bakerstreet | post endgame au meme

[ I’d love to do something with these two getting to know each other if you’re up for it!

[Yes! I would love to!]

[ Anything in particular you’d like? Training? Carol catching up on pop culture? Going into space like they talked about before?

[What if we started with them getting to know each other over some burgers or comparable delicious food item?]

[Peter’s trying to get used to the casual friendships he’s cultivating with super heroes, he really is. Sitting across from Carol in a diner is as casual as can be, but Peter still can’t help thinking about the way her fists could glow with energy, or how she had basically done a barrel roll through Thanos’ ship. He keeps thinking about her confident smile as she’d taken the gauntlet from him, his savior in a hellish relay race.

So yeah, it’s a little weird to sit across the table from her, 1950s music spilling from a jukebox somewhere, as a waiter sets milkshakes and fries down in front of them.]

S-so, um, do you come here often? I mean, when you get back from... stuff?

[On Carol's end, it's just a little weird to be sitting in a diner with a teenager. She still might look 30 but she feels every one of her 60ish years.

Still, Peter has good instincts and helped a lot at the battle. And she knows that he and Tony had a bond, so he's down a mentor and father figure. But it's clear that Tony had big plans and expectations for the kid. She could be looking at the future of the team that wears her call sign.]

Not really. Over the past five years whenever I came back I'd stick close to the compound for Avengers business. But I did come here once with Rhodey when I told him I needed a good cheeseburger. And I figured it wasn't too far for you to swing over.

[She takes a long sip of her chocolate shake and relishes it. There are ice cream-like foods on other planets, but it's a treat to have a taste of home.]

How have you been holding up?

[ Well, she definitely doesn't look that old. If Peter had to guess, he wouldn't go much older than the mid-twenties, and none of it has to do with good manners.

Rather than slurping up the entirety of his shake like he wants to, Peter fiddles with the straw wrapper by flattening it out between his palms and the table. ] You're really, you know, professional. With the superhero stuff, I mean. It's amazing that you take care of so much of the universe on your own.

[ Looking up from the paper he'd begun folding into random shapes, he scoots forward on his side of the booth. ] He likes this place, too? They should start advertising how many Avengers eat here.

[ He takes the cue and sips from his drink as well, reaching for a fry to dip into the cold sweetness of his strawberry shake. ] Oh, you know. With everyone back, there's lots to do. I've been trying to help out with the problems that happen when people have to relearn to coexist.

[She knew there was a reason that she liked Peter.

Carol gives him a smile as she stirs her shake with her straw.] Well, I have been doing it for thirty years. And I'm pretty awesome. [Not humble, though. She knows that she take down an entire fleet of ships if she wants to.]

I'm glad that they don't advertise that. Those superhero gossip blogs are bad enough. Don't people have better things to do? I know I do.

[She shrugs and takes another sip of her milkshake.] That's good. People are going to need a lot of help transitioning back. What are some of the more common problems you're seeing? Apartment disputes? Not enough food because of supply lines?

[ He leans forwards, a sly little smile on his face. He won’t say it, but the way she words her reply gives him hope that maybe he’ll be as good as her with more practice. ] Are you a natural? I mean, did you grow up with these powers, or did you have to figure out how to use them? I haven’t, like, been officially briefed on you or anything, so I hope it’s alright to ask.

[ Slurping on his straw, he winces at a brush of brain freeze before his body quickly adapts. ] Dunno, it’s like how people have always cared about celebrities. What did the Kardashian’s wear on the red carpet? Who designed Black Panther’s suit? Does Shawn Mendes have a new girlfriend? Who’s the Asguardian king wooing to be her queen?

[ He blinks a bit at the questions, a handful of fries dangling from between his teeth. The thought of Captain Marvel, intergalactic superhero, asking about neighborhood problems makes him blush while finishing his mouthful with a gulp. ] Y-yeah, the housing thing. A lot of people who were homeless or living in crowded conditions suddenly had more space to spread out and no one to stop them. Ownership is nine-tenths of the law, y’know? Not to mention squatters’ rights in New York are pretty strong. And we can’t grow food for ourselves like people in rural areas have been, so big stores are starting to inflate prices because of supply and demand and I kinda doubt you’re interested in all of this! I sound more like an econ teacher than someone who’s fun to chat with.

