crypt | meme #008 | i love you ( don't get heart heavy )

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[After knowing Tony Stark for a few months, Steve really only expects sarcasm from him. At first it was annoying and there was more than one occasion when he wanted to yell at me, but Steve Rogers is a man of restraint after all. Now, it's normal and he doesn't want to yell at Tony. Well, as much.

Something else that Steve's gotten used to is Tony's drunkenness, and it's always awkward when everyone else is getting drunk but you're not. And Tony's confession is also awkward. His shoulders tense and his face freezes from confusion. Then after a second, he has to try very hard not to laugh because oh my god.]

I am told that, yes, thank you.

[ it had taken a little while to find an appropriate dress in her closet. natasha's tastes are kind of specific and there's a significant difference in sizes; katniss tops her by about five inches and nearly everything she owns is either too short or too tight in one place or another, but eventually they find something; a long, red dress that had been a bit too long on her but hung perfectly on katniss. shoes are more difficult, since her own feet are significantly smaller, but eventually katniss decides her own boots will work better than anything she can borrow from natasha or her mother.

there's less needed in the way of make-up than katniss is probably expecting, but natasha takes special care in what she does apply - a bit of eyeshadow and blush, but dramatic eyeliner and lots of mascara. she pulls katniss's hair back in an elegant ponytail, a few loose curls framing her face, and then when she's added the finishing touches she smiles and stands back in the tiny bathroom. ]

Ready to take a look?

((ooc| including hsau!vicky here too.))

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you're alright.

i guess. ~~when you're not a big jag.~~

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[britta folds her arms across her chest and lets out a huff, annoyed.] yeah. well. you're welcome.

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really? thanks. [even though her voice is marinated in sarcasm, there is some appreciation buried in there.

somewhere.

deeply.

sometimes britta likes hearing that she isn't totally worthless, despite what she does and the reaction it garners from people.]

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gross (and no. you should feel bad anyways.)

ragings - 2013-04-04 00:08 (UTC) - Expand

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oh you~ (truth time: same here)

ragings - 2013-04-04 03:35 (UTC) - Expand

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(bombshell of the year y u p e)

ragings - 2013-04-04 22:26 (UTC) - Expand

[ phone message, left at 3pm New York time. difficult to tell the time where bruce is; it's quiet in the background. last time he reached out he'd been in brazil. that was weeks ago. the voice on the message sounds weary. ]

Hey. Knew you'd never answer, which... is good. [ bruce had been counting on getting voicemail; tony would only interrupt and make this awkward. ] I'm fine, everything's fine, don't send a jet or anything. I, uh, I just wanted to say... thanks. For having my back. The last few days... well, I've been reminded of a lot of things. I was thinking about what you said that day on the helicarrier. I still haven't found out, but I think I'm closer. You planted that seed in rocky soil, but I think...

[ he almost says 'I think he heard you,' but he just can't. he can't acknowledge the other guy and give him equal footing like that. not even after last week. he sighs, and changes course. ] I landed on the outskirts of the city; I could have disappeared again. ...Steve told me you never doubted I'd come back. You, you knew that before I did. You live up to that 'futurist' title you gave yourself in that paper a few years ago. [ his tone turns wry. ] I'm sure you don't rub that in anyone's faces at all.

Anyway, Tony, I'm glad we met. Working with you would have been the highlight of my career. [ a pause. ] Tell everyone hi for me. I'll. I'll be in touch soon.

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[ one definition of inertia is the tendency of an object to resist any change in its motion. this is doubly applicable to bruce, who's always hated surprises. he picked a bad career for that, but he thought the laws of science would be pretty predictable.

turns out, he was wrong.

about a week after leaving that message on tony's voicemail, things haven't improved. bruce is in a different timezone now, holed up with some contacts in doctors without borders but that'll only last him so long. He wants to move again but the exhaustion has claimed him and he has to rest a few days or the other guy will push his way through just to keep them from collapsing. it's 11pm his time, 3am tony's time; for reasons he'd rather not think about, the conversion rate to new york time is one of the first things he calculates when arriving in a new place. the village he's in is having a celebration and they've been pushing homebrewed alcohol into his hand all night. usually he wouldn't, but at this point it wouldn't make much difference.

after turning his burn phone in his hands for a while, he laboriously types a text message with the number pad. ]

Don't know if this number is still good.

