Calligraphilia

Clint: Having Captain America around you all the time. He just — the guy just brings out the absolute best in people. You…want to be good when he’s around. You really do. Ivan, look around you real quick. Because, right now? Captain American ain’t here.

— “Hawkeye” Volume 4 #01, Matt Fraction & David Aja (scan ganked from scratch-the-maven)

Madame Kovarian: You’ll still save me, though. Because he would. And you’d never do anything to disappoint your precious Doctor.

Amy: The Doctor is very precious to me, you’re right. But do you know what else he is, Madame Kovarian? Not here.

— Doctor Who 6.13, “The Wedding of River Song” (gifs from exterminatingangels)

I love finding moments like this, moments in narrative that authors come back to and circle around, pick up and tip over to look at different angles.

I don’t think that Amy Pond and Clint Barton have much in common, except being characters that I love more than is strictly healthy — but maybe they do. Childhoods defined by loss, certainly, but I don’t think that’s what is driving this moment, when Steven Moffat and Matt Fraction found their separate ways to an eerily similar place. Characters defining their morality in the negative, against a role model, a model they continue to aspire to even after explicitly rejecting them in their absence here.

Fraction’s mentioned, discussing his “Hawkeye” arc, that he’s writing about a guy learning to be a man, about who Hawkeye is when he’s not surrounded by the Avengers. And Amy’s arc, clumsily handled though it was, is about growing up — growing out of her childhood/childlike trust in the Doctor, learning to be Rory’s wife and Melody’s mother and River’s friend, who she is when she’s more than the Girl Who Waited.

What do you do when your conscience isn’t watching?

“Crazyfox has landed,” Agent Friedman says over comms ten minutes into the battle. He’s working as Phil’s right-hand in lieu of Jasper, though he’s working from the communications van rather than Phil’s actual right hand; Friedman’s instincts mid-battle still need a bit of touching up. Crazyfox is SHIELD internal code for Anderson Cooper, who is easily the most danger-prone reporter Phil has ever had to pull out of the line of fire.

“Winchester, Campbell, you’re on Crazyfox,” Phil orders to two junior agents to his left.

“We were on him last time,” Campbell argues.

“And you got that assignment for questioning orders in the field,” Phil replies.

“Crazyfox is contained,” Winchester says in an undertone into his comm. Phil’s close enough he could just say it, but Cooper’s close enough to hear it, and there is legitimate concern that making Cooper aware of his nickname will make him want to live up to it more.

Phil spares a moment to miss missions that didn’t include every reporter in the boroughs or concerns that Anderson Cooper might jump into the middle of the fight just to see what it feels like.

“Sir,” Rogers breaks in, “there’s not much for me to do. Any orders?”

Phil checks stats. Evacuation is complete. Civilian injuries are nearly non-existent, and the injuries that have happened are minor. “Congratulations, Captain,” he says, “You’re on Crazyfox interview duty.”

There’s a pause, then Rogers’ indrawn breath, and then he curses a blue streak that would make Sitwell proud. Phil grins. “Friedman, you owe me ten bucks,” he says on the private line.

— These are Our Friends and These are Our Foes (You’re the One I Love Most) by Perpetual Motion

You know, when I said the world was becoming more like fanfiction every day, I didn’t mean this.

(Source: catbushandludicrous, via coffeebuddha)

AU Meme: The Weeping Angels manage to steal the TARDIS while the Doctor and River get stuck in the 1930s.

I vaguely remembered I had seen this, back in the day. And now, post-season-seven-part-one: OW OW OW PONDS.

(Source: till-the-next-time--doctor, via brittanias)

flatbear:

nami64:

A.U. pre-Avengers [sort of] where the SHIELD agents have a favourite bar where they all hang out after work or missions: darts game (highscore owned by the Hawk), guns and lethal weapons under every table, a cocktail named after Fury (whiskey+cinnamon+orange), karaoke… And after a nth mission together where Natasha saved the life of a dozen of SHIELD members, Clint and the few grams of alcohol in his blood pay a vibrant tribute to her, the other agents considering now Nat’ as a real member of the agency and no more as an ex-KGB spy.

btw, thanks to Bex :)

Oh my god I actually burst into tears. SHIELD. SHIEEEEELD.

This is basically everything I want from this fandom.

(via cacchieressa)

hellotailor:

MY NEW CRACKPOT THEORY: Canton Everett Delaware III’s son is Agent Phil Coulson of SHIELD. Canton’s the bio-dad; his partner’s name is Coulson. So Phil ended up with one dad’s hairline (and dress sense…) and the other dad’s surname. The reason why Agent Phil Coulson is so good at dealing with weird shit is that he fucking grew up with it. Because don’t tell me that Canton wasn’t recruited by SHIELD as soon as he got fired from the FBI. He helped a bunch of time-travelers deal with an alien invasion, stood up to the President of the United States, and did it all without batting an eyelid. CLEARLY PHIL COULSON’S PERPETUAL, FAINTLY-SMILING CALM IS A GENETIC TRAIT.

I’m currently debating with myself about whether Nick Fury Mark One (look, it’s like James Bond, he never dies, the name is the title) recruits Canton into SHIELD, just as it’s gearing up for the Cold War and Peggy Carter is getting ready to move on a little — because there is only so long you can fight the same war, and there is really only so long you can put up with the Washington military-industrial complex. She’s starting to think about settling down; she can’t be Steve Rogers’ sweetheart forever. So they find Canton, using handwavium, and his job interview is rolling a grenade to his feet as he steps into the building.

Canton picks it up, looks at it, and tucks it into his pocket. “Thanks,” he says. “The kid’s been asking for ‘something dangerous’ for Christmas. A bomb should do it.”

When he hears Peggy’s accent, he pales a little, looks at her a little harder. But he never says why, and she never asks. Even in SHIELD, a man’s got to be allowed to have some secrets.

(If this happened, Phil definitely went into the Rangers first, maybe straight out of high school; he did not, under any conditions, follow obediently in his father’s footsteps. There may have been a stint in the Peace Corps, too, I’m not sure. Because nothing teaches you “roll with it” better than living in conditions totally foreign to your upbringing.)

(Source: space-bees)