Not quite fic, not quite chat, still entertaining.
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petra about the Mad Avengers crossover again this afternoon led to a few thoughts I think I need to share with the internet. Such as the fact that Don as the Black Widow equivalent still wears the suit and tie. He always wears the suit and tie, because it's such a bland, boring look the eye slides over him like so much wallpaper.
Betty as Hawkeye remains on the field unless she absolutely can't perform. So she's there at nine months pregnant. She's a sniper, not someone who does parkour, and she's never going to have better information on exactly where her kid is. Just as she's threatened to castrate anyone who calls her pre-labor missions "milk runs." While she lets them know when her water breaks, she's not going to the hospital unless it's absolutely, entirely necessary.
While there's no case for it, family-wise, it'd work on a thematic level for Sally to be Betty's daughter and not Don's - he's probably sterile, though if that's the case there's probably still a sample in a freezer somewhere - and for Sally to take Cassie Lang's place as Stature, for the next generation. Because she wants to make up for her parents, and it does Don good to have someone to look after.
It's still the Black Widow character who calms down the Hulk equivalent after a big fight, except that when Don calms down Peggy, he approaches her cautiously and carefully, gets her attention and holds out his hand: "I brought you your earrings." She gives him her jewelry before a fight, before That Woman ever shows her face, and gets it back afterward. Because Don lets her know when it's safe for Peggy to come back. Sometimes it's her necklace, sometimes a bracelet, usually her earrings.
They still have a mentor-student relationship here, and if there was ever any romance it was the equivalent of a schoolyard crush that itself got crushed after about ten minutes. Don still lives in Manhattan. In a studio apartment on the fifth floor of a walk-up. He doesn't own a bedframe, just a futon he unrolls each night. It was about the only piece of furniture he bought new, because it's New York City and that's just sensible. Everything else came secondhand, such as it is - when Roger/Iron Man came to his apartment, he said, "You don't even have a desk!" He's got a folding card table and a few folding chairs for when company comes over, which are otherwise kept against the wall and tucked away next to the dresser. If he's alone he eats sitting on the floor. When Peggy comes over because she doesn't have anywhere else to go, he pulls out the table and chairs, and when he serves dinner, she's surprised.
"That you have more than one plate."
"I have five."
None of them match. His suits are all impeccable, his ties classy, his shoes always mirror-bright. Even his casual stuff is nice. And he has no two plates that match.
That night, Peggy gets the futon, and he sleeps on the hardwood floor with an extra pillow, no blanket.
(It's entirely within the realm of possibility that part of his Red Room was getting raped at thirteen, to get him used to sex early. He didn't want to. That didn't matter.)
(Also plausible is that he intentionally killed Don and took his identity, in this version.)
(Peggy asks him, what's your name. No, your real name. The one you were born with. He just stares- what? The question doesn't make sense.
"What did you used to be called?"
"You, Come, Over Here, That One."
"What do you want me to call you?"
"Don.")
petra about the Mad Avengers crossover again this afternoon led to a few thoughts I think I need to share with the internet. Such as the fact that Don as the Black Widow equivalent still wears the suit and tie. He always wears the suit and tie, because it's such a bland, boring look the eye slides over him like so much wallpaper.Betty as Hawkeye remains on the field unless she absolutely can't perform. So she's there at nine months pregnant. She's a sniper, not someone who does parkour, and she's never going to have better information on exactly where her kid is. Just as she's threatened to castrate anyone who calls her pre-labor missions "milk runs." While she lets them know when her water breaks, she's not going to the hospital unless it's absolutely, entirely necessary.
While there's no case for it, family-wise, it'd work on a thematic level for Sally to be Betty's daughter and not Don's - he's probably sterile, though if that's the case there's probably still a sample in a freezer somewhere - and for Sally to take Cassie Lang's place as Stature, for the next generation. Because she wants to make up for her parents, and it does Don good to have someone to look after.
It's still the Black Widow character who calms down the Hulk equivalent after a big fight, except that when Don calms down Peggy, he approaches her cautiously and carefully, gets her attention and holds out his hand: "I brought you your earrings." She gives him her jewelry before a fight, before That Woman ever shows her face, and gets it back afterward. Because Don lets her know when it's safe for Peggy to come back. Sometimes it's her necklace, sometimes a bracelet, usually her earrings.
They still have a mentor-student relationship here, and if there was ever any romance it was the equivalent of a schoolyard crush that itself got crushed after about ten minutes. Don still lives in Manhattan. In a studio apartment on the fifth floor of a walk-up. He doesn't own a bedframe, just a futon he unrolls each night. It was about the only piece of furniture he bought new, because it's New York City and that's just sensible. Everything else came secondhand, such as it is - when Roger/Iron Man came to his apartment, he said, "You don't even have a desk!" He's got a folding card table and a few folding chairs for when company comes over, which are otherwise kept against the wall and tucked away next to the dresser. If he's alone he eats sitting on the floor. When Peggy comes over because she doesn't have anywhere else to go, he pulls out the table and chairs, and when he serves dinner, she's surprised.
"That you have more than one plate."
"I have five."
None of them match. His suits are all impeccable, his ties classy, his shoes always mirror-bright. Even his casual stuff is nice. And he has no two plates that match.
That night, Peggy gets the futon, and he sleeps on the hardwood floor with an extra pillow, no blanket.
(It's entirely within the realm of possibility that part of his Red Room was getting raped at thirteen, to get him used to sex early. He didn't want to. That didn't matter.)
(Also plausible is that he intentionally killed Don and took his identity, in this version.)
(Peggy asks him, what's your name. No, your real name. The one you were born with. He just stares- what? The question doesn't make sense.
"What did you used to be called?"
"You, Come, Over Here, That One."
"What do you want me to call you?"
"Don.")
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