[ there are times where work leads them apart for long stretches at a time, either her with SHIELD (and sometimes personal) business or him with his work with tony or in whatever country he's disappeared to this week. they'll touch base whenever they can, usually through e-mail or text and usually the messages are shorter than either would like, but they're always significant. this one holds a little more weight, at least in the literal sense.

she tracks him down in bolivia, but the package won't make it to him until a few days after she wants it to, but she doesn't let that detail bother her as much as it typically would. she knows he's not expecting anything, so late's better than not at all. it's delivered to him in some manner, by messenger or on the doorstep of wherever he's currently calling home, neatly wrapped with a handwritten note and no return address. ]

Sorry it's late. Going home was more involved than I'd have preferred.

Happy birthday.

[ inside the package is a lighter, a few small, clear jars, and a container with three separate compartments, containing herbs that make salves that soothe or heal wounds and infections. the last item is a book of essays and poetry, all composed by leo tolstoy. ]

[ he didn't know he was going to leave until a few hours beforehand. she'd been in brazil at the time, and they'd taken him on a mission that required the hulk and left bruce a raw husk of himself. a few days later he'd recovered enough to tell them all to go to hell. he'd scrawled a hasty note addressed to tony and fled.

months later, he'd almost regretted it. he thought maybe pepper would worry. thor wouldn't know how to cook the vegetables. jessica wouldn't keep up on her linguistics. but these were minor concerns. at the core of it all there was his safety to consider, and with the republican party calling for the hulk's identity to be revealed, bruce thought it prudent to lay low until he stopped being a campaign slogan. it's months since he's heard from anyone, and he knows part of that is tony's doing. the avengers could contact him at any time, if they pleased, just like SHIELD had.

still, the package surprises him. his birthday passed without recognition because he hadn't told anyone; the culture here gave special preference to the day, and he really wanted to avoid that attention. bruce recogizes the handwriting at once and tears into the package. the supplies she's left him are invaluable here. for a moment, bruce has trouble breathing. this will mean lives saved. this will be the difference between his village suffering and surviving.

he pulls a few strings with tony and gets her new number. ]

thank you.

[ when she'd returned to find him gone, she had wanted to let them have it for prioritizing their needs over bruce's. instead she'd left herself, almost immediately after returning, on a conveniently timed mission, and hadn't returned for another few months. one lead had lead to another, then another, then another, the breadcrumb trail ending where she'd been born. when that mission was over, she'd just felt...drained. drained and angry and guilty that things couldn't be resolved sooner.

so when she gets bruce's text, she's back in the us, using the combined forces of tony and SHIELD's resources to make sure the girls she'd recovered were being taken care of - relocated, given counseling, set up with somewhere safe to stay for a while. it's around three in the morning when she gets to read it, and a faint smile appears when she does. she doesn't prepare gifts often, especially not for birthdays, but he'd gotten one for her, and she figured he would be able to find use for the supplies even if he were somewhere with a vast array of them to choose from. the poetry she thinks he'll have less use for, but he's an author she likes and she thinks bruce might appreciate his work, even if he doesn't necessarily enjoy it. ]

you're welcome. have they come in handy?

[ ooc | i guess i could pull out the teen au too but. ]

( blatant love confessions are an unknown trigger to her. avoid that language unless angst and/or negative cr is your goal. )

[it's one of her few forays into affection, especially the verbal kind. affection... isn't something she does. like everything she tries her hand at, she proves to be inept and terrible at it. so she tries it very rarely. besides her naturally closed-off personality and slight awkwardness with it, her message of "i like you, do you like me? y/n/m?" tends to fall flat with others. like always.

but she's trying with charles. britta likes him. he's a great person and a terrific friend, and she wants to tell him that. he's one of the few people she feels safe around and she doesn't feel the need to have her guard up twenty-four, seven. even if it does fall flat, hopefully he'll understand the gesture and not be put off by it.

so, very awkwardly and hesitantly;] uh, you're one of the few people that believe in me and don't think i'm very horrible. so... thank you. [britta looks away, her arms folded across her chest like a shield.]

