Thor handle his brother and keep focusing his attack on the raging army of zombie bilgesnipes the Avengers had been fighting for the past few hours. But no, he made that familiar face that said he was about to throw down. Bucky groaned.

Have seen Avengers: Endgame. If anyone wants to chitchat about it, come find me in comments! (Unless all you have to say is ragey or pissy. I can handle some criticisms, nitpicks, or issues but if all you've got is complaints, right now my life is so stressful and miserable that I border on suicidally depressed and I don't need it. There'll probably be plenty of people who hate it, so you might be better if you seek them out, because I didn't.)

Favorite bits? Stuff you didn't like? I have plenty of opinions to confabulate with.

My friend sent me a text at 5 a.m. my time to tell me that the trailer for A4 had dropped, finally. I was sleeping so I didn't want to watch it, and just asked her what the title was, so she said "Endgame." I laughed and laughed--I've been saying over and over that Strange's line would be the most important line of the movie, but everyone was constantly discussing all these other lines and actions, and I was sitting there going "no, that's the one that A4 will be built on." I even mentioned it to minim_calibre's daughter when we went to see it at the Marvel tenth anniversary thing--I mused that it would probably be the title, because I felt that word was so significant.

Anyway, I have a lot of trouble sleeping, even with the meds, and I wake up a lot during the night; sometimes if I can't sleep again I'll watch an animal rescue video or something, and usually fall back asleep. When I woke later, I figured I'd watch the trailer. Then I dreamed we were watching the movie, but we were on like a hard linoleum floor in a hallway, we were all packed in there, sort of half lying down, and there were strangers in between me and min, but of course we were all talking with each other and the movie would stop for us to have talking breaks. It was very odd. In the movie itself, Bruce was off in outer space again (don't know if he was off to save Tony or not), Rhodey was off politicking, I didn't see Thor, but there was this creepy jump scare type thing where this human hand was creeping out of the bushes while Nat and Steve were talking outside, and it turned out to be a young man, of I think East Asian descent (because my head movies are apparently 100% less racist than Marvel, so all the new "characters" that appeared in my dream were nonwhite), who wanted to be an archer like Hawkeye and so Clint took him under his wing, plus he was sort of enhanced, so bonus for them. Then this young woman came bursting through the sky a little later, in a pastel, sunbeamy rectangle like some kind of greeting card cover, riding a unicorn pegasus (!!!), and she had some kind of power that I can't recall now (I mean, aside from the obvious superpower of being able to ride a unicorn pegasus!). When she dismounted, I could see that she looked like Enfys Nest. So Nat and Steve were starting to realize there were more people with mutated powers around.

Anyway, cut to a bunch of the Avengers running through some kind of sprawling, dirty, rundown, weird store-like situation, seemed like somewhere in Hong Kong or something like that (I have watched Push way too often), it was like a series of interconnected buildings, and at one point Steve and Nat run under this giant hole in the ceiling that's all drippy and creepy, and Nat scowls at it. Then they go through this weird hallway/connection point, and Nat overhears a bunch of guys saying that people are trying to get into these holes to get powers, she feigns interest in this random washing machine that's in a corner, and she catches up to Steve to tell him. They both realize that that's what will bring everyone back, and save the universe: that everyone is developing powers, like the Slayers all getting called up at the end of Buffy. And when all the different powers of the millions left alive combine, it'll...I don't know, fix the problem, because that's when I woke up (right at the goddamn climax!!).

So that was fun.

I shouldn't be posting but I had to share that, since I rarely remember dreams. There's so much to do right now and little time, but I also wanted to take that time to say THANK YOU to everyone who's contributed to my Ko-Fi fundraising or through PP (and in one amazing instance, a check), I'm incredibly touched and I know how hard things are for a lot of people so this means the world to me.

The world's most expensive cat seems to be doing pretty well. He's officially a senior now, and he has some health problems I haven't been able to address because vet care is so expensive, but for the most part, whatever happened seems better now, though I'm keeping an eye on him. For a while it was just sleeping almost 24 hours, but he's now back to being awake a little more, and even has come outside with me and hung out while I did some garden stuff. And he seems more chipper.