[Well. Okay, honestly, she doesn't think he could get to be as good as her, but a lot of that has to do with his power set. And, once he's been doing this as long as her, he'll be ready to retire.

But. There's a lot of potential in Peter. She sees it. She knows Stark saw it. He can be the best of the best, if he puts his mind to it.

Carol waves her hand dismissively.] I don't mind telling you. I didn't grow up with my powers. I was an adult, in the Air Force, when I was caught up in an explosion with some alien tech after a stand off with the Kree. I was near dead, lost my memory, and the Kree kidnapped me to their home world, experimented on me and replaced my blood with theirs. It's why I age so slowly. Anyway, they kept me brainwashed and kept a dampener on my powers. It wasn't until six years later when I came back to Earth that I remembered who I was and how I got there.

So that's a long answer to tell you that I had to learn how to use them. Twice.

[She frowns before cramming some more fries in her mouth and chewing.] I'm just saying that it's easier to do our jobs without someone critiquing our outfits and dissecting our personal lives. Although, I will admit that some of the articles about me are pretty hilarious. [Where has this blonde bombshell been all our lives??]

That's happening out in space, too. The worst part is that a bunch of, well, for lack of a better term, space gangs grouped together during the gap. I'm hoping that they'll break back up because them doubling in size means a lot of trouble up there.

[ He feels his eyes widening with every passing moment, hanging onto the words of her back story. It sounds hellish to have lived through, but also awesome, and yet so confusing and empowering in the end. On the one hand, she had people training her, but she also had to deal with finding out that those same people were using her. ]

I'm glad you got out of that. Sounds like a pretty bad situation. You weren't alone, were you?

[ Poking his straw around in his shake, he thinks about how Fury seems to have a closer relationship with Carol based on the few interactions that Peter's seen between them. He was the start of the Avengers, after all, so maybe that had something to do with it. He's so wrapped up in his curious musings that he misses her reply about tabloids and goes straight in for the more stimulating conversation. ] That's like the opposite of New York. Smaller gangs were able to take more territory because everyone became a small gang. Now, there's territory disputes that are making trouble for everyone.

[It was all of those things. And Carol wouldn't wish it on anyone, especially not a teenager with a hell of a legacy to uphold. But it's easier to talk about now, since it was nearly 30 years ago now.]

No. I had friends in my Kree unit, Starforce, when I was brainwashed. But then when I got to Earth, I met Fury, and he and I figured out my past. I was reunited with my best friend and her daughter. I met some aliens who I thought were the enemy but ended up being some of my closest friends. And I got a cat. An alien cat, but she's still pretty cat-like. Fury was keeping an eye on her until the Snap. Blip.

[Whatever the hell they were calling it these days. She's also grateful to have finally met the Avengers because all of them seem to have a similarly dark or harrowing origin story. Although she was still on the fence about this Clint guy because he had killed a lot of people. Anyway.

She takes a long sip of her own shake.] That's probably happening all over North America, huh? What have you and city done in response?

[ Peter can’t help choking on his mouthful of milkshake when she so casually refers to being brainwashed. It seems like such a serious thing, but he has to remind himself that she’s had time to deal with it—or bury it, which is more likely for superheroes. None of the Avengers seemed to deal with trauma in a very healthy way. ]

Cat? Cats are awesome, I bet alien cats are, too. Is she okay? [ A pause. ] Is she, like, super old?

[ Talking about superhero work is pretty nice since he doesn’t always have an outlet for it. May listens to him, of course, but she can’t empathize the way another hero can. ] Probably, or at least big cities. The police are trying to do what they can with increased patrols, and I’m kinda doing the same. Right now it’s like a bandaid, though, since we can’t stop anything before it starts.

[It's like 70% dealt with and 30% buried. Definitely not as healthy as it could be, but it doesn't weigh on her how it used to. He's right that the Avengers could all use better trauma and grief counseling.]

Oh yeah, she's okay. Flerkens live a really long time so she's comfortably middle-aged. She mostly likes lying around but she'll still rally if there's a good battle going on.

[It has been a while since Carol has been in any kind of listening-mentor situation. Monica and Talos' daughter are all grown up now. It surprises her how much she missed it.] Yeah, I get that. And unfortunately, too much can go wrong with predictive crime technology. I saw it happen on another planet and it got ugly. So I bet the police really appreciate having you on their side right now.