[ internally, charles fairly melts with appreciation. but years of friendship with people like tony stark and erik lensherr have taught him the value of a more subtle approach. if her uncharacteristic hesitation didn't give her away, certainly her body language would. she looks like she's being cornered, and he hasn't even said anything yet. so instead of reacting as he might with christine or raven, charles limits himself to a smile (albeit a wide one). ]

You're welcome. It's easy to believe in someone who believes in so much. If you make people uncomfortable with the strength of your conviction, well, perhaps a little discomfort is necessary.

[her shoulders sag a little from relief and her lips quirk into a small smile, although her guard remains a bit up. just in case things go south. which tends to happen all the time.]

see, you make everything i do sound logical. that's great. [while her intentions are good, britta's ultimately driven by irrationality, rebelliousness, and ridiculousness, and she gets carried away with it. when a normal person receives an order, they comply; britta, on the other hand, not only does not do it, she does the complete opposite of it.

because fuck the "why?"

whether it's natural teenage rebellion, an extreme reaction to a strict home-life, or wanting to stand out and be different, britta's day isn't complete without knocking the literal or metaphorical glass over. and it doesn't take the scathing remarks of tony stark or the unusual punishments of nick fury to reign her in, but sometimes it takes the calm, soothing words of charles xavier. he's like the big brother she's never had. well, she has two, but they're dickheads so shhhh.]

~~Charlo~~ Professor,

I'm sending this with three orphans. They are too young for the Brotherhood. They need a well-rounded education, but since yours is the only I can offer them it will have to do. They are not from the same family, but they found each other in the streets of Birmingham. Treat them well. I will be back for them.

- - -

[ he sends letters. there's never a return address. the psychic residue is thick with regret and hesitation, the clenched-jaw kind that ends with broken pencils and torn paper until erik starts using pen and thick stationary. the first was mere days after their parting, when he'd heard. he waited, unable to say what he meant, feeling cowardly for putting it in writing when he should be saying it in person.

"i should be there," he had said, pacing in the luxurious room of the penthouse apartment emma had found for them.

"why not skip that step and deliver ourselves into the hands of the CIA now?" emma had arched a brow.

"charlotte would not betray us," he snarled. 'she wouldn't betray me, he thought, over and over; 'her words... her words were the folly of the moment. we are blood, she feels it as deeply as i..' "she would never give us to them."

"she wouldn't have to," emma had retorted, exasperation coloring her tone. the woman had the right of it, much as erik hated to admit it. charlotte was being watched, and any movement on his part would be intercepted. so he kept his distance reluctantly, using the tools he had. telepathy was too risky, for even though he trusted charlotte, it wasn't enough to ensure she wouldn't try to interfere. letters, then. he wouldn't remain silent. ]

- - -

Charlotte,

You certainly raise the bar for talking heads. We all had fun taking bets on how many insults you could sneak past that idiot cronkite. Top form, Charles. If only you could be as scathing with your policy as you were with your wit, the world would be better for it.

I notice—as have the others—you haven't revealed yourself as a Mutant to the public. They call you an advocate, a sympathizer. As one of those you feel such sympathy for, I must say I find it demeaning. Who are you to position yourself as our spokesperson? A professor of genetics? Many university professors toured this country selling scientific racism to the masses under the guise of verified fact. Why hide yourself, Professor? Are you afraid of the consequences, were it known you were a Mutant? Do you fear what the humans might think, might do? I wonder what your motivations are. I wonder, Charles, whether you're ever honest with yourself now you have no one to truly challenge you to face these questions.

Knight to F3.