I am trying the vertical mouse, too, but...I had to download drivers for it, and I got the ones that were marked for my OS, but the fucking thing broke my computer, and so that was unusable for days. Mrs. Killabeez was on the phone to help me Monday, and I felt so bad for her because we went through dozens and dozens of tries to get it to boot in a way that would allow us to recover the OS. I finally had to reinstall, and I was afraid of losing everything because the crash happened when I had a bunch of things opened. I didn't seem to lose anything, but there's a bunch of system stuff that's different now. So I'm really not sure about this mouse. But I also need to try a keyboard from the same company so that's...on the agenda. Typing is, I think, way worse than the mousework. Plus I have to finish Yuletide, and the pain is so significant that I'm not sure what I'll do about that.

Anyways: tl;dr funny Avengers dream, thank you guys so, so much for helping me out, and I hope everyone has a great weekend.

So that was a thing that I saw.

( Still processing, but a couple comments that are indeed spoilery, so proceed with caution )

I'm going to have to see it again just to process things. Plus catch all the lines I didn't hear!

Just in time to be subsumed under the tsunami from VVC, but when I'm down, I vid, I guess. I also don't know why I'm posting in the middle of the night, since even fewer people will see it than usual, but…here I am. I know this is a really unusual song choice for Natasha, people usually pick these girl power/fighty/harder songs, but I really thought this fit her in so many ways and I wanted to emphasize how she relates to other people, how she's changed, as well.

Wasp Nest
Artist: The National
Fandom: Avengers-verse
You're all humming live wires under your killing clothes.




HQ download available at my vids site here.

Thanks to feochadn for the beta!

Because I didn't have enough on my plate with trying to finish this @#%$&$% story that is now at 16,000 words when it was supposed to just be stupid fluffy nonsense (writing is finished, but it needs a lot of editing), and work, and animals, and health things, and getting ready for Vividcon, now I have started a Natasha vid that I would like to finish and post before I leave for Chicago.

What is wrong with me? And it's not even the kind of song that people usually want for vids about her; it's quiet and melancholy. I'm an idiot. Kill me now and put me out of my misery.

I did the thing. Votes were evenly split among the Steve/Sam and the Steve/Bucky story, but this one was a lot shorter, so I figured I'd start with it first.

Invested (5028 words) by gwyneth rhys
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson, Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov
Characters: Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson (Marvel), Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton
Additional Tags: Double Dating, First Dates, Relationship(s), Implied Relationships
Summary:

Natasha convinces Steve to ask Sam on a double date. Clint doesn't understand why these things happen to him.

And now I really really need to get back to work and focus on this awful book.

I've been meaning to post for days, but I always seem to be overcome by ennui whenever I think about it. I have only a couple days to finish my partial Team Hot Dads story before work comes in, but I can't seem to settle down and do it. And tomorrow I have to go pick up a new foster dog -- I was going to get a little shih tzu called Cordelia Chase, who has one of the worst stories I have ever heard, but she's not ready to go yet (still weaning pups and still battling a number of illnesses), so I'm going to take one of a bunch of chihuahuas that are literally wasting away in a shelter. I hope there's less drama this time than I had with Ginny in the first few months.

My love and epic feels for Pacific Rim have not died down at all, but it seems as if everyone else's has and it's following the typical path of a movie fandom, where fewer and fewer things are created for it. I was intrigued by the sudden rash of gifsets I saw on my Tumblr for The Musketeers -- I mean, it came out of nowhere, and I had no idea where it was showing and why so many people were posting about it. And now my curiosity has been sated; this weekend I went over to hang with killabeez and she showed me the first two episodes, and I adored it.

I have a long history with the Musketeers; I first read the book in, I think, fourth grade, and I was completely hooked on it, and then there came the Richard Lester version when I was around 12 and I fell completely in love with everyone. I am disturbed by my apparently constant attraction to Athos, and this is no different than any other time, because right out of the gate I loved him sticking his head in a bucket, but what really surprised me was that I fell completely head over heels for Porthos. I mean, in the Lester version, Athos was played by Oliver Reed and even though he was a judgey misogynistic bastard he was hot as hell and a good friend and companion to the others; d'Artagnan was swoony Michael York; and Aramis was Richard Chamberlain in his glory days. But Porthos was played more as a buffoon by Frank Finlay, and he was adorable but not as sexy as the others.