An alien battle cat. That's awesome. [ And he says it genuinely with a tone that suggests he's still not entirely used to this lifestyle. Meeting an alien cat or someone with glowing hair is just another normal weekday activity for him now, and a good one if they're allies rather than enemies.

His eyes go wide and he leans in at the mention of real, practical predictive crime technology. ] Whoa, like that movie with Tom Cruise? Minority Report? That's crazy! How did they predict the crimes?

I'll introduce you to her next time. [She gives him a warm smile because it is a big difference going from street-level thugs to alien cats. It's not nearly the same, but she can still remember the unease she felt as Vers seeing all of the alien technology and different species. They told her it was normal, but deep down, she knew she was experiencing something new. Her Kree training just told her to ignore it.

At the movie reference she just sort of wrinkles her brow. She's caught up on some of the movies she missed from 1989 onward, but it's been slow going. She had to start with all the Star Wars. Priorities.] Maybe? I haven't seen that one. But a small section of the race had clairvoyant abilities and they figured out how to amplify and control them to predict which people would commit crimes. It got...really ugly. People don't like being locked up for things they haven't even thought about doing.

Really? Awesome! I need to start keeping a list of the different kinds of aliens I meet so I can remember everyone.

[ He sees her flash of lack of comprehension and instantly feels bad. After all, he knows she doesn't spend much time on Earth, and hadn't even before she became the defender of the universe. It's so hard for him to widen his world-view to a universe-view, and so often his media references sneak into conversations with people who would have no idea what he's talking about—thank god at least the Wakandan princess knew about Vine.

Still, everything she says hits the plot points of the movie to the point that he wonders if a Philip K. Dick might have been a Kree sleeper agent. ] Yeah, of course not! And that brings up the question of if you can even alter the future. Like, what if locking up a suspect prematurely led the real criminal to commit the crime? Time is such a messy thing to work with. Mr. Stark— [ He bites his tongue, literally, at how easily the name had just tumbled out of his mouth. It's becoming easier to talk about Tony, but he still startles himself when he's able to mention him casually like that.

Swallowing thickly, he averts his eyes to his hands where they fidget with his fork on the table. ] He learned that the hard way, huh?

[If Mar-Vell could live for so long on Earth without discovery, it's likely that there are or were other Kree taking refuge. In fact, there are plenty of species that could blend in just fine with humans. Makes her wonder about George Lucas.

She frowns for just a second at the mention of Tony. She didn't have even half the relationship with him that Peter did, but it still stings. It was hard to lose so many of her new Avengers friends in the course of bringing back everyone. Carol is well aware that they would want it that way - hell, Carol would've done it herself if it meant bringing everyone back - but it still hurts.] Time is messy. And I really believe that only Tony Stark could've ever made any sense out of it.

[ Peter feels unsettled by the fact that every conversation he has seems to involve Tony Stark one way or another. When he's talking with other Avengers, he feels guilty for bringing up the hurt that so many of them feel, and many more strongly than Peter feels he's allowed. In the grand scheme of things, he'd been a blip in Tony's life. When the conversation turns to anything related to Stark with people who don't know both sides of his life—friends, press, random citizens talking with Spider-Man—trying to answer questions about Tony is overwhelming and scary. There are days when Peter wonders if he'll ever stop having visceral reactions to the name Tony Stark.

With Carol, at least she keeps things casual. She hadn't know Tony that long, either, so that puts them on more equal footing than when Peter talks to Happy or Colonel Rhodes. ] Yeah, it's crazy to think about. Apparently he just stumbled onto the answer one night. Dr. Banner had been experimenting first and just turned Mr. Lang into an old man!

[It's hard not to have a conversation about super heroics or the Avengers without bringing up Tony. He was such a huge part of all of this. His presence was going to be felt for a long time and would probably never completely fade.

Still, she tries not to bring him up when she talks with Rhodey.] Is that right? They never told me that. I hope there's footage of that somewhere. On the cloud or something. [Even if the compound was gone, she knew there had to be backups or backups. Tony did think of everything.] Is cloud or something the right term? [Every culture had their own words for technology and Earth's was so far behind other cultures that sometimes she didn't quite remember everything.]

post endgame au meme - the blip

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I'm really sorry for the delay, had some health stuff come up

No worries! I hope you're feeling better!

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happy new year! hope you had a nice december and sorry for the delay

It's all good! Hope you did as well!

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