harborshore | it's a party

I just realized I haven't actually told the internet at large just how much I loved The Avengers. Which, I've spent the last two weeks talking about nothing else in email and writing fic about no other characters--yes.

So these notes are short, but in no particular order:

Bruce Banner! I had never ever previously had feelings about the Hulk or his Dr Jekyll alter ego, but my god, Mark Ruffalo did so well in this role. He's self-deprecating, he has gravitas like--there's a scene, you know the one, where it would have been so easy for him to play the yes-I-was-seriously-depressed card for laughs, but he doesn't and it's heartbreaking, and at other times he's funny as hell and he gets Tony (Tony/Pepper/Bruce, you guys, I ship it). Favorite.

Actually, they're all my favorites. Tony and Pepper and their warmth, I love it so much, and Tony not being afraid of Bruce, and Tony making fun of Loki and Thor and their Asgardian drama (I can admit it, our myths are pretty histrionic in places), and and and so great. SO great. The way he learned to work with Steve!

STEEEEVE. Steve. Man. I have feelings about Steve Rogers and his sincerity and his fucking shield and his everything. The way he watches Natasha fly after giving her a boost with this absolute joy on his face. The way his first thought is for the civilians. Fuck.

Phil Coulson is fine. I don't care who the director is, I don't care if I'm being an idiot about it, Phil Coulson is FINE. Because I love him. Okay?

Now that we've established that: "You lack conviction." Best line. Also, the phone call to Natasha in the beginning made me ship him/her/Clint like burning and it doesn't look like I'll be stopping any time soon. OT-fucking-3. "Honey, our boyfriend is in serious trouble. Please come be your competent self so we can get him home."

Speaking of Natasha, how great is she? How is she the best every time she's on screen? Good goddamn, she's my favorite. "Let me put you on hold." And then taking everyone out, barefoot, weaponless, tied to a fucking chair. Pulling up Clint on screen every time she's near a computer. Using Loki's assumptions against him and reading him like a BOOK, god, I love her. The way she tells both Clint and Selvig right away that it wasn't their fault, what they did when they were brainwashed, it wasn't their fault. The compassion in that. ♥ SHE IS MY FAVORITE.

Thor! Still love Thor. "You people are so petty. And so short." Ridiculous, larger-than-life, the kind of happy that they all need, even as he has a much more serious side. LOVE HIM. Did not love his brother, except as a very good villain--I love Loki-the-character from the myths, but he's also the guy who causes the end of the world and I can believe that, here, which just--makes him less compelling, for me. Armageddon, genocide, wanting to destroy for the sake of destroying--"You kill because it's fun" as Fury puts it.

CLIIIINT. Competent as FUCK, I loved that he just never missed, that he calculated for the fact that Loki would catch the arrow and made it an exploding one, his relationship with Natasha, his post-brainwashing scene of vulnerability and then desire to go do something violent, his everything. Clint/Natasha/Coulson forever (so says my fic, which is 5K and growing fast).

The way this movie problematized and distrusted authority. The way it pointed out that someone can be in the right most of the time and still be a manipulative fucker--Fury, lying about the weapons. The way the Council was incredibly troubling, even though they're in charge of SHIELD, which is on the side of the angels. Supposedly. SO INTERESTING.

Basically I love everything, I want the Black Widow prequel YESTERDAY, gimme Bucky Barnes to add to this and I will be your forever.

ETA: And I forgot (clearly a reason I need to see it again soon): "There are always men like you." That moment makes me cry, every time. Such poignancy, in the middle of a really bombastic superhero movie. Well done, Joss.

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Other snippet:

“So why’d you agree to the move then?”

Good question. “I don’t know,” she says slowly. Stark offered the mansion almost right away, looking as earnest as she ever saw him (he still gleefully created a mountain of paperwork for Phil, but that’s different). Bruce looked cautiously happy, especially after asking about labs and Tony promising to reopen his dad’s old one, which made Pepper’s face soften. Clint didn’t protest, but she knows he hates the thought of that many people around. She makes a note to work out all the escape routes with him.

“Steve’s moving too?” Bucky looks down at their hands.

“He’ll be over here every day,” Natasha says.