I'm really enjoying reading about Dumas's father in the book The Black Count, whom Porthos is modeled after, who was this dashing black man, so it's super, super cool to see a dashing black man portray Porthos. At first I didn't think he was attractive, he has a kind of pug face I don't usually find appealing, but now I see that still pictures don't always do him justice -- he's just amazing when he moves, and when he smiles his dazzling smile. Aramis is of course sexy, as he should be (well, I mean, he's played by Santiago Cabrera, so duh), but I think this d'Artagnan is a bit more teen love interest than I'm usually into (although not nearly as bad as the one in that Milla Jovovich thing a couple years ago), so although I like him, he's not nearly as fun as the three musketeers.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest of the episodes. The color palette that I saw in the gifs looked atrocious in those first few weeks, so I was kind of expecting something terrible, but wow, it's gorgeous. They make great use of the Czech locations. I really like Constance, and while I'm a bit down about Milady being just bad to the bone instead of being motivated by what happened to her before the story takes place, I'm willing to wait to see what happens (just please don't let her kill Constance!). Still, those are small complaints, I thought it was quite fun even if the plots are a little throwaway, and like I said, I'm strongly predisposed to this as an entertainment (along with other Dumas stories, among the few books that I have re-read in my lifetime).

In other news, Blues broke one of his fangs off the other day. I found the tip of it near the dining table, so I assume he was either chasing his spongeball and smacked into a chair leg or the table, or else he was tormenting Olive and did the same thing by harassing her. We need to give him another dental even though he had one just 9 months ago, because his teeth are so abysmal, so they will x-ray it to see if it's cracked above the gumline. His quest to become the world's most expensive cat continues.

I ended up just DLing the Veronica Mars movie and watching it at home. I enjoyed seeing everyone again, but I definitely had some issues with it. I may or may not write them out later once I've watched it again. I am glad, though, that it's done so well in the theatre opening weekend. Maybe we'll get another one sometime soon.

Recently I finished the last of the six Winter Soldier compilation books I bought a while ago, and my Bucky feels have reached almost hilariously epic proportions. I don't know how I can stand to wait till after opening weekend to see it, but I can't really handle opening weekend of movies like that anymore. I can't wait in line. But the one compilation I'm missing was the third part of the death of Captain America, and I need to go out and find that one so I can have all the back story. I just don't trust that something from the comics won't pop up that would help me out if I knew about it, so ... I'm a completist, if nothing else. Ugh, it's so close and yet so far for the movie. SO CLOSE and yet so far!

Lately I've wondered if I'm not developing early onset Alzheimer's or something. Over the course of the Escapade trip, I lost my complete itinerary, my room card key, my camera, and between security and the gate, I lost my boarding pass. None of these things have ever happened to me before. Ever. I'm way too anal retentive to lose that kind of important shit. And Tina says I seemed a little spacey, although I didn't feel like it. Thank god that the housekeepers at the hotel turned my camera in; I had to have it shipped home to me, but at least it was there and intact. I may not have liked the hotel for the con, but I can't fault them for finding the camera and sending it back to me.

Some really grararrry stuff is happening with my teaching situation at the UW, but I'll save that for another time since, you know, grraarrr. I need to get back to working on my Club Vivid vid and that kind of mindset won't help me.

This artist has done some amazing work, but this one of Thor and Loki is my favorite. I've reblogged their art in my Tumblr but that was before knowing the artist doesn't want that, so I want to respect their wishes and not repost it here -- this is just a link. It's a beautiful piece of Thor holding Loki, with his head on Loki's shoulder, and Loki's back is to the viewer, his head hung down. It's beautifully melancholy and could be read as either slash or as brotherly love, however you wish to view it. It's really gorgeous.

Here's my Club Vivid premiere vid. Unfortunately, my hard drive is toast, so the only copy I had of it has one clip that is the wrong size, but fortunately, it's short, so I'm hoping most people won't notice it. Grrr. This drive was such a workhorse, and I'm just so surprised that it's gone belly up. My vidding life is on it, though. If I can't recover some data, I've lost...well, I just can't think about it, because it will make me want to kill myself.

How You Like Me Now
Artist: The Heavy
Fandom: Iron Man/Avengers
Summary: Tony Stark is the little black dress of the Avengersverse.

Embed:


Streaming here