Erik

[ he sends letters and she writes back immediately. not at first, however. at first, three days after she woke from the surgery that did nothing but confirm her fate, she waited quite some time to get back to him. the searing of her fall and the bullet in her back still rang too true, though now she knows it wasn't anger for the act as much as the leaving. she was alone, isolated, without her dearest sister and the one true friend she was quite certain she's ever had. no, more than a friend, a brother. a kindred soul. and now, wheelchair ridden, she felt like she had nothing.

it was not true of course—she had a new direction in her life, one that gave her much more purpose that her academic pursuits ever had. what part of her felt emptied, poured out on that beach and in hotel rooms and chess games and conversation in deserted mansion corridors, was overpowered by a new sense of self, a new purpose. she turned her back on that part of still dark and cold and bitter. the institute was important. the children were important. ]

Dear Erik,

I assure you they will receive as superb and education as this Oxford Professor can provide. An improvement, I know, from your minimal resources my friend. They will be cared for and safe, I promise you.

I must voice my disagreement with your methods of control. These children, be they found by the Brotherhood or Cerebro, have a choice when they become of age. It is not for you—or me, for that matter—to force them to join you Brotherhood of Mutants.

I hope you are well, my friend.

Charlotte

[ she slides this letter into the envelope above the other, her response written out in irritation despite not having an address for him. she knew he would eventually give her something, somewhere to write back to. there are others, stacks of thing she wrote in the heat of the moment, in times of despair and weakness when she felt particularly isolated from the others, when she couldn't put into words to moira why she wanted to sit in her study through dinner. this is the only one she feels strong enough to send.

charlotte is careful with the addressing on the envelope, certain to write maximilian e. above the address. this letter is much less terse than the previous. ]

Dear Erik,

I am disappointed you have forgotten my penchant for subtlety when necessary. I would never have survived a thesis hearing in the hall of an English college without it, I assure you. I am afraid I took the reporter off guard, assuming he caught my quips that is. Glad to know someone has appreciated them.

As for your second point, Erik you must understand the implication of this radical world change to the human community at large. They already fear us, fear what we are capable of and do not understand that our primary desire is to simply live in peace without isolation or persecution. We can not rush into this hastily as though it's a revolution. There should not be more bloodshed when it can be avoided. Giving them power through knowledge to decide what the right thing to do is my goal. I would not risk what a few proponents of the anti-mutant agenda might do should they know what I am.

I do this to protect the children, here at the Institute and those out in the world, so that they have a chance to see this through without harm. This is how I will build that world where they are safe for them.

Charlotte

P.s. Pawn to e5

( +au varieties. spoiler alert: not fantastic with this sort of thing. )

ooc | pick a flavor, any flavor, modern or 63.

meme #008 | i love you ( don't get heart heavy )

natasha romanoff ( black widow ) ⌛ marvel cinematic

natasha romanoff ( black widow ) ⌛ marvel cinematic ⌛ hsau

selina kyle ( catwoman ) ∞ the dark knight rises

selina kyle ( catwoman ) ∞ the dark knight rises ∞ hsau

steve rogers / captain america ( mcu )

no subject

britta perry / community

britta perry / community / hsau

katniss everdeen | thg ( hsau )

no subject

victor frankenstein \ frankenstein [modern au]

thor odinson | mcu

thor odinson | mcu | hsau

scotty | star trek reboot | hsau

april ludgate | parks & rec

hsau or not, up to you~.

/you/ what the hell. (great minds think alike 8D)

in your pants. (my mind was already quite gone before i met you, lbr.)

gross (and no. you should feel bad anyways.)

oh you~ (truth time: same here)

(bombshell of the year y u p e)

no subject

no subject

bruce banner | mcu

needles verse because fuck you, i can.

i love it, all the time, forever.

good because so do i.

red • ouat

ruth eisenhardt / marvel

reu eisenhardt / marvel

charles xavier | xm:fc

hsau w/e w/e

why is baby britta so adorable :c

why is baby charles so adorable ;;

leonard mccoy | st:xi

wichita ° zombieland

raven darkholme ° xfc

lily evans ° harry potter

gwen stacy ° amazing spider-man

charles xavier | xmfc

charlotte xavier | 63!xmfc

OU

no subject

erik lensherr | xmfc

clint barton | mcu

musichetta } les mis

Q | bond verse

gretel | hansel & ____: witch hunters