“He worries,” Bucky says, like that should mean something besides the immediate fact of it.

“Yes,” Natasha agrees, because she knows what Bucky means. Love can be exhausting in its concern. “I’ll see if I can distract him a little,” she adds.

“Thanks,” Bucky says. The circles under his eyes are dark enough to look like bruises.

OH HI THERE BUCKY. *_____________*

This story is all about Natasha and Bucky being dangerous BFFs and Bucky recovering. Basically. *sighs happily*

(Eventually there will be a kidnapping and they will need to fight their way back to their concerned boyfriends, despite Bucky not being entirely recovered yet.)

...Who would be stupid enough to kidnap them? As if it's not already a bad idea to kidnap a couple of furious master assassins, but the concerned boyfriends adds a whole different dimension of danger. (It's like that scene in Captain America when Tommy Lee Jones--who I'm sure had a name in the movie, but I don't think I've ever known it--is interrogating the one scientist and he's like, "And the last man you cost us happened to be Captain Rogers's closest friend." The ultimate threat, yo.)

In other words: I APPROVE OF THIS STORY IN EVERY WAY. Even if those kidnappers are making a terrible life decision.

Those kidnappers are making the worst life decision. You know, assuming that a Bucky Barnes who still attends physical therapy and a drugged Natasha Romanoff will lie down and accept being brainwashed again just because someone decided that really, it'd be handy to have two brainwashed assassins on hand. WORST LIFE DECISION. Because you have them and then you have their boyfriends. None of whom are taking this well.

(Right? BAD IDEA. REALLY REALLY BAD IDEA.)

"What do you want to do tonight, guys?"

"I dunno, our plans for world domination haven't been going so well lately. Let's go steal a couple of the world's most infamous assassins from their superhero boyfriends!"

"Cool! Sounds fun!"

...I cannot WAIT to find out how badly they regret it. \o/

*snickers* Yes, exactly like that. First mistake: kidnapping them. Second mistake: assuming they're harmless without weapons as long as they're locked up in a room and handcuffed to the wall. Third mistake: putting them in the same room. Etc.

SILLY KIDNAPPERS. :D

First scene of this story:

Natasha isn’t called in when they find Bucky Barnes. It stands to reason; she’s half a world away and his best friend is living in SHIELD’s headquarters.

Also, it’s not like their shared history is common knowledge.

So she doesn’t know he’s been brought in until she walks into the infirmary and Steve’s there, arguing with a doctor and all she hears is “sedation” and “possible amnesia” and “Barnes”, before she ducks behind them and goes through the door.

Sure enough, Bucky’s in the bed, pale as anything, one--fuck, one arm, obviously asleep. Sedated, like the doctor said.

“You can’t be in here,” someone says from behind her, sounding timid enough that she’d laugh if Bucky wasn’t right here.

“What did they do to you?” she murmurs, but doesn’t get any closer. The restraints they have on him turns her stomach, even if she understands why they might be necessary. But.

“He shouldn’t be restrained,” she says, turning to the doctor.

“Ma’m, with all due respect, he took down three SHIELD agents before collapsing on his own with, well. One arm.”

“Restraints will make it worse,” she says. “Make someone sit here to guard him. Captain America out there might do it. I will, if he won’t.”

“Of course I’ll sit here with Bucky,” Steve says, and he’s come through the door while they were both talking. “What do you mean, though, Natasha, about restraints making it worse?”

“If he doesn’t know where he is and he’s tied down,” she says, trailing off. The tightening of Steve’s jaw lets her know he takes her point. “If you want to start, captain, I’ll take second watch. Unless SHIELD has something else for me, of course.”

“Of course,” Steve says, and she can tell he wants to ask why she cares about this soldier, but she also sort of thinks he probably assumes she’d do that out of friendship, caring for a stranger because her teammate does. Because he would do that. Natasha wouldn’t, really, but Bucky isn’t a stranger.

As it turns out, Coulson agrees with her assessment of the situation and she’s assigned to monitor Bucky while he recovers.

He tells her to take it easy, but doesn’t say anything else, because Phil knows her very well.

OH NATASHA. She knows it's better not to have him tied down! ;_________;

it's a party

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